This book was AMAZING! I am not going to be able to fully do this book justice in this review, but I’m going to try.

I must say how much incredibly detailed research obviously went into writing this book. It is stuffed full of Egyptian history and information that was amazingly detailed. I learned so much through reading this, and I loved it.

This story is hard for me to explain because I do not want to spoil it for any reader, so I’m going to leave a lot out. If you’ve read the book, I’d love to discuss it!

So, the story itself, it’s about love, life, death, family, everything that builds us into the people we are. This book ripped me up and then put me back together. I couldn’t quite figure out how this was going to end. It’s about The Book of Two Ways, an Egyptian path for the dead to find their afterlife. The chapters are broken into a story of two ways. Water or Land / Boston or Egypt. Sometimes I struggle jumping back and forth to different stories in a book, but with this, every time we switched to the “other way” I was so deeply invested I didn’t want that one to end, then we’d jump to the “other way” and I’d get invested all over again.

The way Picoult writes this story, it absolutely draws you in. The characters are so real and captivating. I was emotionally invested in their stories. I actually held my breathe at times because I was so worried about what was going to happen.

The Egyptian history and the on-location dig site information was fascinating. I really enjoyed excavating the tombs with the characters. The descriptions made me feel like I was right there. The vivid colors were visible to me, as were the detailed hieroglyphics. Picoult chose to add actual drawings of some hieroglyphics, which I found both helpful and utterly beautiful. It was amazing to look at these as I went through the pages.

Overall, I truly loved this book. I may even go back and read it again because once I got to the end, I knew that it was a book that would reveal new secrets and information a second time!

To Read or Not To Read:

I would recommend The Book of Two Ways to readers that enjoy stories of life and relationships. If you like to become emotionally invested in the story, Picoult’s writing will do that to you in this one!

Where to Find This Book:

The Book of Two Ways by Jodi Picoult is available at these sites.

Amazon ~ Goodreads

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Small Great Things and A Spark of Light comes a riveting novel about the choices that change the course of our lives.

Everything changes in a single moment for Dawn Edelstein. She’s on a plane when the flight attendant makes an announcement: prepare for a crash landing. She braces herself as thoughts flash through her mind. The shocking thing is, the thoughts are not of her husband, but a man she last saw fifteen years ago: Wyatt Armstrong.

Dawn, miraculously, survives the crash, but so do all the doubts that have suddenly been raised. She has led a good life. Back in Boston, there is her husband, Brian, her beloved daughter, and her work as a death doula, where she helps ease the transition between life and death for patients in hospice.

But somewhere in Egypt is Wyatt Armstrong, who works as an archaeologist unearthing ancient burial sites, a job she once studied for, but was forced to abandon when life suddenly intervened. And now, when it seems that fate is offering her second chances, she is not as sure of the choice she once made.

After the crash landing, the airline ensures the survivors are seen by a doctor, then offers transportation wherever they want to go. The obvious option for Dawn is to continue down the path she is on and go home to her family. The other is to return to the archaeological site she left years before, reconnect with Wyatt and their unresolved history, and maybe even complete her research on The Book of Two Ways–the first known map of the afterlife.

As the story unfolds, Dawn’s two possible futures unspool side by side, as do the secrets and doubts long buried beside them. Dawn must confront the questions she’s never truly asked: What does a life well-lived look like? When we leave this earth, what do we leave behind? Do we make choices…or do our choices make us? And who would you be, if you hadn’t turned out to be the person you are right now?

Just the Facts:

The Book of Two Ways by Jodi Picoult
Genre: General Fiction
Page Count: 416 pages
Publisher: Ballantine
Pub Date: September 22, 2020

I was provided an advanced reader’s copy of this book for free. I am leaving my review voluntarily.

View all adult book reviews
View all children’s book reviews