Reviews - By Any Other Name

4.28k reviews for:

By Any Other Name

Jodi Picoult

4.17 AVERAGE

bibliovik's review against another edition

3.75

informative slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

cari1268's review against another edition

3.5

By Any Other Name was a buddy read otherwise it would have been a DNF. I'm glad that I finished it because the second half was substantially better than the first half, particularly for Emilia's storyline. Emilia was a character I could root for and I genuinely felt bad for everything she went through. After a slow start, Emelia's storyline turned out to be engaging and worthwhile.

However, the Elina parts were horrible and I did not like her. She was a bad friend, unaware

She ranted two different times to her black queer friend about how hard it was to be a woman and how he couldn't understand.

and a whiner.

Beyond these things, I didn't like how heavy-handed Jodi Picoult was with her messaging. Elina's story particularly veered towards rants about how poorly women were treated. It's not that I disagreed with the author, but it was not fun being beaten over the head the messaging over and over and over again. It felt like Picoult didn't trust the reader. It also prevented any epiphany moments because the moralizing was blatant with little nuance.

3.5 Stars.