callymd 's review for:

The Book of Two Ways by Jodi Picoult
3.0

Usually picoult's books are like literary junk food, but in this one, I really appreciated her level of detail external of the immediate plot (most likely because the chosen field was more related to what I am interested in). She clearly researched a lot about egyptology to make a cohesive story, and had examples of death doula work that highlighted the dynamic and novel nature of the career field in society. She also mentioned the National End-of-Life Doula Alliance (NEDA), which was cool because I don't think a lot of people know about that organization.

Also she either read Stephen King's "Doctor Sleep" (or his interview about being inspired to write the book after hearing about a cat in a hospice clinic that would always go sit on the bed of any dying residents), as she brought up the same hospice cat tale as a filler in a chapter or two of her book.

I do still tire of story gimmicks like asynchronous plot lines, and near/death experiences to help the plot along (especially as you'd want a death doula to self-examine their own life generally considering their line of work), but what can you do?