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A review by mushroomhaze
Between the Lines by Jodi Picoult
5.0
Straight off the bat it has to be said that this book is gorgeous! The different coloured writing, the black outline illustrations, the full colour illustrations and finally, the gold cover. In all its package it is just a stunning book and I already saw the danger of faliing irrevocably in love in it.
But now onto the story itself. It was cleverly set into 4 different "sections", Oliver alone, Delilah alone, them together and the actual fairy tale. Not only did I love every section but I didn't have a favourite which is really strange for me in a multi-voiced story. This was mostly down to the beautiful characterisation of each character, no matter how minor they were.
The illustrations as I mentioned before is quite rare for a YA book now, to this extent at least. But I do hope they are making a comeback because they just emphasised the fairy tale message of the book whilst triggering nostalgia for those old fairy tale tomes we had when little. At least it did this for me.
To mention Picoult's collaboration with van Leer is important I beleive as it really was a joint venture in my reading of the book. I've read some Picoult books before and loved her style and grasp of realism which is ever present in these books but the touch of the magical and whimsical I like to think is van Leer's influence. In which case they were the perfect match to write this book and I am ever grateful they did so, it's cheered me up no end.
That and delicate back stories which just made you love the story even more gave an overall effect of a real fairy tale for the ages.
But now onto the story itself. It was cleverly set into 4 different "sections", Oliver alone, Delilah alone, them together and the actual fairy tale. Not only did I love every section but I didn't have a favourite which is really strange for me in a multi-voiced story. This was mostly down to the beautiful characterisation of each character, no matter how minor they were.
The illustrations as I mentioned before is quite rare for a YA book now, to this extent at least. But I do hope they are making a comeback because they just emphasised the fairy tale message of the book whilst triggering nostalgia for those old fairy tale tomes we had when little. At least it did this for me.
To mention Picoult's collaboration with van Leer is important I beleive as it really was a joint venture in my reading of the book. I've read some Picoult books before and loved her style and grasp of realism which is ever present in these books but the touch of the magical and whimsical I like to think is van Leer's influence. In which case they were the perfect match to write this book and I am ever grateful they did so, it's cheered me up no end.
That and delicate back stories which just made you love the story even more gave an overall effect of a real fairy tale for the ages.