GoodWGirl reviewed Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult
Review of 'Sing You Home' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
Well this would be a great book for someone who has never heard of gay people or Christians or pro-life people or procreation or anything really. Every single argument and character in the book was a cliché exaggerated stereotype that's been said 1,000 times before. The two "sides" were so polarized; every one of the Christians were portrayed as politically conservative in every way, and usually cruel, closed minded and frankly unintelligent. The LGBT characters were shown as exclusively pro-choice, atheist, sassy or rude, and full of unnecessary monologues about their sexuality or persecution. Gay Christians exist. Pro-life and conservative atheists exist. The pastor was portrayed as not even having basic spiritual or biblical arguments. Christians don't constantly answer every question with "the Bible says this end of story." Gay couples are not always sexually or politically liberal. It felt like a book written by someone who has never interacted …
Well this would be a great book for someone who has never heard of gay people or Christians or pro-life people or procreation or anything really. Every single argument and character in the book was a cliché exaggerated stereotype that's been said 1,000 times before. The two "sides" were so polarized; every one of the Christians were portrayed as politically conservative in every way, and usually cruel, closed minded and frankly unintelligent. The LGBT characters were shown as exclusively pro-choice, atheist, sassy or rude, and full of unnecessary monologues about their sexuality or persecution. Gay Christians exist. Pro-life and conservative atheists exist. The pastor was portrayed as not even having basic spiritual or biblical arguments. Christians don't constantly answer every question with "the Bible says this end of story." Gay couples are not always sexually or politically liberal. It felt like a book written by someone who has never interacted with either community and was trying to create an exaggerated introduction to gay Christian and pro life isues based on Facebook click bait and intended for third graders.
Don't even get me started on the ending. Picoult completely undermines the purpose and reality of marriage and in some cases the faith that backs these up. The characters don't even attempt to fight for their relationships to an insulting extent. I felt virtually nauseous reading what was no doubt intended to be a happy ending because of how poorly Libby and Max's storylines were handled. All of this is topped off by the fact that the characters can't go two sentences without a metaphore or analogy. It reads very fake.
I usually enjoy Jodi Picoult's work and I loved the premise of this one, but the book was so much worse than I expected. Save yourself the trouble.
