The STORYTELLER by Jodi Picoult ***

An unexpected reading for me. I thought it would be a murder mystery. Turns out this girl, Sage with a scar on her face (car accident-mommy died) screws a married guy then some guy Josef she meets asks her to help him kill himself because of things he'd done as an SS soldier during the Holocaust. She contacts or is contacted by an investigator who of course falls in love with her mixed up mental mind. She has sisters also named for spices. Geez mom was a mess too I guess.

Turns out her grandmother was in the same compound and Josef did things to keep her alive. But he was still part of all the crematoria stuff. Meantime the author copies another writer and the grandmother writes stories for her boss the SS guy. He finds them and wants to know what's next in the story and she thinks that's what is keeping her alive, never ending the story. That's a Greek mythology or something she sort of stole for her book.

Anyways it was somewhat confusing at times, different typefaces depicting the story, the grandmother's story the grand daughter's story, sometimes I had no idea what was going on until I was a few pages into it. I don't like that type of confusion.

I don't think the author knows a lot about Jewish burials because no Jew can be buried in a Jewish cemetery with tattoos UNLESS they were in the camps. During the funeral service this granddaughter steals the grandmothers entire life history by covering her number tattoo with cover up. Why? Is she ashamed of her grandmother's struggle to live? Is she ashamed she did live? I don't get why she would hide the truth from the family. It's stupid. That woman went thru hell, turned out to be a sweet woman, had children and a normal life after the war yet her dumbass grand daughter erases her entire history from the family. Who gives her the right? Did the grandmother ask her to? NO. I want to know what right she had to interfere in another persons backstory. That woman EARNED the right to wear that tattoo if she wanted, or she could have had it removed, which she didn't. That means she wanted it there for whatever reason. The grand daughter is an ass.

Not crazy about the entire thing. Lots of stuff end up way off the trail from what you expect. I think the story had potential to be much better. JMO.