Pandora’s Box by Giselle Green

Pandora’s Box is another one of my recent ‘fluffy’ reads. In many ways it is similar to the Jodi Picoult book I read a while ago, though I like Vanishing Acts somewhat better. This will probably be the most negative review I have put up here since I started this blog a little over a year ago.

Rachel Wetherby is a divorced mother of two. Her oldest, fourteen-year old Shelley, has a terminal disease that leaves her more and more incapacitated over time. Taking care of Shelley takes up most of Rachel’s time and has more or less put her life on hold. One day, Rachel receives a box of old memorabilia , letters and a diary from her mom Pandora (hence the title – I found it a bit too obvious). Opening up this box revives memories and secrets that Rachel would rather not be reminded of. At the same time, Shelley is planning to end her life by jumping off a cliff, because she wants a dignified end to her life. She doesn’t want to go through the final stages of her disease and end her life in the completely debilitating state her best friend Miriam (who suffered and died from the same disease) did. Shelley’s plan is complicated by her meeting and falling in love with a boy she met on the internet. Pandora’s Box is told from the alternating perspectives of Rachel and Shelley.

To be honest, I didn’t care much for this book. The characters were almost too obviously good (Kieran, Frank, Maggie, Sol) or just plain annoying and self-obsessed (Surinda, Lily and Bill) and I didn’t really care much for them. The plot was fairly thin, the ending too dramatic and with some unlikely elements, on top of a cliff in Cornwall on a dark and rainy night with helicopters flying about (though the chopper was around not for the reason you’d expect), but I hand it to Giselle Green that you have to read on until the very last paragraph to find out the ending. The writing was not bad, but not spectacular. For some reason, I preferred Picoult’s writing.

I am not saying this was a bad book, it just didn’t do anything for me. If you like Jodi Picoult and similar writers, you might want to give Pandora’s Box a try, though, and you might end up with a different opinion.

Reading Pandora’s Box, Vanishing Acts and Killing Floor only confirmed my suspicions: I want a bit more bite to my books than what especially the first two had to offer me (I much preferred the third one of these three). And if I do want ‘easy’ reads, I prefer mysteries (such as Elizabeth George, Minette Walters, Ruth Rendell, P.D. James, Henning Mankell – it’s been too long I read any of these writers!) or a well-written thriller. Tear-jerking drama is not my thing, I suppose. But it was fun to read outside my comfort zone for a bit, so I don’t regret it. Never say never, but I think it will be good while before I pick up any Picoultesque books again (sorry, I just had to put that word in).

I seem to be in a bit of a reading dud lately, not reading any really good books, but then again, I have been spoiled this year with some great books that made the list of my favorite books ever.

If you read Pandora’s Box, please leave a link to your review in the comments and I will add it to this post.