Leaving Time is not a book I ever would have picked up on my own. This is one of those cases in which my book club pushed me outside my comfort zone to good result. I did not love this book, but I did enjoy it.

Leaving Time tells the story of 13-year-old Jenna Metcalf's search for her missing mother. It alternates among four narrators: Jenna, Serenity the Psychic, Virgil the Private Detective, and Alice, the missing mother. Of the four narrators, I liked Alice's chapters the best. Alice was a zoologist who studied elephants, and I loved not only her voice but also the elephant stories that she told.

Another plus was the chapter length. The chapters are relatively short. For someone who didn't have a lot of focus, like me this month, that was a blessing.

But what really "made" this book for me was the twist that comes near the end. Picoult plants seeds for the twist starting early on in the book, but the reveal is still something of a surprise and very well done. (I won't say more. I don't want to spoil anything for anyone who might read the book.)