Second Glance by: Jodi Picoult
Ross Wakeman is not a very happy man living on earth. He lives in Comtosook, Vermont with his sister and nephew. Ever since his fiancée died in a car crash he has lost himself. He had tried to commit suicide and when that did not work he took on the job as a paranormal investigator. In the book Second Glance by Jodi Picoult, she does not give much detail on how Ross looks except that he has long dark hair and eyes that make you melt if you look into them. Ross soon realizes that just because someone dies does not mean it is the end of the world.
After working for years with some guy, named Curtis running a paranormal activity show, Ross realizes that Curtis is just a big lair and quits his job. He soon sets off looking for new job in Comtostook and runs into Rod van Vleet who is building a strip mall on a piece of land that has a ghost. Since Ross is a paranormal investigator and just wants to look for his dead fiancée he says that he will check for a ghost for free. While on the job Ross meets this girl, “Beaumont,” she says, “Lia Beaumont.” Lia changes Ross in a way his sister thought was never possible, until one night. Lia was in Ross’s mind night and day and all he wanted to do was kiss. So, Ross sets out looking for Lia and when he finally finds her he kisses her which shocks both of them. Lia sets off running into the woods. He follows her until they get to two stones which she passes like she walked right through and Ross trips and stumbles over them. When Ross gets up to look at the two stones and realizes that they are gravestones. One small and one big and the smaller one said, “Lily Pike, September 19, 1932. And on the larger one: Cecilia Beaumont Pike, November 9, 1932- September 19, 1932.” Ross looked just as shocked as Lia. “Cissy Pike. Cecilia. Lia,” I just kissed a ghost, he thinks to himself.
Once Ross found out about Lia being a ghost Ross lost all over again. Then he started to get interested at how Lia had died. With the help of a policeman named Eli they figure out the whole story of Lia Beaumont Pike. Lia was half Indian and at the time her husband hated Indians. When Lia had her child in 1932 and named her Lily. It had real dark skin like an Indian so her husband took the child and suffocated it because he thought that the child was not his. When her husband later told her that Lily was too young and died she set off to look for it because she did not believe him. When Lia found Lily dead in the Icehouse she went off and hung herself. While in the process of that she heard her baby cry and realized it was not dead, but it was too late. Lia at the time had a servant named Ruby who was her only friend and asked her that if anything happened to her could she take care of the baby. When Ruby heard Lily cry she went out to look for her and found Lia dead, so she took the baby and ran off to Maryland.
Ross found out about Ruby and went to Maryland to look for her. When Ross found her he said, “I want to talk to you about 1932.” She eventually told him everything. She said that she took the Lily and raised her as her own and that she grew up in a normal environment and had children of her own. When Lily was seventy years old Ruby told her about her real mother and she had a heart attack and died. Meredith was the only child Lily had, so Ross told everything to Meredith and brought her back to Vermont to prove that what Ruby said was true. When Meredith learned the truth Ross said, “You are the direct descendant from Lia Pike. And that means you own a really nice piece of real estate in Comtosook, Vermont.” Meredith stays with Ross in Vermont, the night before she is supposed to leave for Maryland something totally unexpected happens that changes everyone’s lives.
The children go missing. Ross’s nephew and Meredith’s child both run off into this quarry. The quarry would not be as dangerous if it were not supposed to blow up the next day. Once Ross and Meredith find out that the children have done missing they head straight to the quarry, but not soon enough. By the time they get there the quarry has already started to blow up. The two children are alive but to get to them is difficult. In the effort to getting the two children Meredith’s leg “snapped beneath the weight of the granite plate that pinned her.” Ross came to the rescue and got the two children out of the quarry and made them go call 911 as he went back for Meredith. On his way to rescue Meredith, Ross saw a piece of dynamite next to her and ran and got it. He did not think that he was going to die all he thought of was to get the stick of dynamite as far away from Meredith as possible. At that moment the dynamite was blew up and Ross went with it. The paramedics said, “He was dead before we even got to him.” At the hospital while bringing Ross to a room, he magical came back to life. No one could explain how it happened but Ross knew that he could never die.
Ross’s transformation is teaching us readers that life is short, so if you lose your purpose in life find a new one. He learned the hard and is warning us there is always a purpose for living. He had a hard time after his fiancée died and even his sister could not get him back on track all he needed was another love. Your soul mate is not the only thing in the world to live for but to Ross it was. He had a loving sister and nephew right in front of him and he was so blinded by the death of his love he did not realize it. Like I said, Ross soon realized that just because someone died does not mean it was the end of the world.
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