Hollow Bones | Book Review

By Jodi Picoult

In ONE Word: Fabulous

    ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

SUMMARY

2026. Molly Fitzgerald, 25, is the youngest-ever head of the Rhode Island Emergency Preparedness Department. Molly was a driven brainiac and had graduated from Columbia with a master’s in public health at the age of 19.  She had become obsessed with disasters and planning for them when she learned at a young age that her mother, Eloise, was at the World Trade Center for a doctor's appointment on September 11, 2001, when Mollie was only two months old. Eloise’s body was never found. Molly was raised by her father, Adam, and her stepmother Evie, who had been Eloise’s college roommate and best friend.

Now Molly and her husband, Jesse, are pregnant and expecting their first baby. Their first ultrasound reveals it’s a girl, and they start brainstorming names for their little human.  Not long after, Molly’s world turns upside down.

2001. Eloise Owens had been obsessed with art at a young age and always had a sketchbook in her hand. Her father had been a controlling evangelical Alabama preacher who saw Eloise’s art as frivolous and ungodly and used a metal hairbrush to keep her in line. He even humiliated her in front of the congregation by striking her with a belt ten times because of a drawing. Eloise’s mother did nothing to quell her husband’s discipline.

Once she escaped her father’s control, she attended RISD as a student with a focus on mosaics; her senior project even won an award.  In college, she met her best friend Evie and her future husband Adam. Now she is teaching art and is pregnant with Adam’s baby.  At home, she is creating a large tree of life mosaic in the bathroom with thoughts of the baby on her mind, knowing that her world is about to change.  But having no idea what that really means.

REVIEW

Hollow Bones is classic Jodi Picoult: difficult social issues, emotionally intense and complicated family relationships. In a word: fabulous. The themes are compelling and focus on mother-daughter relationships and mental health. The story is told in a dual timeline between Eloise and Molly.

It’s a story with several very intriguing and realistic plot twists. If your book club really read the book and enjoys fiery conversations, Hollow Bones is a must-read. There are plenty of discussions to be had here, and you will be talking about it for days. I learned a great deal about the specific mental health topics discussed in the book, and I am amazed by how much I did not know. Thank you to Jodi Picoult for once again educating us about something so relevant and important.

On a side note, Mollie’s supportive husband, Jesse, is a character drawn from Jodi Picoult’s previous book, My Sister’s Keeper (2005). I had read that book over 20 years ago and had no recollection of it. Jesse was Kate and Anna Fitzgerald’s older brother. You do not need to have read that book to thoroughly enjoy this one.

Thank you to Netgalley and Ballantine for an advance copy of this book. All opinions expressed in my Hollow Bones | Book Review are my own.

Publisher    Ballantine

Published   September 22, 2026

Review       www.bluestockingreviews.com