State of Wonder by Ann Patchett is a tale of interesting breakthroughs in science, determination, and wonder. In the story, we follow our main character as she sets off to find answers when her company receives a letter from a scientist that has gone rogue deep in the Amazon, telling them that the person that they sent to check on her has died.

This was a novel that I really enjoyed as I was reading it, but once I set it down and started thinking about it, I didn’t love it as much…

When I first started reading this one, I really enjoyed the writing style, but I can’t say I was hooked. While there were many scenes that were quite sad, the first 65 pages were a bit of a drag.

At page 65, the main character, Dr Marina Singh, was finally sent on her journey that the synopsis promised. Unfortunately, for a while, we then follow the main character as she is stuck in a nearby town, feeling lonely and miserable. She was just hanging out, biding her time until she was finally taken to see who she was determined to see; Dr Annick Swenson.

The excitement of the tale really picked up when Marina headed into the Amazon! However, that was on page 156… So if you’re a reader that DNFs at page 100, like me, keep that in mind!

The scenes in the jungle were by far my favorite. I loved the description of the animals they saw, the setting itself, and the people. There was also a lot of anxiety and fear that could be felt when reading because of how unusual and intense the setting is.

One quick scene that got me was when Marina was trudging through a rainstorm and touching the trees to keep her balance on the “path,” and someone told her she shouldn’t do that, because she can’t see what is on the tree, waiting to bite.

Another scene was when a few characters were on a boat on the river. One character had the driver stop the boat. The crew didn’t understand why they stopped until the man that halted them reaching into the water and pulled out an anaconda! Yikes!

Just a few more notes on the things that I enjoyed before this review takes a turn.

I really enjoyed the writing style! Ann Patchett is so talented and I love that I can be totally immersed in her stories. The descriptions of the people and places really come alive, her plots are wonderfully organized, and everything flows perfectly.

The most intriguing characters to me were definitely Milton and Easter. I wish we had gotten a bit more with Milton to learn more about him rather than him just kind of being present. And Easter was so wonderful! I would love to read a novel about all of this from his perspective! I think it would be really powerful and interesting, but probably heartbreaking as well.

I also really enjoyed the focus of the research the scientists were doing. It was quite odd, but also very interesting. This research also made a very interesting point about medicine and such things. When the point was made very clearly, I couldn’t help but think of the quote from Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton:

“Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could,
they didn’t stop to think if they should.”
– Ian Malcolm

Beware, the Negatives:
I didn’t care for the main character at all. Though Marina was in her forties, there was something that made me keep thinking she was in her early twenties. She just seemed so naive and, at times, pretty immature. She had major issues regarding her father, and she just couldn’t figure out who she loved. Is is her boss? Her coworker? A random guy she just met who was hired to drive her around? It was honestly exhausting.

She was also incredibly flighty and had all these daydream-like thoughts about doing certain things that just didn’t make much sense as they seemed to come out of absolutely no where. For example, her daydream about taking off with Milton and living down here with him rather than going back home. What?!

I think one of Marina’s personality traits that bothered me the most was that she flipped between thinking she was totally useless to being absolutely convinced that she was correct and everyone else was wrong. There didn’t seem to be an area in-between to level her out.

I also really did not enjoy Dr Marina’s relationship with Mr. Fox either. Right from the start it rubbed me the wrong way. I wanted her to realize what was going on, but she never did, which made it that much worse.

There were various supporting characters, which unfortunately, all blended together for the most part. There were other scientists there helping with the research… and even though I just finished the book moments before writing this review, I can already only remember that one of the scientists was married and his wife was there with him. Every other character that was included were quite flat.

And then the ending rolled around… WOW.

I was enjoying the book up until this point! It was going to be a four star read for me. But then it hit a massive wall.

I did not like the ending at all. I honestly wish I had stopped reading at the bottom of page 349. The ending felt so rushed and unorganized… And that one scene that happened one night and dragged over into the morning. WHY?! That was so random and totally unnecessary. That scene alone has be teetering between a three star and a two star rating.

My Favorite Passages:
They hear a high whistle piercing through the thunder and wondered if it was their imagination. Imagination played a major role in the jungle, especially during a storm.

There was no once clear point of loss. It happened over and over again in a thousand small ways and the only truth there was to else was that there was no getting used to it.

My Final Thoughts:
Overall, an enjoyable read. While it was quite slow to start, I did really like the story while I was reading it. And even if I didn’t care for the main character, there were a lot of other elements of the book that I loved.

Based on the ending alone, I would not re-read this book. In fact, my copy is already in a pile to be donated to a local second hand shop.

However, I would love to see an adaptation of this story, if they change the ending of course…