State of Wonder

This book did  take a while to get into but as soon as it settled into being based in the Amazon Jungle it was fabulous.   As most people know, I do like a little bit of travel, but the Amazon has never been high on my agenda, and after reading this I can see why!   Ann Patchett really does make you feel like you are there with the doctors and the researchers, totally out of their depths in this alien environment.  Surrounded by the suffocating trees, the local tribes,  the dangerous waters and the massive snakes that can appear from anywhere.  Not to mention the psychedelic mushrooms, the tree eating women and the  mysterious death of a scientist. You really feel part of the action!
  This book is a mixture of a modern Heart of Darkness and a block buster fantasy fiction movie. I love the way Ann Patchett tells her stories.  She really pulls you in and you can see everything so vividly.  I  feel like I have been out in the Amazon with them all! (Much cheaper than a plane ticket.)  She makes it all so unglamourous and you can almost smell the sweaty bodies and feel the stifling heat!  You really get into the heads of these scientists and doctors who are being paid secretly by a pharmaceutical company  to find new drugs.  The secrets which they do find  are  amazing and pretty controversial.
I'm not going to write anymore because I don't want to ruin it for anyone who wants to read it.   Stick with the first 100 pages...the momentum soon picks up!