Jodi Picoult is known for her original and suspenseful fiction about difficult and usually unsettling subjects. She wrote the book My Sister’s Keeper, which was recently made into a successful Hollywood movie. The Pact was the first book by Picoult’s that I’ve read, and it certainly won’t be the last. I can’t say I particularly liked the story. It was horrifically sad and heart breaking and I hope never happens to any family. But this is the reaction Picoult wants us to have. The story was intense. The book was well written and kept my attention. I read it in a matter of days, I couldn’t put it down, that is except for the times it became too intense that I needed to just walk away from it for awhile. But isn’t this want we want from a book? An intellectual challenge. An impact. Life isn’t always peachy keen. Bad things do happen to good people.
Emily and Chris make a suicide pact. This is hardly conceivable for most of us. Emily was in pain. She had terrible secrets, but never sought help. Help that would have been given to her. She thought the only way out was death. Chris wanted desperately to stop her, but instead enabled her. He loved her so much he would do anything for her, even help her kill herself even though he knew he wouldn’t be able to live without her. The story is about Chris in prison awaiting trial for almost a year, the trial itself, and the mental anguish of the two sets of parents whose relationships fall apart. We are given on bits and pieces of the story of Emily’s life through flashbacks. This makes for great impact on the reader. I felt I had to keep reading, I had to know more. And as much as I’ve heard that Jodi Picoult’s other books are just as brutal for the reader, I want to read them.
June 27, 2010 – Read my review of Plain Truth.
[...] 27, 2010 by ethosinterrupted I previously reviewed Jodi Picoult’s The Pact which you can read here. I’ve recently read Picoult’s Plain Truth. The two plots are not comparable, but I can say that [...]