It is so exciting when one's child becomes of the age where she can enjoy the same books, want to see the same movies and be left alone without a babysitter (especially since she IS a babysitter). The following is a guest blog by my daughter Haley who is 14:
I just recently began reading Jodi Picoult’s books, at the recommendation of my mom. The first book I read was Vanishing Acts and it was one of the rare books where I could almost literally not put it down and I didn’t want it to end. The second one was The Tenth Circle, which was kind of disappointing after Vanishing Acts, but still, when we went to the bookstore at the airport on Wednesday, I kept my faith in her and went straight to the P’s. My mom highly recommended The Pact, a title I had seen before but hadn’t necessarily caught my attention. So, because in the past I’d been impressed with the books my mom had recommended to me, I picked it up to take as some reading that would last me the weekend. I am writing this on Friday night of the same week and I am already finished.
Well, here it is, mom. You have proof of me saying this, right here on your blog. YOU WERE RIGHT. This book is, as of now, definitely my favorite book of hers (keep in mind, I have not yet started My Sister’s Keeper, of which she has raved about) and probably of all time as well.
Told in flashbacks alternating with present-day storytelling, this book tells the story of two teenagers, Chris and Emily, who had been friends since they were babies. Over time they had grown closer and inevitably formed a romantic relationship. On November 7, 1997, when the two were both seventeen, an apparently botched double suicide was attempted. Emily wound up dead while Chris remained alive, eventually becoming the prime suspect in a murder investigation. As the novel unfolds, the flashbacks take the reader through their lives together, while the present-day sections take you through the drama of all four parents’ grief as the whole picture of what actually happened is brought to light.
The fun thing about this book is that it makes the reader draw their own conclusions, and that, depending how one looks at it, everyone might have different viewpoints on what happened, how, and why. I, for one, had it somewhat on target from the beginning (seriously!), but it kept me reading to find out if I was right and also piecing together the evidence.
What I’ve grown to love about Jodi Picoult’s writing is that she is never one-sided. She doesn’t make it obvious who the protagonist is, and she shows the story from all sorts of different viewpoints, including Chris, all of the different parents, the opposing attorneys, and others. It’s not in the first person, but it tells what the characters are thinking. There is a name for that, and my 8th grade language arts teacherr will kill me for forgetting this, but I don’t remember it at all, so I apologize. (Mom's insert...I think it is the "omniscient" perspective.)
I really loved this book, and I already have one person (Casey) who has taken my recommendation and started reading it before I was done. I watched her devour it today, and she is already done. She was really upset when it was time for dinner because it meant having to put the book down.
Although I’m 14 and Casey is 11, I don’t recommend this book especially for children or teens. This is definitely a book for adults. I can’t really say much more about this book without giving everything away, because I will start giving you all the play-by-play of the entire book, and that’s not the point of a book review!
Okay, now for the afterthought. I wrote this in July when we were just about to leave New York. So, how did you guys like my first book blog? Feedback would be awesome! And don’t hold it against my mom for letting me guest blog!
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