This piece of writing is truly heart-breaking. The author has managed to pen down emotions and experiences in a way that is both poignant and beautiful.

Every word seems to be carefully chosen, painting a vivid picture in the reader's mind. The story or description, whatever it may be, has the power to tug at your heartstrings and make you feel a whole range of emotions.

The writing style is engaging and captivating, keeping you hooked from the very beginning till the end. It is not often that one comes across such a piece of work that combines both heart-break and beauty in such a seamless manner.

Highly, highly recommended. This is a must-read for anyone who appreciates good writing and wants to be moved by a story that will stay with them long after they have finished reading.

This is my very first Picoult novel.

I'm truly glad that I made the decision to pick this one out on a whim.

It is raw and beautiful.

It delves into the themes of tribulation, loss, forgiveness, and love. The story explores the unthinkable acts that someone might commit for the person they love, even if it means murder and then shows the aftermath. This will most definitely put your moral discernment to the test.

The author mentioned that she was inspired to write this as an Anti-Romeo and Juliet kind of love story, and boy, did she deliver it impeccably. What really hooked me was the mystery of what truly happened during the fateful night. The slow burn and pacing are excellent. The revelation at the end was so intense and nerve-wracking that I felt as if I was right there with them in the courtroom, on the edge of my seat, teetering. I sympathize with the characters. They are so well-written and fleshed out that they seem like real-life people. I also like that we get perspectives from almost everyone in the story. She tackled unsettling and controversial topics such as child molestation, depression, abortion, suicide, death, and prison cruelty.

Everything was detailed and obviously involved vast research. I appreciate stories like this not just for the sheer entertainment but also for the knowledge I gain. Her writing is impeccable!

“When you love someone, you put their needs before your own. No matter how much it made you feel like you were ripping yourself into pieces.”

“To say there had been a loss was ludicrous; one lost a shoe or a set of keys. You did not suffer the death of a child and say there was a loss. There was a catastrophe. A devastation. A hell.”

OVERALL I LOVED IT > 4.5/5 stars

I'm definitely going to check out more of her works!!

After you've delved into several Jodi Picoult books, certain expectations start to form. There's always a captivating, incendiary topic (such as teen suicide, stigmata, school shootings, sexual abuse, and so on) that shatters a small New England community. Courtroom drama unfolds, along with exquisitely crafted family dynamics. There's a maverick lawyer, a quirky judge, and a plethora of angst. And, of course, countless plot twists and turns.

All of these elements were present in "The Pact." It's the story of the death of a teenage golden girl, with her long-time boyfriend accused of the murder, which he alleges was a botched double suicide. As news of Emily's pregnancy surfaces, the defendant dodges and weaves, and numerous red herrings are introduced. However, something still felt amiss.

I had the sense that there simply wasn't quite enough drama in this book. I anticipated one more terrifying secret to be uncovered at the conclusion. I wasn't convinced that Emily's motives for taking her own life were severe enough. Moreover, I couldn't fathom that NO ONE - not the police, not his parents, not the lawyer, no one - questioned Chris about what truly transpired that night.

Nevertheless, given Picoult's remarkable writing, this book remains well worth reading.

You know,

the mind is truly a remarkable thing.

Just because you can't visually perceive the wound,

it doesn't imply that it isn't causing hurt.

The mind scars constantly,

experiencing various traumas and challenges.

However, it also has an amazing ability to heal.

Over time, with patience and self-care,

those emotional scars can fade and the mind can find a sense of peace and wholeness again.

It's important to remember that our mental health is just as crucial as our physical health.

We should be gentle with ourselves and allow the healing process to take its course.

By nurturing our minds and being aware of our emotions,

we can overcome the pain and emerge stronger and more resilient.

❤❤

I am truly overjoyed that I came across this remarkable book. From the very moment I started reading, I was completely engrossed in this novel and simply could not bring myself to put it down.

The story within its pages is an absolute masterpiece, beautifully crafted with a perfect blend of tragedy and suspense. It has the power to tug at your heartstrings and keep you on the edge of your seat simultaneously.

What I particularly love about this book is the way the plot seamlessly jumps between the past and the present. This unique narrative device not only adds depth and complexity to the story but also ensures that the book progresses at a brisk and engaging pace.

Moreover, each chapter concludes with a thrilling cliffhanger that leaves the reader yearning and craving to immediately move back to that specific time period. It's as if the author is deliberately teasing and tantalizing us, making it impossible to resist turning the page and delving deeper into the captivating world of the story.

Overall, this book has been an absolute delight to read, and I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a truly unforgettable literary experience.

It was super! Astonishing, well-thought-out, captivating, misleading, and fascinating!

This experience truly blew my mind. The level of detail and the精心策划 that went into it were remarkable. It had me on the edge of my seat from start to finish.

The way it led me astray and then revealed its true nature was both thrilling and intellectually stimulating. It was like a wild ride through a maze of emotions and ideas.

Overall, it was an unforgettable experience that I would highly recommend to anyone looking for something truly unique and engaging.

Why do so many people seem to have an intense love or adoration for Jodi Picoult novels? I decided to give her a try with "My Sister's Keeper," and to be honest, I didn't despise it, although I did have some issues with the plot. However, "The Pact" has now completely and successfully turned me off all of Picoult's novels.

There are numerous reasons why I detested this book. It's difficult to single out one major thing that irritated me the most. The aspects I truly hated about it are integral parts of the story.

WARNING. SPOILERS AHEAD. (Not that I would even recommend you read this novel. So just go ahead and read the spoilers.)

I loathed the entire premise of the novel. A supposed suicide pact that turns out not to be a suicide pact at all, but rather a young man assisting his girlfriend in killing herself? In some ways, Picoult seemed to sully and insult the true nature of love. Chris, the boy involved in the so-called suicide pact, views it as true love when he releases his girlfriend Emily from her worldly cares and pain. But is this really what true love is?

Number one - what kind of message does this send to people with suicidal ideation? That sometimes our troubles and trials are simply too overwhelming for us to handle, so we must escape into death?

I was shocked by the romanticism of suicide that occurred in this novel. Granted, Picoult did attempt to show us the repercussions of suicide on friends and family, but the most prominent point of the novel was Chris describing (while on trial) the death of Emily, his lover.

Number two - Emily, who had endured a form of sexual assault at a very young age, never dealt with the issue. This has been well-documented and researched, and is linked to people who are suicidal, which makes perfect sense. Often, there is some kind of abuse in one's childhood that inevitably leads to depression, self-blame, and unfortunately, suicide. However, Picoult didn't offer much regarding the abuse, other than a brief reference to it as a glimpse into Emily's life. She manages to hide her depression from her parents and spirals downward, with Chris being the only person she confides in.

Throughout the entire second half of the novel, as Emily's slow descent is being explained, I wanted to shake Chris until his teeth rattled. If my boyfriend came to me and said, "I want to kill myself. I'm extremely unhappy because of something but I refuse to tell you why," I would immediately seek therapy for him in any way possible. However, Chris, being a naive teenager (what other reason could there be?), does nothing, convincing himself that he can stop Emily before she takes the final step.

Nothing about Emily's abuse becomes apparent to any of the parents. The biggest shocker of the story is that Chris wasn't suicidal at all, and he seemingly went along with Emily's plan for some flimsy reason that doesn't hold up under scrutiny.

There is literally nothing about this novel that I liked. What kind of story is this? I've read many depressing novels, but this one was the worst. What was Picoult attempting to communicate to the reader? That suicide leaves families devastated and tears people apart, but is sometimes inevitable and is the answer to our woes? Perhaps if she had delved deeper into the realm of sexual abuse and sought to show some type of healing... anything... perhaps then the book would have been more bearable for me. However, I highly doubt that, and as you can tell from my review... I give this novel one star because I did NOT like it... I hated it.

Give this book a pass.

Melanie and Michael Gold,

and Gus and James Harte,

have been neighbors and friends since Melanie and Gus were pregnant with their first children. The kids, Emily Gold and Chris Harte, grew up together, became a couple, and are now high school seniors preparing for college.

As the story begins, Emily and Chris are on a date at a local carousel when a shot is fired. Cut to the hospital: Emily, shot in the head, is dead; Chris is disoriented with 70 stitches for a scalp laceration. When the police arrive, Chris claims that he and Emily had a suicide pact but that he fainted and fell before he could shoot himself. Before long, Chris is arrested for murdering Emily.

The book alternates between the past and the present, going all the way back to when the Golds and Hartes first met as two young married couples. They quickly became close friends, dining out, vacationing, and confiding in each other. The two sets of parents were prosperous, happy, and well-adjusted, and before the tragedy, they were thrilled that Chris and Emily were sweethearts. We also learn a great deal about both Emily and Chris and see how their bond developed.

In the present, the Golds are devastated by Emily's death and bewildered by the idea that she was suicidal and they had no clue. Their daughter was a talented artist with applications to the finest art schools, including the Sorbonne. What could have made her want to kill herself? When Chris is arrested, the Golds at least have someone to blame.

Throughout the story, we see how each member of the Gold and Harte families copes with the tragedy, both separately and together. We observe Chris as he waits in jail for his trial, a difficult and harrowing experience. The last part of the book is a well-written courtroom drama, complete with a fierce rivalry between the zealous prosecutor and Chris's capable defense attorney.

I know many readers have given this book glowing reviews, but for me, it was just average. For one thing, I didn't buy the book's basic premise. Although Emily had legitimate concerns, I couldn't believe they would drive her to suicide. Moreover, I couldn't accept that once Chris knew Emily wanted to kill herself, he didn't seek help. After all, he had plenty of time. Thus, while the book addresses an important issue - teen angst that goes unnoticed by parents - it didn't feel real to me.

I also thought the book was about twice as long as it needed to be. It seemed to drag on and on, and I got impatient reading it.

You can follow my reviews at https://reviewsbybarbsaffer.blogspot....

Didn't enjoy this.

Picoult seemed to want to explore the polemic, contemporary phenomena of teen suicide, but the result is unsatisfying, long winded, pretentious and boring.

Why? Three reasons.

1) The book feels constructed, unnatural. Take eight people. Four relationships. Two families joined at the hip by their lovebird teen kids. And a lawyer and his assistant. Make the girl a beautiful, promising teen artist, kill her (suicide or murder, only Chris, the loyal, love-blind, sports-star boyfriend, knows for sure) and "explore" how this suicide/murder affects them all.

Sounds interesting, and it might have been if it wasn't for stereotypes playing themselves for all they were worth. The Romeo and Juliet teen romance. The (unbeknown to all) troubled girl and the simple, WYSIWYG boy. The secret childhood molesting in a McDonalds toilet, and an undesired pregnancy. The cold, perfectionist, vindictive mum and the warmer, supportive mum. The tormented, reasonable dad and the distant, head-in-the-sand image-conscious surgeon. And, to round things off, there's the obligatory yuppie defence lawyer (an arrogant, hooker-using, win-at-all-costs divorcee with a rebellious teen kid), his hot is-she-isn't-she-a-reforming-influence assistant, a bumbling female cop and an ice-maiden take-no-prisoners prosecutor.

The plot plods along as you'd expect, everyone dealing with it in their own way. Relationships crumble and reform. Lifelong friendships disintegrate overnight. Enemies meet for coffee and solace. The truth-has-no-place-in-the-courtroom lawyer doesn't want to hear what his client has to say and weaves a web of fabrications into a house of cards that comes tumbling down with the first words from his client.

Thing is, none of this goes anywhere. There are no real conclusions. Things start and fizzle out. Or don't start. Nothing gets resolved. The toilet molesting is never developed, so we don't really know its role in Em's state of mind, which isn't explored either, and which is central to the believability of the story. Yes, we find out what happens eventually, but what we discover is that not even Chris really knows why she felt the way she did, and we're left with the impression he didn't really try to find out. Which, given his apparent communicating skills and the lengths Picoult goes to to convince us that Em and Chris are joined at the heart and know what the other is thinking, just doesn't wash.

2) As I said, the above may sound interesting, but it comes across as contrived as we skip between the past and present in an attempt to create context. Here, this literary ploy is used and abused with the intention of raising the tension and keeping us guessing. Instead, in my opinion, it falls flat on its face and serves only to prolong the agony of "finding out" - and to add a dozen superfluous chapters that can be skipped on the way to the Big Reveal, which is, after all, the only thing we care about. Did he or didn't he? The thing is, we already know. The answer is in the title.

3) There's no real climax to the story. Even the expectedly unexpected verdict comes as an anticlimax, and the tension Picoult tries to introduce to build up to it comes over as false. Why? Because she uses Chris' point-of-view to tell Em's story, and the only way she can maintain said tension is by "not telling" us what only he knows, and must spend every waking hour in jail thinking about. Which is bad storytelling.

Picoult wants to keep us guessing, and instead of staying away from Chris' POV and revealing the story through the other protagonists' recollections and discoveries, she takes the easy way out using the past/present, backwards/forwards ploy and the staunch refusal to shine the light of her erratic, sometimes third-person, sometimes omniscient narrator on all of Chris' thoughts, and thereby answer the question bugging us from the beginning right up until until the last chapter.

I just wanted to cry out: "He knows! Just tell us!"

Annoying.

I picked up this book based on recommendations from friends. I already had a deep love for Jodi Picoult from reading her previous works such as My Sister's Keeper, The Tenth Circle, and Nineteen Minutes. And yet again, she did not disappoint me.

I really don't know what to say about this book without sounding overly cheesy. But it truly is a great story that delves into the realm of teen love and commitment.

I am constantly amazed at how deeply I feel I get to know Jodi's characters. Currently, Chris is firmly lodged in my mind, and so often I just wanted to shake him and exclaim, "Tell someone! Don't be a hero!" But isn't that precisely what being a teenager is like? Thinking that you can handle anything that comes your way all by yourself? Believing that the adults would only mess things up if they knew what was going on, right? And it's the same for Emily. I wanted to tell her, "Just talk to someone, you'll feel better." I felt just as helpless while reading the book as I did when I was a teenager myself. I have this overwhelming urge to scream to all the teenagers out there, "WE REALLY DO GET IT!! WE'RE NOT AS STUPID AS WE LOOK!!"

This book was published in 1998, and it is the first time I’ve read Picoult’s work.

This story is told from several points of view and revolves around teen suicide and depression. It also delves into what parents believe about their children and how little they often really know about them.

One of the main characters is a teenage girl, Emily. She feels she spent her entire life being what everyone wanted her to be. She was the perfect daughter, the budding artist, the best friend, and the first love. In fact, she had been so busy meeting everyone’s expectations that it took her years to realize that it was all one big farce.

The story also explores how difficult it is to reveal what one truly feels. Sometimes, we’d rather hurt ourselves than hurt someone else. At one point in the book, Emily comes to realize that she does not love her boyfriend enough to marry him, but she loves him too much to tell him that.

The author says that the inspiration for this book was to write the anti-Romeo and Juliet story, about families that are too close instead of being enemies. However, these parents still end up hurting their children as a result.

For part of her research, which I really appreciate, she asked her teenage babysitter to gather some of her friends so that she could ask them questions. Some of the hard questions included: How old were you when you first had sex? Why did you do it? Have you ever been depressed? Wanted to kill yourself? How many phone calls would it take for you to get a gun? Would you tell an adult? This last question is a big one for this story, as it makes us wonder if a suicidal teen would really tell someone.

She also met one-on-one with inmates who shared details of their jail experience. Then, she spent a great deal of time in court talking to defence attorneys.

In the back of the book, she mentions that she is not the first commercial fiction writer to master the techniques to address social issues through fiction. Most people shy away from difficult issues, which is why nonfiction about these topics rarely attracts an audience.

I do wonder if that has changed in the past twenty years, as nonfiction is now much more popular than it was when she addressed these tough subjects.

I enjoyed this book, although at times I questioned if people would really make the choices that certain characters made. Nevertheless, I will definitely pick up another of her books to read.

FIVE BIG FAT STARS

There are certain books that have the power to completely consume you. They seep into your bloodstream, as if they are a part of you, and then curl up comfortably within your soul. This particular story had me completely invested from start to finish. It was as if I was right there in the background, witnessing every single moment unfold. It is truly a heartbreaking tale, one that is built upon a love so profound and intense that it leaves you utterly disoriented, not knowing which way is up or which way is down. It is yet another powerhouse book that delves deep into the many complex layers of grief.

Hard-hitting books like this are my absolute favourites. Any author who has the ability to make me feel emotions so deeply is, in my eyes, truly a magical unicorn. This was my very first Jodi Picoult book, and I still can't quite believe it. But at the same time, I am incredibly excited to explore her extensive backlist and discover more of her amazing works.

I can't wait to see what other stories she has in store for me to devour and have my heartstrings tugged once again.