The Tenth Circle - Jodi Picoult [August/06]

This is the newest novel by Jodi Picoult, and of the ones I have read by her so far, my least favourite. Hopefully the next book I read by her is really good, or I am not sure if I will keep her up. She seems to be one of those authors that are hit or miss for me.

From the back:

Trixie Stone is fourteen years old and in love for the first time. She's also the light of her father's life - a straight-A student; a freshman in high school who is pretty and popular; a girl who's always looked up to Daniel Stone as a hero. Until, that is, her world is turned upside down with a single act of violence... and suddenly everything Trixie has believed about her family-and herself-seems to be a lie. Could the young boy who once made Trixie's face fill with light when he came to the door have been the one to end her childhood forever? She says that he is, and that is all it takes to make Daniel, a seemingly mild-mannered comic book artist with a history he has hidden even from his family, venture to hell and back in order to protect his daughter.

THE TENTH CIRCLE looks at that delicate moment when a child learns that her parents don't know all the answers and when being a good parent means letting go of your child. It asks whether you can reinvent yourself in the course of a lifetime, or if your mistakes are carried forever-if life is, as in any good comic book, a struggle to control good and evil, or if good and evil control you.

Alright. Since I have started this blog, I have recorded my thoughts on Jodi Picoult. I read my first book by her at about the New Year mark, and this is the 4th book I have read by her. I find I have an easier time bragging up a good book than explaining why I didn't like a bad book. I will sit here and look for every good moment and still probably give it a half decent mark for the good parts and ignore the bad. I think it is the whole, I don't want to be mean, thinking.

Anyways, I had said with Vanishing Acts that I read, I think it was last month, that I was not impressed with the novel. Vanishing Acts had good points to it, though. With The Tenth Circle, I enjoyed the first 100 pages or so. I thought we were looking at a good book, and I was curious to see how things were going to play out. Then, it just died. I started to notice that I was reading, but at the same time I was skimming. I have it now, though. The thing I don't like about Picoult is all the anti-climatic stuff. It is okay for a while, but this book was all this thinking. The father was thinking about his life in Alaska and his comic, the mother was thinking about her job and Dante's Inferno, and the daughter was a typical teenager. It's just, you would get into the story, and then there would like 5 pages of pointless rambling and then the story again. There was just too much, well, crap! I couldn't get into the story at all.

So, this was a bust. I don't recommend it. She does have a few good books, but the pointless rambling, well, okay it sort of has a point to the story, but I think there is too much of it.

For the good start, I give it a 2/5. Rather glad I didn't buy this one.

Vanishing Acts - Jodi Picoult [July/06]

This is my third novel by Jodi Picoult, having read Mercy and My Sister's Keeper earlier. I still have Picture Perfect, Salem Falls, and Plain Truth in my to be read pile by her.

From the back of the book:

How do you recover the past when it was never yours to lose?

Delia Hopkins has led a charmed life. Raised in rural New Hampshire by her beloved, widowed father, she now has a young daughter, a handsome fiance, and her own search-and-rescue bloodhound, which she uses to find missing persons. But as Delia plans her wedding, she is plagued by flashbacks of a life she can't recall... until a policeman knocks on her door, revealing a secret about herself that changes the world as she knows it - and threatens to jeopardize the future. With Vanishing Acts, Jodi Picoult explores how life - as we know it - might not turn out the way we imagined; how the people we've loved and trusted can suddenly change before our very eyes; how the memory we thought had vanished could return as a threat. Once again, Picoult handles and astonishing and timely topic with understanding, insight, and compassion.

Of the three Picoult novels that I have read, I would have to say that this is my least favourite. It was still good, and took me no time at all to read, but I didn't like as much as the other two.

It is a hard review to write, because just by explaining the events of the novel I give away what the reader is meant to find out. Maybe you have it figured out already, but I do not be the one to flat out say what happened in the book and give it away for someone that intends to read it. I know that Picoult is widely-read, so it is too risky. So, I will tell you that while it was not my favourite, it is still a very worthwhile read. Jodi Picoult has slowly become one of my favourite authors because she dares to write about the unhappy sides of life in such a beautiful way. I think you can read any of her books and like them, some you will like better than others, but each time you are entering into a worthwhile read.

I think my main problem with this novel is how things were dealt with. I didn't always believe in how things played out, and thought that too much was going on that didn't really need to be happening. I understand that the events in the novel can be devastating, don't get me wrong, but at the same time I thought Picoult had too many punches for all the characters in the novel. Like with My Sister's Keeper, I was left a little unsure by the ending. I wish I could say more, but if I did, no one would read the book because they would already know what was happening.

3.5/5

Mercy - Jodi Picoult [June/06]

My second Picoult novel, yay! She reminds me of Lurlene McDaniel's in many ways, but she takes the tragic circumstances that take the children in McDaniel's novels and transfers them to an older audience. From the back of the book:

Police chief of a small Massachusetts town, Cameron McDonald makes the toughest arrest of his life when his own cousin Jamie comes to him and confesses outright that he has killed his terminally ill wife out of mercy.

Now, a heated murder trial plunges the town into upheaval, and drives a wedge into a contented marriage: Cameron, aiding the prosecution in their case against Jamie, is suddenly at odds with his devoted wife. Allie - seduced by the idea of a man so in love with his wife that he'd grant all her wishes, even her wish to end her life. And when an inexplicable attraction leads to a socking betrayal, Allie faces the hardest question of the heart: when does love cross the line of moral obligation? And what does it mean to truly love another?

This book read meets a goal. I have a pile by my bed, it is the unfinished grave yard. I have been digging up some of the treasures and trying to find my table! It isn't that I didn't like the books, it is that I had other things going on and forgot about them! So, Mercy was one of those buried treasures!

First things first, what a sad book! There is not much else to say than that. Despite the fact it took me longer than it should have to read it, you really do get sucked into Jamie's situation. When he drives up to the police station with his wives body in the car, it really is a moment where you are stunned. It comes down to, why on earth did he kill his wife and then get so upset about it? Normally murder is not devastating for those that murder, so you soon know there is more to the story. Especially when they try to take the body away, his pain is raw let me tell you.

There are a couple things going on in this book. After Jamie tells the police chief, Cameron, about his wives illness and how she asks him to end her suffering before she gets any worse, there is the trial. We witness the scenes in the courtroom, but we also get to see the planning that went into the trial. Some people hated Jamie for what he had done, but others seemed to think that he had made the right choice and were doing everything they could to help him out. Allie, Cameron's wife, was his biggest supporter. She is the one that loved the most, as Jamie put it, and she found herself wondering what would happen to her and Cameron if that were to come about. In the meantime, she learns a lot about both loving and the man that she married. She is a sweet woman who is dedicated to her husband.

Then there is Cameron. He was forced back home to be the unoffical clan leader to these Scottish descendents. That meant being the police chief in many respects. He had no choice in the matter, his father died and it was expected of him. He is going through a period where he is starting to feel trapped and restless, something that leads him to make a choice that will affect many people. He is growing up in the novel, and moving towards a point where he is at terms with his life and the job that he holds.

Then, there is the love story. The novel goes back in the past and tells the story of Jamie and Maggie. If nothing else, we learn about how they came to have met and by the end of the novel, no matter how the court case comes out, we know that Jamie loved Maggie. It is too bad that their time together was cut short by such a devastating illness. There are scenes in this novel, all the things lost and never reclaimed that make your heart break and tears come to your eyes.

4.5/5

My Sister's Keeper - Jodi Picoult (December/05)

I am attempting to catch up on the books that I have read, so be patient.

I got this book for Christmas from my boyfriends parents. I had bought it for a friend for Christmas and found it sounded good, so I was happy when I received it. It is a fitting title for this novel, as the main character is in essence "her sisters keeper". I particularly like the question found on the back of the book: "Can a parent love too much? Or is too much never enough?" I find that is sums up the actions of the book quite well.

You see, Anna, the main character, was conceived to save her older sister who developed leukemia when she was little. Anna was given specific genes so that she would be a perfect match for her sister when she was born, and thus began her life of surgeries and procedures to extend her sisters life. When she is thirteen years old, though, she finally challenges her mother over the constant hospital stays. She has always been defined by her sister, and it seems that she wishes this to end at this period in her life. Her decision is a brave one because it has the potential to tear her family apart and destroy her sisters chances to live, but it also has more to it than it seems and has some surprising endings in store.

This novel is one of the saddest novels I have ever read. I like how it is told from everyones perspective but Kate, the sick sister. She has always been the centre of attention in the family, and now we are seeing what the other members of the family are thinking. The mother, Sarah, takes the novel back to when Kate was just born. The father uses firefighting and astronomy to explain the events in their house. In the end, though, it is what Anna thinks that is important.

I give this book a 4.5 out 5. I have some issues with the ending, and I can't give a perfect grade to something I question.