The story revolves around 2 families, the Golds and the Hartes who are the best of friends. They have been neighbors for 18 years and spend a lot of enjoyable time together. When one family has a son and the other a daughter those two children also grow up the best of friends. But as they grow older there is always an undertone and hope with the parents, their friends and even themselves that it will become something more and as they go into high school it does just that. But it ends tragically one night when Emily, who showed no signs of being unhappy, commits suicide with a gun taken from Chris' father's cabinet. When Chris gets arrested for it, he reveals that the couple had a suicide pact that went wrong. But the detective in charge doubts Chris' story and soon charges him with murder. Denied bail, Chris is sent to prison to await his trial. As disbelief, shock and anger sets in it drives a wedge into strong friendship between the families as the Emily's mother becomes hard and angry with grief and Chris' mother stands by her son's innocence no matter what.
With all the anticipation I had for finally getting to this author I felt disappointed in the end. The story starts right off the bat with the shocking suicide and then winds its way into the the two family's history together and what led to that point with the teens even as it starts to move forward with the arrest and with Chris in prison preparing for his trial. While the story in and of itself was a great premise and delved into so much concerning teen suicide and the pressures they face and the confusion and great grief surrounding the families left behind that totally held my interest along with the courtroom drama, it took a huge downturn for me because of all the s*x involved throughout the story. The descriptions of intimate acts between the two teens, the parents and even the lawyer were just over the top for me and totally took from the story. Really can an author not give me the idea without the detail? Can the feelings, emotions and thoughts of the teens about the intimacy they were involved in not be told to me with describing the act? Was it really necessary to the story to describe the parent's intimate scenes to me? And the whole character of the womanizing lawyer who brought women home to spend the night with his 13 year old son in the house knowing what was going on and their discussions about it was just too much and had me saying "Really?". I spent so much time being angry at this man's bad parenting. Again, was it really necessary to the story to give me details of the lawyer's time in the bedroom with his women? Can you not just give me the idea that he is a womanizer for character development without going into the bedroom detail? To me if felt like the author felt sex scenes were necessary to sell the book so inserted them periodically. In the end the story was so heavy for me with everything going on with not much to give some breathing space. Now that I have finally read a book by this author and though she is very popular and deals with some major issues society faces today in her stories, I don't know if she is an author that suits my reading tastes. What do you guys think? Should I read another to give her a fair shot?
Unfortunately I gave it a 4/10 (1 out of 5 on goodreads because of how their rating system is described)
Reading Challenge Goal Met: July's Read Your Shelf Challenge Prompt: A book you've been avoiding but actually want to read
4 comments:
Hi Susanne. I really appreciate this review. I have never read Jodi Piccoult. I have a couple of her books, but they are so long and I am just not sure I want to undertake reading one. After your review, I may pass on her altogether. thanks so much! I am currently reading a book I don't like either, and I hope to finish it up today so I can move on to something better. See you again soon!
I've seen this author's name so much, I've wondered about her. But all the s*x would be a big turn-off for me. Personally, I'm not interested in reading more from her if this is her tendency. As you said, you can get across the idea that a man is a womanizer or two people are sexually active without making us feel like we're watching the acts. I don't need voyeuristic details.
I read one or two of this author's earlier books - years ago - and I don't recall that they were explicit. After reading your review of this one, I have no desire to read it. I, too, wonder if it's meant to sell books. Either that or because she's written so many books, she thinks she has to change it up to keep pace with sales. Too bad, because I think she addresses some good issues. For me, too many graphic details, either sex or violence, detracts from the story. It's like comedians who use profanity. The great ones don't have to resort to that.
this was one of her more explicit ones but it was because of the plot. NONE of her other books are like this. She is a phenomenal author. She tends to write about social justice issues or ethical/moral issues. Her book about abortion is EXCELLENT and every Christian should read it. it really opened my eyes up to both sides of this very controversial social and moral/ethical issue. There were maybe 3 novels she wrote that just weren't great. Her one about Covid was excellent too although the ending....WOW......it was something!! I LOVE this author.
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