The Pact by Jodi Picoult ~ Book Review

I finally got the goal of reading a Jodi Picoult book off my reading goal's list.  And I'm so late putting up a review because it's been a hard review to write.  While some of the story was heartbreakingly good some of it was so unnecessary.  I pushed through to the end because the premise was good and I wanted to find out what really happened that tragic night but the execution was not my cup of tea and because I had waited so long to read this author I wanted to give it a fair shot.  

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