The Pact: A Love Story
by Jodi Picoult
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Book Summary Information
Author: Jodi PicoultEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-08-29
ISBN: 0061150142
Number of pages: 512
Publisher: Avon
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- Jodi Picoult The Pact: A Love Story
Book Reviews of The Pact: A Love Story
Book Review: This is the first Picoult book I read...and it turned me off Picoult!
Summary: 1 Stars
"The Pact" is the first Jodi Picioult book I read...and it turned out to be the last. I admit I've been baffled to see this one come out in reprint and to see so many of her other books appearing and selling so well, because while she can write, I just didn't find the plot of this book realistic, and it so turned me off her that I haven't been able to bring myself to try her again.
The reasons? Two, mainly. First, that the parents in this book are depicted as being overjoyed that their son and daughter have become "soul mates" at such a young age and seem headed unwaveringly toward marriage. Why is this unrealistic to me? For this simple reason: one of the families is Jewish, and the other is not. I think it's a pretty well-known fact that in many Jewish families, the idea that one of the children would even fall in love with, much less marry, a non-Jew is absolute anathema. Some families would even consider such a child "dead" to them. Yet this Jewish family has no problem whatsoever with the situation. I would not mind if the potential for such conflict had at least been addressed, and it was established that this particular family did not feel that way about this subject or about this relationship, that they were close enough to the other family that it did not matter. But to simply tell us that one family is Jewish and the other isn't, and then to expect us to accept that the romance between their children is fully accepted and celebrated by both--well, that was too much for me to swallow.
My second problem, and this is by far worse, is the ending. I will not give it away here even though I hated the book, but let's just say I could see it coming down Broadway with both doors open, so not only was it not the least bit of a surprise, it was also, to my mind, not at all earned. I have no problem with a book's ending so long as I feel it is "earned." I did not feel this ending was earned at all. It was simply not such that you could go back through the book afterward and realize the author was dropping subtle hints throughout that made the ending of the book make sense and that made you say "OK now, I can understand why it happened this way and it all has integrity." No, the ending was entirely "deus ex machina" and I got the feeling the author ended the book as she did not because that was the way things would have turned out in real life had this story actually happened, but simply because that was how she "wanted" things to end for her characters. She was too "in love" with them to let matters take the course she had set up for them in her own plot. So she had to stage a "rescue" at the end, so to speak. And that's as far as I'll go to describe that.
In conclusion: this is the reason I haven't been able to pick up another Jodi Picoult book. I get the feeling that she's underestimated the intelligence of her readers (most of whom, I admit, appear to be thrilled with her output) and that she might pull something like this again. I don't like feeling betrayed by authors who are inept at pulling off an unexpected plot twist, because I get the feeling they did it just because they thought they could get away with it, and some readers let them. Not me.
Summary of The Pact: A Love Story
Until the phone calls came at three o'clock on a November morning, the Golds and their neighbors, the Hartes, had been inseparable. It was no surprise to anyone when their teenage children, Chris and Emily, began showing signs that their relationship was moving beyond that of lifelong friends. But now seventeen-year-old Emily is dead?shot with a gun her beloved and devoted Chris pilfered from his father's cabinet as part of an apparent suicide pact?leaving two devastated families stranded in the dark and dense predawn, desperate for answers about an unthinkable act and the children they never really knew.
From New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult?one of the most powerful writers in contemporary fiction?comes a riveting, timely, heartbreaking, and terrifying novel of families in anguish and friendships ripped apart by inconceivable violence.
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