Has anyone here read this? I know this isn’t the ‘typical’ book to be discussed here, but please humor me. Nobody in my real life has read the book.
I just finished it last night (stayed up until 2:30 am) and was mostly pleased. I’ve read quite a few of her other books and got turned off for a while as some were just silly. She’s mostly redeemed herself with me on this one though.
Some of my thoughts on her writing
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[li] Jodi Picoult is the master of the heartwrenching emotions. She decides what emotions she wants you to feel and then seamlessly takes you there. The vitrol I felt towards Matt and Drew were likely exactly what she wanted.[/li]
[li] She is great at getting the reader into the book. Within the first few pages I was hooked.[/li][/ul]
Some of my thoughts on the story
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[li] Overall I thought it was pretty good.[/li]
[li] I was amazed that Alex waited so long to recuse herself (sidenote - I was misreading “rescue” for “recuse” for quite a while…). I can’t imagine a judge being so out of touch with her family that she wouldn’t immediately recuse herself.[/li]
[li] As I’m getting into the forensic psychology, I was much more critical of the ‘expert’ testimony section. As can be expected, it didn’t quite live up to reality, but such is fiction.[/li]
[li] I’m very suprised that Josie got 5 years for her crime. I’d be interested to hear from those more well versed in the law who have read the book. Were you equally shocked or am I just naive?[/li]
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One final thought:
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[li] Is high school bullying/desire for popularity really this strong in some places? I wasn’t in high school too terribly long ago and this was not my experience at all. Was my school some miraculous exception?[/li][/ul]
I’ve read a few of her books. My sister’s keeper and The Pact were both good, but emotionally exhausting to read so I didn’t seek out any more of her stuff for a while.
If you’re recommending this one, I’ll give it a try and get back to you. In three more weeks, that is, as soon as I get through finals for this semester.
I just finished it, too! I read it on my commute on the DC Metro, and I got tapped on the shoulder three times by strangers commenting on how it was their favorite book, and how it was “so good”. And I agree! I did really like it. I will definitely be reading it again.
I really do love her prose; I wish I had the book with me so I could quote it. Some of her metaphors and analogies are just beautiful. I had to read a few sentences several times because I loved them so much.
So, the bits of journal that preceded sections of the book - those were written by Josie, right? I kind of wish we knew more of what she had been planning before everything went down. She had the pills, she was writing this journal…and then flushed the pills and … I was left wondering more about what she really would have done. We know what she ended up doing, but something about her story felt just a little unfinished to me.
I can’t comment on the law questions, but I also would like to know whether Josie’s sentence was realistic - and I would love to hear your criticisms of the expert testimony, too.
Bullying was present in my school, maybe not to that extreme, but there were definitely the kids who always got picked on. We had more people stand up for them though (students, not teachers).
Shoot - I’m so sorry that this took me so long to reply to, I hate it when people abandon threads, and then here I am abandoning threads…
The part about the expert testimony that bothered me is something that I actually just encountered in real life as well. When Curtis Uppergate is testifying for the prosecution (begins on page 399 in my book), he immediately begins talking about Peter’s premeditation and how this precludes insanity or criminal responsibility.
In my state, the statute on criminal responsibility asks the psychologist/psychiatrist if “as a result of mental disease or defect such person was incapable of knowing and appreciating the nature, quality, or wrongfulness of such person’s conduct.” I think this is fairly similar to other states, but of course, it does vary a bit. I’ve been taught (and believe) that as professionals, we should only testify on the issues that we are directed by the court to consider. This does not include testimony on premediatation, as that is a question that is not asked of the psychologist/psychiatrist because it is one that must be decided upon by the trier of fact (in this case, the jury).
So when Curtis Uppergate started testifying on premediatation, I started cringing.
This coupled with the fact that he hadn’t actually met with Peter made me thing that the character of Curtis Uppergate was a moron. There is no way that this would happen in real life, especially with such a high profile case.
And of course there’s the nitpicky thing about not qualifying the experts. On my page 403, it says, “'Dr. Wah,'Jordan began, ‘when did you first begin to work on this case.’” This isn’t how testimony would start. Of course the “began” piece could have been after the qualification piece.
As long as you’re up for an emotional read, then yes, I recommend it. Interestingly, the emotion I felt most in this book was anger and pity as opposed to the sadness that I felt in My Sisters Keeper.
Just finished this last night… tough to put down, and even tougher to pick up at times, as you didn’t know if you were 5 years prior or 5 months after.
I sensed and awaited a twist at the end, but didn’t imagine “that”… I thought the diary excerpts were from Peter, so had to go back and re-read them once I realized they were not his.
A great read, and an amazingly in-depth story about bullying and school shooting…
What do you recommend of hers as a second book, this being my first?
I have this book, but I’ve not read it yet, I bought all Picoult’s books (or all the ones I could find) after reading [and loving] My Sister’s Keeper, for some reason I’ve never read the rest of them. I’ll dig it out and have a looksee…
This is the only Picoult book I’ve read. I sort of liked it–I was 10 minutes late for work the morning I finished it, because who could put it down with only 10 minutes of reading left? I did see the twist coming ten miles ahead, so that didn’t surprise me.
I felt very manipulated as a reader. I don’t like that, and that’s the main reason I haven’t picked up any more of her books to give them a read.
Bullying in schools? Oh gosh yeah, and I graduated high school in 1981. When I was in the last year of elementary school and the first year of junior high, there were some boys who lived a few blocks closer to school than I did, and they would run home as soon as the bell rang so that they could congregate at the corner and throw rocks at me as I went past. I was the misfit of the school, and they made sure I knew it. So not fun. I got seriously bullied by a lot of people.