Book Review - The Pact by Jodi Picoult

This book turned out to be a lot less heavy than I expected after reading My Sister’s Keeper, also by Jodi Picoult. That book was about a family who discovered their 2 year old daughter had leukaemia and decided to have another child, genetically chosen to be a donor match for her sick sister, which was a harrowing (but very interesting) read. I can´t handle books, movies, TV shows or new stories that involce young kids getting sick or hurt. It really hits home when you have little ones of your own.

The Pactalso tackles a controversial and emotional subject - teenage suicide. Two 17 year olds who have grown up together, lived next door to each other and started dating when they were 14, make a pact to commit suicide, but only the girl ends up dead and her boyfriend charged with her murder. As with Picoult´s other books, she tries to portray the feelings of all the characters in the book and presents all sides to the story - the boyfriend, his family and his girlfriend´s parents who are best friends with the boyfriend´s family. The result is that you feel sympathy for everyone and realise that they are all victims in tragic circumstances. This story is told through alternating flashbacks and present time action leading up to the revelation of what really happened the night the girl died. The climax of the book is the outcome of the boyfriend´s trial and the author achieves the difficult goal of keeping real suspense. You know how in most of these books that include courtroom drama, you just know how its going to turn out; they are so predictable. In this one, you really don´t know which way its going to go and either outcome would probably seem appropriate or realistic.

I enjoyed this book and read it quickly. It didn´t upset me as much as My Sister’s Keeper but I suspect that is because I don´t have teenage kids and the spectre of suicide or depression or other teenage problems are not on my radar just yet. Its just as well, because that scene in My Sister’s Keeper where the mother notices a line of bruises on her 2 year old´s back, which leads to her cancer diagnosis still haunts me.