This is a tale of obsession, loss, tragedy, and all the seemingly numerous varieties of guilt. It begins with a failed suicide pact between two teenagers. Emily Gold dies, but the precise reasons behind her death remain obscure. Who pulled the trigger? Her boyfriend, Chris Harte, survives because of having fainted before he could also take his own life, either can't or is unwilling to offer any explanation. The story now shifts back and forth across time and traces the growth of the long, and complex relationship between Emily and Chris. The two families first settled down next to each other...they seemed to be the perfect neighbors and friends. Both families are upper-class New Englanders; both the husbands are doctors; both the wives are pregnant at that time so in a sense the pairing of Chris and Emily happened even before they were born. They slept in the same bassinet, they go on to develop a secret language just for the two of them, they are always together...everywhere. As adolescents they are drawn into a fevered romance. It seems inconceivable that Chris could have killed Emily, but a preponderance of forensic evidence suggests that that just might be the case. On his 18th birthday, Chris is arrested. Of course, the perfect harmony between the families instantly dissolves. Melanie Gold, unable to accept the notion that her perfect daughter could have been suicidal and focuses all her anger on the "murderer" next door. Instead of standing by Chris, his father, James, disinherits his son who he now considers a liability to his prestigious career. Chris himself, gets saddled with a hot-shot lawyer who is much more interested in building a case than in hearing or finding the truth. Chris sinks into despair. The trial alternates between rapid-fire testimony with flashbacks to the actual suicide. These are particularly powerful, and what Chris finally says when he takes the stand comes as a BIG surprise. Overall...it's a moving story, mixed with elements of mystery and a sensitive exploration of a tragic subject. ( )

After reading My Sister's Keeper I didn't connect with this story. Might have been the timing but I didn't think the plot or characters were quite as compelling. ( )

Sometimes I struggle with her books. This one took awhile to get into. The second half moved much better with twists and turns. Not a fave but it was a good read. ( )

Not my favourite Jodi Picoult book. ( )

This is the second time I’ve actually read this book, and my second Jodi Picoult novel. I bought and read this book at a tumultuous time in Malta, when a young couple where found at the foot of a cliff towards the North of the island, one of them dead, one of them alive. The one who was alive claimed that it was a suicide pact, and that he too was meant to die. The girl was pronounced dead, and had died on impact with the rocks. This case is old now, and remains unsolved. But I remember reading this book for the first time around the time that this case was still being investigated, and everything was so eerily similar, it was almost like I was living through the trial myself just by being in a country where something similar had just happened.

The novel follows two families, the Harts and the Golds. Emily Gold and Chris Hart are teenagers in love, who have spent their whole life knowing each other. Their parents are best friends (or rather, their mothers are, and their fathers have been dragged into the friendship by proxy). Emily and Chris have been, from the beginning, dealing with their parents’ expectations: they want them to get married in the future, because they reason that it’s the best future for the both of them.

One night, though, Emily is found dead – a bullet to the head – and Chris is found unconscious, and holding the gun that shot her. He claims it was a suicide pact, but nobody else can corroborate all this, and the situation looks even more dire when the evidence starts rolling in – Emily never displayed suicidal tendencies, she had a whole life to live for, there were signs of a struggle that night, and she was pregnant with Chris’s baby.

The novel explores the intricacies of the legal system when the victim of the crime isn’t present to testify, and the perpetrator claims that there wasn’t a crime to begin with. Picoult does a wonderful job of introducing us to both Chris and Emily’s point of view of the story, centering more around Chris’s towards the end as he is the one to relate it to us, the audience. We find out why Emily wanted to kill herself in the first place, as well as the amazing amount of pressure that they were both under, that played a huge part in their suicide pact. We see the effects of teenage love on two very impressionable young people who cared about each other more than anything. And we see a friendship between adults fall apart in a way that can never be repaired.

While not coming from a legal background, Picoult does an incredible amount of research that clearly shows in her writing. This woman does not write unprepared, and you have to appreciate the tremendous amount of effort that she puts into conveying the story through the most accurate way possible. She shows an understanding of the legal system and of her characters that I rarely find in other novels that deal with such a vast cast.

The novel also does a very good job of asking very important questions, among them one that I find myself asking every time I read this book: Isn’t it weird that Emily and Chris’s parents wanted them to be together so badly? Couldn’t they see how damaging that could be to their children in the long run?

Really, I would recommend this novel to anybody who wants an engaging story with well-developed characters. While the ending might not be to everyone’s liking, the element of realism that Picoult manages to convey in her writing style, in the way her characters interact, in the way that they feel so real and they way they think, is surely more than enough to engage anybody.

Final rating: 5/5 ( )