Waiting On Wednesday (10-31-12)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. Each week, you highlight an upcoming release that you are eagerly anticipating. This week, I'm looking forward to The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult (release date: February 26, 2013).

Synopsis (from BN.com): Sage Singer becomes friends with an old man who’s particularly beloved in her community after they strike up a conversation at the bakery where she works. Josef Weber is everyone’s favorite retired teacher and Little League coach. One day he asks Sage for a favor: to kill him. Shocked, Sage refuses…but then he tells her he deserves to die.

Once he reveals his secret, Sage wonders if he’s right. What do you do when evil lives next door? Can someone who’s committed a truly heinous act ever redeem themselves with good behavior? Should you offer forgiveness to someone if you aren’t the party who was wronged? And most of all—if Sage even considers his request—is it murder, or justice?

So, what are you waiting on this Wednesday?

Review: Picture Perfect by Jodi Picoult

Picture Perfect
Author: Jodi Picoult
Published: July 2, 2002
Genre: contemporary fiction
Paperback: 369 pages
Source: borrowed from the library


My Rating: 3 stars


Synopsis (from GoodReads): To the outside world, they seem to have it all. Cassie Barrett, a renowned anthropologist, and Alex Rivers, one of Hollywood's hottest actors, met on the set of a motion picture in Africa. They shared childhood tales, toasted the future, and declared their love in a fairy-tale wedding. But when they return to California, something alters the picture of their perfect marriage. A frightening pattern is taking shape—a cycle of hurt, denial, and promises, thinly veiled by glamour. Torn between fear and something that resembles love, Cassie wrestles with questions she never dreamed she would face: How can she leave? Then again, how can she stay?


My Thoughts: For me, this was a bit of a departure from the other Jodi Picoult books that I've read. Instead of a big court case at the center of the drama, this novel focuses on the abusive relationship between Alex Rivers, a big Holywood star with a troubled past, and Cassie Barrett, an anthropologist who has taken care of people all her life. There is no court case, no big moment that the plot was building to. Instead, Picoult takes you into the world of an abusive relationship, and which also happens to involve one of the hottest Hollywood stars. This is a serious novel (all of her novels are serious, but this one seemed to be a bit darker than her other works). She doesn't sugar coat what is happening and, through Cassie, shows us how a woman in this situation thinks.


Cassie is an interesting character. She is flawed, but the more you learn about her and her background, the more you like her and root for her. You understand why she has made the choices that she has made and where those choices have taken her. Alex Rivers is also an interesting character. I do not believe that physical or emotional abuse is ever okay or acceptable, but you learn about Alex's past, you can see why he has turned out the way that he has. The way that he was treated by his father have shaped him into the person he is today. Then, there is Will Flying Horse. He was just too odd for me. I never really liked him, even as he was helping Cassie escape the abuse. I just thought he was too weird and didn't add anything to the story. This is a departure from Picoult's other novels, but just as good as her other works.

Review: Salem Falls by Jodi Picoult

Salem Falls
Author: Jodi Picoult
Published: 2001
Genre: contemporary fiction
Hardcover: 434 pages
Source: borrowed from the library


My Rating: 3.5 stars


Synopsis (from GoodReads): When Jack St. Bride arrives by chance in the sleepy New England town of Salem Falls, he decides to reinvent himself. Tall, blond, and handsome, Jack was once a beloved teacher and soccer coach at a girls' prep school -- until a student's crush sparked a powder keg of accusation and robbed him of his reputation. Now, working for minimum wage washing dishes for Addie Peabody at the Do-Or-Diner, Jack buries his past, content to become the mysterious stranger who has appeared out of the blue. With ghosts of her own haunting her, Addie Peabody is as cautious around men as Jack St. Bride is around women. But as this unassuming stranger steps smoothly into the diner's daily routine, she finds him fitting just as comfortably inside her heart -- and slowly, a gentle, healing love takes hold between them. Yet planting roots in Salem Falls may prove fateful for Jack. Amid the white-painted centuries-old churches, a quartet of bored, privileged teenage girls have formed a coven that is crossing the line between amusement and malicious intent. Quick to notice the attractive new employee at Addie's diner, the girls turn Jack's world upside down with a shattering allegation that causes history to repeat itself -- and forces Jack to proclaim his innocence once again. Suddenly nothing in Salem Falls is as it seems: a safe haven turns dangerous, an innocent girl meets evil face-to-face, a dishwasher with a Ph.D. is revealed to be an ex-con. As Jack's hidden past catches up with him, the seams of this tiny town begin to tear, and the emerging truth becomes a slippery concept written in shades of gray. Now Addie, desperate for answers, must look into her heart -- and into Jack's lies andshadowy secrets -- for evidence that will condemn or redeem the man she has come to love.


My Thoughts: This is my second Jodi Picoult book and this one was just as good as her first one that I read, The Pact. Some of the characters that were in that book were also in this one, but the story was completely different in this one. Dealing with statutory rape charges and second changes, Picoult weaves a story of one man attempting to start his life over while a small, New England town tries to drive him out. The story was fantastic and as a reader, you wanted to believe that Jack is innocent, but you aren't entirely sure. You want Addie to find the peace that she deserves and to move on from the loss of her daughter. You want Gillian and her friends to realize how drastic their accusations can be.


The characters in this novel were fantastic. Picoult creates believable people, people who you root for (even if you aren't sure why). Jack is one of those characters. You don't know why you are rooting for him, but you are. You don't want him to be convicted, you don't want him to have to pay for a mistake that he didn't make. The teenage girls were also well-crafted. They were that perfect mix of a bratty girl clique who think that they know everything without it being too much. The only real complaint that I have about this novel are the passages that reflect back on Jack's past. I just felt like they didn't fit well with the rest of the novel and they didn't add much to the story. Overall, this was a great story, one that I wish didn't have to end. I will continue to read Picoult's novels and look forward to getting another book of hers from the library.

Review: The Pact by Jodi Picoult

The Pact
Author: Jodi Picoult
Published: May 6, 1998
Genre: contemporary fiction
Paperback: 389 pages
Source: borrowed from the library


My Rating: 4 stars


Synopsis (from GoodReads): For eighteen years the Hartes and the Golds have lived next door to each other, sharing everything from Chinese food to chicken pox to carpool duty-- they've grown so close it seems they have always been a part of each other's lives. Parents and children alike have been best friends, so it's no surprise that in high school Chris and Emily's friendship blossoms into something more. They've been soul mates since they were born. So when midnight calls from the hospital come in, no one is ready for the appalling truth: Emily is dead at seventeen from a gunshot wound to the head. There's a single unspent bullet in the gun that Chris took from his father's cabinet-- a bullet that Chris tells police he intended for himself. But a local detective has doubts about the suicide pact that Chris has described.


My Thoughts: This was the first Jodi Picoult book that I've read (and I know that's heresay to some of you), and I can't believe that I have resisted reading her work for so long. I just stumbled upon this book as I was meandering through the library and figured, "Why not give it a chance?" I fell in love with this book within the first few pages and was sad that it had to end. The story is a bit Romeo and Juliet, but so moving that it's hard to put down. The characters are rich and Picoult writes in such a way that you are able to sympathize with nearly everyone of them (the defense lawyer was the only person who I didn't really like). It was just such a good book!


Picoult allows you into each of the main characters lives, showing you what it is like for them to go through this experience. Each character is well developed and thought out and each goes through some kind of growth. I won't go into detail because I would end up writing pages of my thoughts down, but every character is changed by the experience and takes something out of it. While I am disappointed that it took me so long to discover Jodi Picoult, I am just as excited to now read her other works. If you do read her novels, which ones are your favorites? Please let me know!