The Pact | Jodi Picoult
Title: The Pact
Author: Jodi Picoult
Year of Publication: 1998
Number of pages: 480
Why I chose it: it's one of two novels by Jodi Picoult I bought after reading and loving Nineteen Minutes. From the selection the bookstore had that day, the summary at the back of this one impressed me the most.
Do I recommend it? It's hard for me to look at this novel individually, having read a few others by Picoult. It's quite possible I would have looked at things differently had it been her first novel I'd read, but the fact remains that it isn't my first one, and therefore I liked it, but it didn’t strike me as amazing. I guess it's all a matter of taste and timing, but sure, read it. It's one of her better novels (something I couldn’t say about Handle with Care).
As I said before the cut, this is not the first novel by Picoult I've read, and so I got used to her formula by now - a shocking incident, an even more shocking accusation, a trial and a striking truth revealed and changing the whole course of said trial, all in a sequence of past and present intertwined as the plot unfolds. Whereas it's a rather gripping plot scheme in an individual novel, as one reads one Picoult's novel after another, it gets tiresome and repetitive.
Similarly to the other novels by Picoult, this one also starts with a bang, literally this time, when seventeen year old Emily Gold points a gun to her head with the intention of killing herself. But is that really her intention? Only two people know the truth - Chris, Emily's best friend turned lover, and Emily, who is now dead, and cannot recount her tale. Since Chris has been found alive at the scene, the question remains: is Emily's death a murder or a suicide?
Despite the rather tedious plotline, I quite enjoyed this one. Sure, there were a few predictable paths, but they were balanced with some twists and surprises. There were a few things that were left unexplored, which I found upsetting because I think they were too interesting to skip. Then again, there's only so much you can put in a novel. I guess she didn’t want it to get too busy, which I can understand. I was quite happy with the ending. I read it on the bus, and had the biggest smile on my face as I reached it. Also, the flow of the plot as well as the characterization were as faultless as always. Picoult certainly has a gift for depicting characters complex enough for one to loath or sympathize with. Chris Harte, the main male character, definitely goes into my 'fictional characters I'd be happy to elope with' list. You can't help falling in love with the boy.
Overall, The Pact is one of Picoult's better novels, in my opinion. No matter which book by her I read, her writing is always thorough, and one gets the impression she really knows her stuff as far as research goes, and doesn’t write just to get things over with. I really admire this trait in her. I just wish she'd break out of her safe formula because no matter how good an author she is, after a while, it simply gets boring.