Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult
Book Title: Nineteen Minutes
Author: Jodi Picoult
Genre: Fiction
My Grade: A
# of Pages: 455
Summary: In nineteen minutes, you can mow the front lawn, color your hair, watch a third of a hockey game. In nineteen minutes, you can bake scones or get a tooth filled by a dentist; you can fold laundry for a family of five... In nineteen minutes, you can stop the world, or you can just jump off it.
In nineteen minutes, you can get revenge.
Sterling is a small, ordinary New Hampshire town where nothing ever happens - until the day its complacency is shattered by a shocking act of violence. In the aftermath, the town's residents must not only seek justice in order to begin healing but also come to terms with the role they played in the tragedy. For them, the lines between truth and fiction, right and wrong, insider and outsider have been obscured forever. Josie Cormier, the teenage daughter of the judge sitting on the case, could be the state's best witness, but she can't remember what happened in front of her own eyes. And as the trial progresses, fault lines between the high school and the adult community begin to show, destroying the closest of friendships and families.
Nineteen Minutes is New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult's most raw, honest, and important novel yet. Told with the straight-forward style for which she has become known, it asks simple questions that have no easy answers: Can your own child become a mystery to you? What does it mean to be different in our society? Is it ever okay for a victim to strike back? And who - if anyone - has the right to judge someone else?
My Thoughts: This book is a hard book to put down because the entire time you're seeking answers. Why? What actually happened? What made it progress to this? Things like that. Things that people asked after Columbine, most recently after Virginia Tech, and after all the other school shootings. Once again Jodi Picoult tackles a sensitive and controversial issue, in an amazingly strong and dignified manner that doesn't have you choosing sides.
She did it to the reader in My Sister's Keeper, where the minute you began to go to one side, she presents something where you're suddenly seeing it all from a different angle. Every time you begin to thing Peter was in the right, an angry and upset parent stands up and says something to make you think again. A writer who can play devil's advocate to her own characters is a gifted writer indeed.
Nineteen Minutes ends with stunning results. We think we know exactly what happened, but as the story progresses and we delve deeper into various characters psyche we begin to realize everything is not what it seems. I don't want to spoil anything, but if you're like me you'll begin to suspect things earlier on. In the end the book will leave you with a feeling of sad hope, a feeling I never knew existed until I finished this book.
I'd say more, but as with other books I've reviewed, sometimes I just have to let the book speak for itself. It's such an amazingly sensitive story, to critique it too much might skew your own opinion going into it. The writing is beautiful, the characters complex and real. That's all I'm going to say, I think you need to find the rest out for yourself.
Next Book: Snobs by Julian Fellowes • review
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Author: Jodi Picoult
Genre: Fiction
My Grade: A
# of Pages: 455
Summary: In nineteen minutes, you can mow the front lawn, color your hair, watch a third of a hockey game. In nineteen minutes, you can bake scones or get a tooth filled by a dentist; you can fold laundry for a family of five... In nineteen minutes, you can stop the world, or you can just jump off it.
In nineteen minutes, you can get revenge.
Sterling is a small, ordinary New Hampshire town where nothing ever happens - until the day its complacency is shattered by a shocking act of violence. In the aftermath, the town's residents must not only seek justice in order to begin healing but also come to terms with the role they played in the tragedy. For them, the lines between truth and fiction, right and wrong, insider and outsider have been obscured forever. Josie Cormier, the teenage daughter of the judge sitting on the case, could be the state's best witness, but she can't remember what happened in front of her own eyes. And as the trial progresses, fault lines between the high school and the adult community begin to show, destroying the closest of friendships and families.
Nineteen Minutes is New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult's most raw, honest, and important novel yet. Told with the straight-forward style for which she has become known, it asks simple questions that have no easy answers: Can your own child become a mystery to you? What does it mean to be different in our society? Is it ever okay for a victim to strike back? And who - if anyone - has the right to judge someone else?
My Thoughts: This book is a hard book to put down because the entire time you're seeking answers. Why? What actually happened? What made it progress to this? Things like that. Things that people asked after Columbine, most recently after Virginia Tech, and after all the other school shootings. Once again Jodi Picoult tackles a sensitive and controversial issue, in an amazingly strong and dignified manner that doesn't have you choosing sides.
She did it to the reader in My Sister's Keeper, where the minute you began to go to one side, she presents something where you're suddenly seeing it all from a different angle. Every time you begin to thing Peter was in the right, an angry and upset parent stands up and says something to make you think again. A writer who can play devil's advocate to her own characters is a gifted writer indeed.
Nineteen Minutes ends with stunning results. We think we know exactly what happened, but as the story progresses and we delve deeper into various characters psyche we begin to realize everything is not what it seems. I don't want to spoil anything, but if you're like me you'll begin to suspect things earlier on. In the end the book will leave you with a feeling of sad hope, a feeling I never knew existed until I finished this book.
I'd say more, but as with other books I've reviewed, sometimes I just have to let the book speak for itself. It's such an amazingly sensitive story, to critique it too much might skew your own opinion going into it. The writing is beautiful, the characters complex and real. That's all I'm going to say, I think you need to find the rest out for yourself.
Next Book: Snobs by Julian Fellowes • review
Back to the Book List.