October 11, 2012

Read This!: The Pact

By Jodi Picoult

First read from the book fair haul!

The Pact begins with the event that is the crux of the story: the death of a 17 year old girl from a gunshot wound.  Was it part of a suicide pact with her boyfriend or was it murder?   The story focus on two families: the Hartes and the Golds who have lived next door to each other for 18 years.  These two families are intricately involved in each other’s lives, the mothers are best friends, their kids Chris (the accused) and Emily (the victim) have been best friends all of their lives and eventually become lovers (that seems like an adult word to describe two high schoolers but it is what it is).  We see scenes from the past 18 years as well as scenes taking place today with Chris charged with Emily’s murder.
I saw The Pact as a Lifetime movie ages ago so I was not unfamiliar with this story.  However, the book (obviously) goes into a lot more detail about Chris and Emily’s relationship.  I was hooked as evinced by the fact that I read outside of my usual commuting and lunch times and flipped ahead to find out what would happen so it wasn’t a terrible read.  BUT, I do have this one comment (spolier ahead):

So Emily and Chris are BFFs from the day she is born.  At one point Chris states he has no childhood memories that don’t involve Emily. These two families are constantly together, they live next door to each other, holiday together, vacation together, etc.  This is weird to me.  Do these people not have other people they can go and see, siblings, grandparents, parents, etc.?  Aren’t they tired of each other?  I would need a break.  In addition, the parents of these two are constantly making comments about “you two are two halves of the same whole” and how they will get married.  No wonder Emily’s mental state is disturbed with all this pressure to have a relationship with Chris a guy she has brotherly feelings for and that is about it.

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