The Pact: A Love Story

by Jodi Picoult | Literature & Fiction | This book has not been rated.
ISBN: 006085880x Global Overview for this book
Registered by BCinDC of Washington, District of Columbia USA on 3/31/2011
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3 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by BCinDC from Washington, District of Columbia USA on Thursday, March 31, 2011
Members of BCinDC picked this up at The Book Thing of Baltimore, Inc.

Journal Entry 2 by crrcookie at Washington, District of Columbia USA on Friday, April 1, 2011
BookCrossing books are more interesting as they get more journal entries and I often pick up additional copies of books that I know I have read before so that I can journal the books and then release them.

Here are the comments as I wrote them in May 2006:

Well, I finished the book. It was a pretty good page turner so it didn't really take all that long. I am going to put my spoiler comments in white they can be read if you highlight the area that looks blank with your mouse.

******************SPOILER ALERT*********************


I am not really sure that I had any expectations from this book so I can't really say if I was disappointed or not. I found this writing style to be easier to read in that it didn't change voices so drastically as often and it was pretty clear what was a flashback and what was not.

There were some discussion questions in the back of the book and I thought that I would touch on a couple of those for comments about my views on the book.

1. How do you feel the extended family environment created by the Hartes and the Golds affected their children? Did it contribute to Emily's suicide?

2. Is there such a thing as being too close to another non-blood family member?


I think that these two questions can be answered together. Chris and Emily grew up as close as any brother and sister ... if not closer. And I think that greatly contributed to Emily's suicide because of her feelings that it was wrong to be with Chris sexually and her feelings of a more sibling like love. It was in her mind almost incestuous and becoming pregnant would have a tangible proof of their behavior that I don't think she was ready to face.

I think that by being as close together as any two families could be and with all the time that they spent together was a little over the top and perhaps could have foreseen the conflict later between the teenagers who were expected to get together in the end.

5. Is Emily correct in believing she had no alternatives to suicide? Explain.

I think that Emily had other options but that she didn't want to talk to her parents or other support people to help her see her options. She was not an open person preferring instead to keep things inside her and I think it finally destroyed her from the inside out. Perhaps if she had gotten help and healing long ago from the molestation that happened to her she would not have felt so horrified by Chris touching her. Perhaps if she had not been so against the sexual relationship with Chris then she might have not felt so trapped and alone by the pregnancy. However, since we can never truly know the things that went on in Emily's mind we may never know all her motivations and thinking as she thought out her suicide.

11. Is the punishment that is meted out to Chris just? In your opinion, is Chris guilty of murder?

I found it horrible that Chris had to go to jail before being proven guilty especially with the circumstances as they were first presented of the double suicide scenario. I think that Chris's jail time did him as much harm as good and it seems like such a waste that he had to be there when the result of the trial was not guilty.

I do not believe that Chris is guilty of murder however, with him knowing that Emily was suicidal and providing her with a weapon to use on herself that he should have been found guilty of some kind of negligence charge. He should have told the families what Emily had been discussing so that help could have reached her before her life was over.

*********************Interview with Jodi Picoult*************************


A question was posed to the author if she knew what would happen at the end as she wrote the book. Her response stated that she knew the book would end in a trial but that she didn't know what the verdict would be. And then this statement: "I actually think that he should have been convicted ... but I didn't write it that way because the book was so full of heartache and sorrow that I envisoned the readers sending me hate mail - the novel called for an uplifting ending, if you can call it that."

Until I read this interview I was myself pleased with the verdict. I really wanted Chris to be found not guilty because I felt that the loss of Emily was punishment enough and I don't believe that he is a danger to anyone in society. I think that I was half expecting the verdict to come back guilty just to spite me and make me angry. I think that I agree with Firegirl in that the book would have ended a lot better if we would have been privy to some of the jury's deliberations. However, I do think that there was enough reasonable doubt presented about the events of the evening that the jury had no choice but to find not guilty. In fact, Chris himself really doesn't know what happened on that night ... how could anyone else know for sure?


Well, I have probably rambled on long enough. I hope that others will write more comments about this really great and thought provoking book.

This author is scheduled to attend the National Book Festival in September and I plan to release this book there in hopes that it will find one of her fans that have come to the festival to see her.

This book will be released at the 2011 BookCrossing Convention.

Journal Entry 4 by UnwrittenLibra at Baltimore, Maryland USA on Sunday, April 17, 2011
Found at the Book Buffet at BCinDC 2011 in Washington, DC and brought home with me - had an amazing weekend!

Journal Entry 5 by UnwrittenLibra at Madison, Wisconsin USA on Monday, July 10, 2017
Sending off tomorrow to a BCer in Canada. Go book go!

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