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3.88 AVERAGE
3.88 AVERAGE
emotional
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Eh, Jodi Picoult. She makes me angry. I feel like her books are written to intentionally provoke people. Is she posing philisophical questions to us readers about our beliefs or culture, or is she merely sensationalizing things? I lean toward the latter, her books are to me what the National Enquirer was to my great-grandmother - eye catching and attention holding, but never really adding up at the end.
I gave Plain Truth 2 stars because it was 'ok.' The story of a dead newborn discovered in an Amish family's barn isn't shocking enough. The local police charge 18-year-old Katie Fisher, an unmarried Amish girl believed to be its mother, with its death. Add a bunch of Amish beliefs with a big-city lawyer, big city lawyer's past love, the murder investigation/trial and you have the story in a nutshell.
There's a big "REVEAL" at the end. I won't discuss it now - I don't want to give it away, but I felt like it didn't really 'go' with the character. And I can't say more than that without giving anything away.
Like with My Sisters Keeper, the ending left me wondering why I'd just read all of that, to only come to the conclusion that was there for me on that last couple of pages.
I gave Plain Truth 2 stars because it was 'ok.' The story of a dead newborn discovered in an Amish family's barn isn't shocking enough. The local police charge 18-year-old Katie Fisher, an unmarried Amish girl believed to be its mother, with its death. Add a bunch of Amish beliefs with a big-city lawyer, big city lawyer's past love, the murder investigation/trial and you have the story in a nutshell.
There's a big "REVEAL" at the end. I won't discuss it now - I don't want to give it away, but I felt like it didn't really 'go' with the character. And I can't say more than that without giving anything away.
Like with My Sisters Keeper, the ending left me wondering why I'd just read all of that, to only come to the conclusion that was there for me on that last couple of pages.
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A very compelling page-turner. A difficult subject matter, but written in a way that you can understand the varying complexities of the situation.
Fabulous holiday read. Had looked for a couple of months for a new book and really struggled to get into a book. But as always I got immediately immersed in Jodi Picoult’s book.
Loved the insight to Amish life, loved all the characters, particularly Katie, Ellie, Coop and Samuel.
Read in St Ives.
Loved the insight to Amish life, loved all the characters, particularly Katie, Ellie, Coop and Samuel.
Read in St Ives.
Loved this book! I like that we got a look into the Amish. I had a feeling the mother was behind it somehow and was glad to see I was right at the end. Still a good read and would definitely recommend it to people.
I really felt for Katie as she was trapped between her Amish upbringing and her love for an English man. It was hard not to like her, especially if you believed that she was not a murderer.
I really felt for Katie as she was trapped between her Amish upbringing and her love for an English man. It was hard not to like her, especially if you believed that she was not a murderer.
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Picoult writes an interesting tale that is gripping from the very first page. One flaw of hers is the way she constantly switches perspectives. Only a few pages in I can tell that I do not like this writing technique.The flashbacks of Katie's visits to her brother, Jacob, at college and her relationship with Adam are very insightful.The flaw in this book is the constant switching between perspectives.The worst part about it for me is that the perspective of Ellie is just simply unlikeable and a great deal of the book is written from that perspective. The character of Katie becomes less likable as the story progresses. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing is entirely dependent upon how you view the ending of the story. The sympathy the reader has for the character Katie is somewhat lost when she finally confesses to basically lying about having been pregnant and having a baby. I think the one glaring inconsistency in the story is that the reader is supposed to believe that Katie isn't capable of sinning(murdering) because she's Amish but yet the reader already knows that Katie can sin. She can have sex out of wedlock. She can lie for months. She can do those things even though she is Amish, so it's somewhat hard to believe that she can't murder as well. The middle of this book when the trial is happening is sort of strange for the reader because while you know that you should be rooting for Ellie and the defense you might actually find yourself rooting for the prosecution.The reason this book earns 4 stars is just because it's such a page turner. There is no doubt that Jodi Picoult is a great writer. The reason this book doesn't quite earn 5 stars is just because I don't like how easily Katie gets off. The whole thing works out too perfectly for Katie. I feel like Katie is painted in such a positive light in the book when she did more wrong than anybody else(cheated on her boyfriend, hid the pregnancy, lied often, had premarital sex). Meanwhile the father, Aaron, is painted in a negative light. Things of that nature annoyed me about this story.