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A review by popcorndiva
Salem Falls by Jodi Picoult
2.0
*Spoiler Free Review*
Before I start, I do want to say I am a pretty big fan of Jodi Picoult. I read and loved The Pact, My Sister’s Keeper, and Change of Heart. So, I expected to love this book, too. Unfortunately, that just wasn’t the case.
I’ll admit, the first red flag for me was the inclusion of Wicca. I do not practice, but I was heavily intrigued by it when I was younger. I loved what Wicca stood for and I finally thought I found a religion that could work for me. But it turns out I’m not meant to be a religious woman. Still, I am immediately critical of how Wicca is portrayed in books, movies, tv, etc. While I think Picoult did a fair job with the subject matter, I can’t help but feel that this book would leave readers with a negative taste in their mouth about Wicca and Witches.
Then we had a little dose of instalove which was when I decided that I was probably not going to be a fan of this novel. I’ve always loved the way Picoult takes her time to build relationships, tensions, and characters, but that talent was not evident here. I did not see much of a buildup at all for the main relationship in this book, though I did enjoy the small amount of buildup to Thomas’ relationship. I think because I did not connect with the main relationship on the novel, I was much more critical of the characters and their choices.
Let’s just talk about these characters for a minute. To be quite honest, I didn’t like most of them. Selena was charming, but she was a minor character with little attention. Addie was alright, at times. There were moments in the book where I thought “Yes, Addie! You go girl.” But there was significantly more instances where I just thought “Dear God, how could anyone ever think or behave this way?” Jack, oh don’t get me started. Picoult wants us to feel sorry for him and root for him, but I didn’t quite care what happened. I felt like his character was inconsistent from one scenario to another and a lot of his choices did not make sense. But the moment that made me hate Jack was on pages 248 and 249. I really hate that I hated all of these characters. I wanted to feel for the characters, but they were all bland or inconsistent or flat out not developed. For as much time as she spent giving flashbacks to Jack’s life he should have been a very believable and developed character, but instead he was inconsistent and unlikable.
I do have to give credit where credit is due. Jodi Picoult can capture my attention. Her plots are always interesting and while the actual events of the story where predictable; the elements of the story were somewhat unique. Her other novels feature much more unique, not to mention less predictable, plots. Even though I predicted just about everything, I still wanted to finish the story simply because I haven’t seen another book like this. I do want to say the very last thing that happened I did NOT see coming but I also think the last plot twist was unnecessary and just didn’t work. I understand what Picoult was trying to do, but I think that plot twist should have been explored more because to include something like that as the line last on the book seems like a nice way to explain away Gillian’s behavior when you’ve written yourself into a corner. I just wasn’t convinced or shocked. I was more annoyed than anything with that.
So, it’s 2 stars for me. It might have been 3 if I wasn’t experienced with Jodi Picoult’s fantastic writing. But, knowing what this novel could have been just made the letdown that much worse. It’s still a good read for a rainy day, but I wouldn’t really recommend it. If you want to read something by Jodi Picoult I recommend Change of Heart, The Pact, and My Sister’s Keeper.
Before I start, I do want to say I am a pretty big fan of Jodi Picoult. I read and loved The Pact, My Sister’s Keeper, and Change of Heart. So, I expected to love this book, too. Unfortunately, that just wasn’t the case.
I’ll admit, the first red flag for me was the inclusion of Wicca. I do not practice, but I was heavily intrigued by it when I was younger. I loved what Wicca stood for and I finally thought I found a religion that could work for me. But it turns out I’m not meant to be a religious woman. Still, I am immediately critical of how Wicca is portrayed in books, movies, tv, etc. While I think Picoult did a fair job with the subject matter, I can’t help but feel that this book would leave readers with a negative taste in their mouth about Wicca and Witches.
Then we had a little dose of instalove which was when I decided that I was probably not going to be a fan of this novel. I’ve always loved the way Picoult takes her time to build relationships, tensions, and characters, but that talent was not evident here. I did not see much of a buildup at all for the main relationship in this book, though I did enjoy the small amount of buildup to Thomas’ relationship. I think because I did not connect with the main relationship on the novel, I was much more critical of the characters and their choices.
Let’s just talk about these characters for a minute. To be quite honest, I didn’t like most of them. Selena was charming, but she was a minor character with little attention. Addie was alright, at times. There were moments in the book where I thought “Yes, Addie! You go girl.” But there was significantly more instances where I just thought “Dear God, how could anyone ever think or behave this way?” Jack, oh don’t get me started. Picoult wants us to feel sorry for him and root for him, but I didn’t quite care what happened. I felt like his character was inconsistent from one scenario to another and a lot of his choices did not make sense. But the moment that made me hate Jack was on pages 248 and 249. I really hate that I hated all of these characters. I wanted to feel for the characters, but they were all bland or inconsistent or flat out not developed. For as much time as she spent giving flashbacks to Jack’s life he should have been a very believable and developed character, but instead he was inconsistent and unlikable.
I do have to give credit where credit is due. Jodi Picoult can capture my attention. Her plots are always interesting and while the actual events of the story where predictable; the elements of the story were somewhat unique. Her other novels feature much more unique, not to mention less predictable, plots. Even though I predicted just about everything, I still wanted to finish the story simply because I haven’t seen another book like this. I do want to say the very last thing that happened I did NOT see coming but I also think the last plot twist was unnecessary and just didn’t work. I understand what Picoult was trying to do, but I think that plot twist should have been explored more because to include something like that as the line last on the book seems like a nice way to explain away Gillian’s behavior when you’ve written yourself into a corner. I just wasn’t convinced or shocked. I was more annoyed than anything with that.
So, it’s 2 stars for me. It might have been 3 if I wasn’t experienced with Jodi Picoult’s fantastic writing. But, knowing what this novel could have been just made the letdown that much worse. It’s still a good read for a rainy day, but I wouldn’t really recommend it. If you want to read something by Jodi Picoult I recommend Change of Heart, The Pact, and My Sister’s Keeper.