The Pact (a love story)

The Pact (a love story) by Jodi Picoult

This is my second time through this book but I really love Jodi Picoult's way of taking twists and turns and tackling timely and touchy issues.

Chris and Em grew up in each other's pockets. Both families always expected them to eventually fall in love and get married. Their last year of high school begins and their futures seem right on track. They have been in a relationship since their early teens. They each have a bright future with their individual talents. To all eyes looking in, they seem like the perfect couple with more maturity than everyone else their age.

Then in the middle of the night their parents are awakened with a phone call sending them screaming to the local hospital. Chris is injured and Em has been killed by gun shot. What seems to be a random act of violence or an accident becomes what one family believes to be a murder and the other a suicide pact gone awry. The families of Chris and Em have been like family to each other. Now with one child dead and the other alive the neighbor's relationships are ripped to shreds.

We learn about Emily through those left behind......everyone of them telling the story of the person they thought they knew. All leading up to the terrible truth about how and why Em died.

Picoult again makes me ache for her characters. Even though this story is tragic I still feel like it was a love story. I feel for the parents and most certainly for Chris. How will they ever move beyond this pivotal moment that spun their lives in a direction they never saw coming?

Rating 4.5 A shocking emotional roller coaster. Loved it, but didn't feel as much for the parents as I did for Chris. I know I shouldn't be judging them because who knows what I will really know about my kids when they get older? But at some points in the book I really disliked the mothers, especially Em's.

Rating R Teen sex, sex, sexual abuse (which leaves me shuddering and forcing my kids to avoid public restrooms to this day), and suicide/gun violence.