The Pact by Jodi Picoult

The Pact by Jodi Picoult

Jodi Picoult is the Colleen Hoover of the 90s. Popular books, mainly because they are emotional rollercoasters, with mediocre writing. The Pact is billed as a love story. It’s not. It’s about a toxic relationship that everyone except the dead girl thought was amazing. There are a couple flashbacks, one when the main characters were 9 and one when they were 13 and 14, where they don’t act remotely like the age they are supposed to be. The nine-year-olds act more like 13 and 14-year-olds and the 14-year-old acted more like he was 9. The lawyer’s son being all impressed that his father was bringing woman after woman to their apartment was also not at all believable. He was 13. He’d have been completely grossed out thinking about (and hearing) what his father was doing with those women. The courtroom part got a bit tedious. It was odd that the dead girl’s mother’s character was never really developed. You’d think she’d be important, but she was pretty much a non-entity (except when destroying evidence, something that is never mentioned again). It does give a bit of a snapshot of 1997, though, and the way teens felt pressure to never say the word suicide because you might give someone the idea. Also, the book reminds us that rape culture was so much worse back then. All in all, it wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t great either. If you like emotional rollercoasters and don’t mind plot holes, you’ll enjoy The Pact.

3 (out of 5) Stars
Books Read in 2022: 107
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