Resumo de The Pact - Jodi Picoult

Write your abstract here.This is easily the best novel that I have read by Jodi Picoult so far.'The Pact' tells the story of the Hartes and Golds, two families who atthe start of the book seem to have it all! They have lived next door toeach other for the past eighteen years, their children have grown uptogether and now Chris and Emily, both seventeen, seem to be a goldencouple! Everything is as good as it possibly could be until everythingchanges one November night.Both sets of parents are called to the emergency department at thelocal hospital where they discover there has been a shooting incident.Emily Gold is dead and Chris Harte injured, apparently as a result of asuicide pact which Emily carried through but Chris couldn't. Bothfamilies are torn apart by grief especially when the police, thinkingthat the events don't add up, arrest Chris and charge him with Emily'smurder. The rest of the story takes us through the falling apart of theparents as each try to deal with the tragedy in their own way, Chris'stime in jail awaiting trial, and then the subsequent trial itselfculminating in the verdict! I won't say too much more of the events asthat could spoil any potential reads.What I will say is that I found this a totally gripping read right fromtha first page. The book is very cleverly written so that you onlypiece together what actually happened right at the end of the book. Thebook is structured in such a way that alternate chapters deal witheither 'now' or 'then'. The first chapter deals with finding out aboutEmily's death but the next chapter takes us right the way back to whenthe Hartes and Golds moved into their houses and Chris and Emily wereborn. I found this worked really well for me as a reader, because itkept me interested in everything that was happening as a consequence ofthe pact, whilst enabling me to find out more about the key characters.There are in fact six main characters in the book, one of whom is Emilyand of course dead. However in the 'then' chapters we find out a lotabout her and the events in her life that might have led her to feelthat suicide was the only option. Then there is Chris who loved Emilymore than anyone else. There's was an almost exclusive relationshipalmost to the point of being unhealthy. Where Chris becomesparticularly interesting is when he is placed in jail awaiting trial.The scenes within the jail are described particularly well, and wesympathise with a (now) eighteen year old boy suddenly having to growup very fast whilst grieving for the girl he loved.The othermain characters are the parents - Michael and Melanie Gold and Augusta(Gus) and James Harte. Once these couples were inseperable, especiallythe two women, but Emily's death put and end to all that. Melaniecannot believe that Emily would take her own life and therefore Chrismust have killed her, whereas Gus is utterly protective of her son,refusing for one minute to believe in his guilt. Therefore it isimpossible for the two women to provide solace for each, when once theywould each have been the first one the other would have turned to,other so both end up isolated without a friend to turn to. The twofathers don't fare any better - Michael is racked with guilt because hedidn't notice that Emily was in trouble, but at the same time, knows inhis heart that Chris loved his daughter too much to murder her. Jameshas a lot of trouble dealing with what has happened, and takes analmost ostrich like approach refusing to talk about and confront whathas happened. All of these characters are absorbing, and as you readyou can't help feeling that the biggest tragedy is how all these liveshave been torn apart and instaed of mutually supporting each other,they are now four lonely people!The courtroom scenes at the end of the book depicting the trial areriveting. There is a little light diversion in the form of Chris'sdefence lawyer, Jordon McAfee and his somewhat disastrous love life.Mainly though you feel you are witncase andburning to know what happened which as I said earlier you only find outright at the end. As I was reading the book, I kept trying to predictwhat might have happened and then changing my mind as other smalldetails were dropped in - it really is that sort of book!When I finished the book, and I did read the last third in one go, Iactually felt emotionally exhausted. I think it is the mark of a goodbook if it can reduce you to tears which this one certainly did me! Onthe back of the book there is a quote from the Daily Mail which states'you will find this novel impossible to put down!' well, sadly, withall my commitments including two children to look after, I did have toput it down, but it was always reluctantly and if I could have justcarried on reading I would have done, so to me, this really was anoutstanding book!

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