ORB quarter 2

2nd Quarter Outside Reading Book Review
The pact, Jodi Picoult, Harper Perennial, 1998
Genre: love story

The story The Pact is about two families, Gold’s and Hartes’s, who have been inseparable. Their children, Chris and Emily, begin to start dating which is no surprise to the families. Soon their relationship becomes more serious, until one day Emily gets shot in the head and dies. Through out the book the families try to figure out who really killed Emily Gold. The story takes place in Bainbridge, New Hampshire.

“The Pact is so good that we can’t put it down…suspenseful, intelligently written, topical.” –Detroit Free Press

The writing style of this book is very different than I’ve ever read. Usually I read books that just tell the story in a continuous flow, from beginning to end. In The Pact Picoult changes views between now and then. During the now chapters you read about all the different clues the lawyers are finding out to prove who really shot Emily. In the then chapters you read about how the two families meet and how Emily and Chris’s relationship develops. Picoult puts in so much detail you can picture so perfectly the scene of Emily’s death or even get a feel of how Emily’s parents felt when they heard the news.

“She turned in the same direction, and they bumped noses hard, but then she laughed and it was all right because this was Em. Her mouth was the softest thing he’d ever felt, and he pulled on her jaw to make it open a little, and his tongue ran over the neat line of her teeth” (93).
OR
(I can’t decide)
Chris hugged her and buried his face in her neck. Emily could feel the exertion of his heart and his lungs. She imagined the crowd watching as they embraced. The fact that everyone knew someone like him had picked someone like her was one of the thing she loved about being Chris’s girlfriend” (140).



I have to say that this was probably the best book I’ve ever read. I loved reading about Emily and Chris growing up together, from when they were first born until Emily died. I can kind of relate to this book which makes it really cool. My parents are best friends with the Westbrook’s making me friends with their son, Jamie, just like the Gold’s and Hartes’s. This book had so much emotion in it, between Emily dying and then how much Emily and Chris loved each other. The story always left you wondering what was going to happen next so I couldn’t put the book down. I highly recommend it if you like love stories and mysteries.