Capture Salem Falls By Jodi Picoult Disseminated As Paper Copy

not a likely candidate to read a sitelinkJodi Picoult book, I have to admit that I've always been a bit of a snob when it comes to the books that my Mom read,

She was a big fan of mysteries, but nothing classic no sitelinkChristie or sitelinkDoyle, very little new or challenging no sitelinkSteinhauer or sitelinkRankin, and practically nothing genuinely pulpy no sitelinkLeonard or sitelinkChandler.
She always preferred the uberpopular stuff and was a massive fan of sitelinkJames Patterson and his peers, having to go out and buy the books from his mysterymill in hardcover they day they were released.


And that's where the snobbery comes in, I tried a couple Patterson books early on, but his work is basically crap, so when my Mom discovered Jodi Picoult, adding Picoult to her list of favourite authors and telling me I should read her, I mocked my Mom's taste and avoided Picoult with an internal snicker.


But then my Mom died last month and my Dad asked me to go through her bookshelves and take anything I wanted, And there was Jodi Picoult,

Now this probably wouldn't have been enough to make me grab a stack of my Mom's Jodi Picoult books, but two other moments pushed me over the edge.
First, I bought my Mom Jodi Picoult's sitelinkWonder Woman: Love Murder for Christmas, I found it during a random book store browse and thought it would be a good way to introduce my Mom to graphic novels second, I read a recent article by sitelinkStephen King that was talking about the merits of some of our most popular novelists, praising both sitelinkRowling and Picoult while damning sitelinkStephanie Meyer raise a cheer! and Patterson.
I am not a big fan of King's fiction, but I do enjoy his essays on popular culture and literature, so his opinions are close enough to mine to take as advice.


So I added the Jodi Picoult books grudgingly to my haul and put sitelinkSalem Falls a random selection straight onto my toread soon stack.


I finished sitelinkSalem Falls last night and I can say that I was completely surprised by how good it actually was and disappointed by how good it wasn't.


Picoult is a good writer, She has serious chops. She balances multiple characters with the speed and grace of an excellent screen writer I'm not talking about screen hacks here, giving us vivid scenes that tell the tale quickly and move on to the next important scene with no meaningless lingering.
Her dialogue, though occasionally cliche, is believable and serves to make every character an individual, And her use of flashback to tell us bits and pieces about her people is superb,

I was sold on sitelinkSalem Falls by page ten, and she held my attention right to the end, I didn't expect that.

Even with Stephen King's praise, I was ready to scoff at Picoult's work, but she really impressed me, Until sitelinkSalem Falls shifted from an interesting story about interesting people to a boring Law and Order style courtroom drama,

And it didn't have to do that,

By the third act, Picoult gave up the creativity that was making sitelinkSalem Falls a compelling read and took the conventional way out, which is a shame because the unconventional would have been so much better and realistic.
You see, Picoult gave us all the information we needed to know the ending which was a good one early in her novel, A good reader, paying close attention, knows exactly what's going on, The problem is that her characters, smart people all and brilliant in some cases, have the same information and never see what's happening,

So we find ourselves waiting to see how the "truth" is going to come out and save Jack St, Bride, how it's going to make the trial meaningless, how it's going to save people's spirits and the bodies of some young women, but we are let down because, apparently, the smart folks in sitelinkSalem Falls aren't as brilliant as the folks reading about them.


Usually I would be a fan of people not being saved because in real life, more often than not, that is the case, People aren't saved. People go on in pain, People live with abuse that doesn't end, People hurt. And when authors are brave enough to let that happen I am generally full of praise, I would have been in this case too, had Picoult employed dramatic irony, But she didn't. There was no pertinent information we had that was withheld from the characters, They had the same access to information that we did, and they were oblivious, And I was left disappointed,

I wanted more from Picoult, and she promised more in the first two acts only to fail us in the third still, she did enough to win me as a fan albeit it a mildly skeptical one.


I will definitely read her again, I just hope she doesn't continue to exceed my expectations only to dash my hopes, There is only so much of that I can take, This book presents a story filled with feeling and truth telling a complicated tale filled with mistakes and misunderstandings and interwoven with a storyline about Wickens Teenage witches Sure.
. .
Initially, I was a little sceptical at the blending of these two things a story about a wrongfully accused high school teacher who, having left prison and gone to a small town, again gets charged with rape and a group of teenage girls who practice magik.
But, Picoult was able to work these two concepts into a story, and a good one at that, that is about much more than witches and rape it's about identity and finding one's self, about love and acceptance, and about how people should not be judged by their pasts because the truth is not always there on the surface.
I'm not sure what else to say, but God, that ending was something, Prior warning I'm writing this review atam having just finished this and I'm both a tad confused as to how the author of Sing You Home could have written this and pretty peed off.

Anyone else a little tired of books about rape ending up with the poor, handsome white boy being innocent Especially when it was clear Picoult was a little bit in love with him, describing his features and his wonderful personality and his pointless subplot about enjoying Jeopardy.
To be accused twice of sexual assault and be innocent of both is a little beyond the realms of believability as well, especially when a flashback to Jack's past revealed him to be quite the predator/condoner of sexual assault in his college years.
What was the point of that flashback if not to cast doubt as to his moral character Or were we supposed to consider him an awesome hero for eventually making them stop.

This is similar to my issue with the characterisation of Charlie who nonchalantly admitted rape to his victim and then apologised as though that is actually something acceptable we should be commending him for apologising for Like I actually felt sick reading that knowing he wasn't ever going to be punished and she wasn't holding grudges against him.


The ending seems to have been incredibly obvious to most and admittedly I didn't see it coming despite usually being a plot guessing detective but.
. . I just felt a little bit sickened that that's how she chose to end the novel with no explanation like, . . Gillian has been getting abused for years by her father Why spend the entire book trashing her character and her morals to then tell us that I don't care about Jack and Addie's boring ass heteronormative happy life when I know there's a rapist working in the police force and a young girl is in an inappropriate relationship with her father.

I'm just not sure what Jodi's intentions were with this book I had her down as perhaps being a bit of a feminist but I'm both disappointed and nauseous.
A boring and generic romantic plot from nowhere doesn't take away the poor handling of a serious social issue,

Nem tudo é o que parece! I said after my last Jodi Picoult read Small Great Things that I was getting a bit sick of the Picoult Formula and would have taken a loong break from her books if I didnt already have Salem Falls waiting to be read.


I was right that is wasnt just that I had read several books by her in the last year as to why I didnt like SGT having read this much earlier book for comparison, she definitely has become complacent in her writing and lays it on waaaay too thick.
Vague symbolism city, that one!

But anyway, this is supposed to be a review of Salem Falls! While symbolism and metaphors are still rife throughout, they are much more well done and spaced out in this book, which was definitely welcome.
BUT, it follows her same winning formula which unfortunately makes it very predictable, and has her signature twist at the end which this time I could see coming from a mile away, so it was very tedious at times.
There were also some things that I really didnt like about it for instance, the flashback to Jack and his college soccer team and their bonding activity.
People whove already read it will know what Im talking about, What the actual fk was that! Made me so mad! I kind of wanted him to be found guilty because of that st, Gah!
But anyway, overall it was still much more enjoyable than SGT,

This is my sixth Jodi Picoult within the last,years or so and now Salem Falls and there are still a few books by her that I would like to one day read Lone Wolf, Plain Truth and The Tenth Circle, specifically, but I know that if I am to have any chance of enjoying them then I will have to wait at a year or two.
Officially done with Picoult for a while, This is one of Jodi Picoult's best novels and one of my favourites, Perception is reality in this chilling tale of how one man can be condemned not once, but twice, It is a compelling and thoughtprovoking read, The author deals with the controversial subject of the novel with perfection, providing plenty of unexpected twists and turns along the way, The characters are appealing, believable and welldeveloped, I fell in love with the characters of Addie and Jack, Salem Falls is an incredibly wellwritten novel which will keep you gripped from beginning to end,

A well deserved five!
Among the contemporary writers, I also read recently 'Salem falls' by Jodi Picoult, What I liked about her is: she does not expose only the evils of the society she also shows our strengths right next to our frailties,

To give you a few examples of the positives in her book:

In the opening scene, I'm touched by the compassion of the taxi driver, who picks up Jack for free, when he is walking down the highway, barely clothed on a very cold day, with no money

then you see the reciprocative acts of protection between him and the woman Addie, right at the beginning, when he shows up at her restaurant

later, you see the dignity of Jack on many occasions

the act of selfsacrifice that Jack does to protect Addie's drunk father

the extent to which Addie goes for helping Jack, in spite of her inner conflicts

the generosity of Wes for Jack, in spite of their rivalry

And, in terms of craft, this is an author who keeps us uncertain till the end, forcing us to read every line, because you never know how the end will turn out.


I find Picoult has done a great job here, portraying a realistic story, in a way that is a balanced mix of good and bad, where everything does NOT turn out predictably.


Another great writer Ive appreciated is Tony Morrison, Although sometimes I have difficulty following her use of dialects, I think in Shula and Beloved she has really created some great characters, with some vivid descriptions and interior monologues.


I really wish we had some great female writers in France, as you have in America,
.