The Pact - Jodi Picoult

The book opens with the death of one of the main characters and gradually through each chapter adds the information required to understand what really happened. I don’t know normally like books that move backwards and forwards through time, but it really worked here. You read the story as it is happening from the gunshot through all the consequences, but you also gain insight into all the characters through the past story, which begins before the two main characters are born and concludes just before the gunshot.

The book has made me think how well do we really know each other. There are so many different parts to our lives e.g. work, school, sport etc that no one other person can know it all. How can anyone really know everything about you? I think this is where the book is successful because if it had just been the present story from the gunshot through the court case there would be a number of gaps and questions, but we understand what the characters were thinking and doing through the past story.

Bookcrossing journal - controlled release