The book "Perfect Match" by Jodi Picoult is about a mother who kills the person who is suspected of molesting her son. The mother, Nina Frost, was a prosecutor who prosecuted against child molesters and abusers and rapists. She has a five year old son, Nathaniel, who she loves with all her heart. When she and her husband, Caleb Frost, find out that Nathaniel was molested it starts a legal battle against the person that Nathaniel named as his molester Father Glen. During the court case Nina buys a gun and shoots and kills the defendant in court. This starts another case with Nina as the defendant. They are pleading insanity at the time of the crime and during this court case it was found that Father Glen, their local priest, was not guilty of molesting Nathaniel. It was actually a visiting priest named Father Gwynne. When Nathaniel named his molester he said "Father Gwynne" but it was interpreted as "Father Glen" because Nathaniel was known to not be able to pronounce his "N"s and Father Glen was the only local priest alone with a name like that. They weren't aware that a Father Gwynne even existed.
The main character in the story s Nina, she is the one who you hear from the most and a lot of the story is from her perspective. It was hard for me to read the book without getting mad that Nina had these two great guys in love with her and she was, in my opinion completely insane. What makes her insane is that she was completely lucid when she held her gun up to the priest's head and shot him four times. I know that at the time that everyone was 99.999999% sure that it was Father Glen that molested Nathaniel, but even then I think it was wrong that she shot him. I think that someone who molests children definitely deserves to die, but in this case I think it was idiotic that Nina was willing to risk Nathaniel growing up without a mother. Especially because Nathaniel was extremely attached to Nina and didn't function well without her.
Patrick Ducharme, the boy next door from Nina's childhood has been in love with her since they were children. But when Patrick shipped off to Afghanistan he was never able to tell Nina how he felt and she met Caleb Frost and fell in love. Patrick would even imagine a future with Nina, he would think that she would finally notice him and realize that she had feelings for him. But then Nathaniel was born and it was clear that Patrick could never ruin the kid's life by stealing his mother away. And Patrick grew to love Nathaniel almost as much as he loved Nina, he thought of Nathaniel as the son that he never had with the girl of his dreams. It's bothersome to me to hear him fawning over Nina even after she murders someone to regain her revenge or justice or whatever her excuse for it is.
Another guy completely head over heels in love with Nina is her husband. Caleb was aware that Patrick is in love with his wife but he never questioned Nina's fidelity and pitied Patrick because he would never had what Caleb had. Caleb is completely thrown off when Nina kills Father Glen and is shocked and takes Nathaniel out of the house because he can't trust her anymore. But then he forgives her and comes back home. Caleb is put in an odd position because Nathaniel is also his son and he knows that he would have been willing to kill to keep Nathaniel safe as well. The difference is that Caleb saw how being convicted as a murderer would also harm Nathaniel. I think that Caleb is much more reasonable when it comes to his reaction to Nina's crime. But in the end he still goes back to her.
I understand that Nina thought she was getting justice but she was wrong and for a while I almost hoped that she would be convicted for the murder because murder is wrong. But there is more to the problem, and its name is Nathaniel. Nathaniel didn't deserve to lose a mother and if she was taken away he would blame himself even though it wasn't his fault at all. Nina definitely deserves to go to prison but Nathaniel doesn't deserve to have his mother taken away. It can be hard to read a book when you can't even decide on your own opinion.
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