House Rules

I just finished the book "House Rules" by Jodi Picoult and it really got me thinking;

I found that most of the books I’ve been reading recently are about serious or sad topics. I was reading a book a little while ago about a murder investigation and my Father read the back cover and was slightly shocked that such a book was put in public school libraries. But the truth is most kids our age understand things like this and it is hard for me to find challenging books that do not have disturbing topics. It is not really surprising to me to see a book about a murder, serious disease, abuse, or other difficult topic. I think the topic is part of what makes the book difficult.

I think that while reading about a really suspenseful chase between a child and a kidnapper is really interesting, it can also be hard to read if one of your favorite characters is beaten or hurt. When you get attached to characters it is hard to see them get in trouble, harmed, or even killed. When you are reading a book about sad things you have to be ready for sad things to happen in the story. If there is a story about how a family gets through a death in the family, yes they do get through it eventually but first someone has to die.  I think that it is harder to read a book about a terrible thing. The only thing is that there is a whole other half to it.

It is more interesting to read about a terrible thing. In my experience I learn much more from books about murder trials, people with extreme diseases, or problems with government than I would from a book about the love life of a teenage girl in her summer abroad. I have nothing against romance stories; I’m just not a huge Sarah Dessen fan.

Maybe it’s just me but I find the stories about abusive parents or suicides to be so much more interesting than the books about the true life of a kid in a suburban high-school. I like the complicated scenario, multiple narrations, lot going on everywhere, kind of book.

One of my favorite authors who usually does all of this is Jodi Picoult. Another book about a serious topic that for some reason not everyone thinks of as a serious story is the “Harry Potter” series. I guess the reason behind that is there are funny parts of the story about friendship and growing up, there is also the super evil magician trying to murder the main character. A book about a serious topic doesn’t have to be a complete sob story or a super serious book; it can have some laughs and side topics. That’s part of what makes it a good book.

Mercy

I just started the book "Mercy" by Jodi Picoult. Its interesting but I don't think that it is her best book. Ive read a lot of her other books and I think that this one really just doesn't compare. That doesn't mean that it is not interesting. I think that the author challenged herself when writing this one, its a murder mystery where you already know who the villain is. The only problem is that the villain killed out of mercy.

Its kind of hard to wrap your mind around but here goes, He killed his wife by smothering her with a pillow, which he did because he loved her so much, because she asked him to, because she was in constant pain, because she had cancer and she was going to die in 2 years anyway. So the reason he killed his wife was because he loved her too much to bear to see her in pain and wanted to end her suffering. This part of the book was really interesting, it was the other half of the story that kind of ruined it for me. While this murder trial is going on there is a man named Cameron, he is the cousin of the murderer (James or Jamie). Cameron is cheating on his wife with a woman he just met named Mia. I don't like the way this book is set up because it doesn't fit together.

One of the things that I tend to love about Jodi Picoult's books is that they are a bunch of complex plots and characters that intricately twist around each other but still make sense. Usually at least some of the characters are relatives but there's always some other one with their own story. Usually that story finds  way to fit in with all the other ones, it fits, makes sense, and seems to belong there. Sadly this book didn't have that great connection. The other person in this book is Mia, the other woman. She is an interesting character and she has an intriguing back story but she doesn't really relate at all to the main scheme of things. She is just a pretty woman who happened to catch a married man's eye.

Maybe if the book were centered around something different then it would make more sense. I think maybe the book should have been called "History". That would make sense because of a couple different reasons. One, Mia and Cameron met once in Italy before Cameron got married so they have history, the reflective part of the book is about the history of a Scottish leader(Cameron's father), part of the book is about Jamie's life before he killed his wife, and the actual court case is "making history" because of how odd it is.I think that that would have fixed the issues that I really had with this book.