Perfect Match (Spoiler Alert)

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.

House Rules 2

I started "House Rules" by Jodi Picoult a while ago and over time I have been most interested in how the main character's little brother "Theo" has developed throughout the story. Theo is the little brother of Jacob. Jacob has Aspergers disease and it makes Theo's life really difficult. But until the middle of the story Theo was really able to hold himself together, more or less. Then when his brother is arrested for murder Theo kind of loses it and runs away. You hear parts of the story from Theo's perspective so you see how he feels while things are happening to his family. I pitied Theo more and more throughout the story. There was a scene I just read where Theo goes to meet his birth father and breaks down and starts crying and explains how he wanted to show his dad that he was the man of the house who was holding everything together but he was just so stressed out and tired and upset that he cracked.

I think that when things go wrong in this family the one who can't get rid of the guilt or the pain is Theo because Jacob doesn't mind what other people think because he doesn't interpret their social ques as being harsh or mean. Theo on the other hand does notice these kinds of ques and is hurt by them. Before Jacob was wanted for murder Theo was just a mostly normal teenage boy on the outside. From what I heard it seemed like Theo tried pretty hard to keep Jacob out of his life and it sounded like he had been successful. When the trial started Theo had to leave his high school and be home schooled instead, he had to be the one to go shopping, he had to take money out from the bank account. He had to do everything that needed to be done outside of the house because Jacob was under strict house arrest and his mother needed to stay with him 24/7 in order to keep him out of jail. I think that this made Theo grow up very fast because it was putting a lot of responsibility on his shoulders and I don't think he was ready for it.

Theo started off as teenager with a life that was harder than most and has developed into the man of the house who has everything on his shoulders. The change happened quite suddenly and I don't think that he is ready for it. But he doesn't have much of a choice. He is now the only person in his family who can get things done since his brother is disabled, his mother is always busy with his brother, and his dad left when he was really little. I can only hope that as the book goes on Theo's back doesn't break with the weight of so much responsibility all piled up on him.

Izzy Blog Review

When I was looking for one to respond to I noticed that Izzy's Blog Post had been on the same book that I was reading. Izzy's post was on "House Rules" by Jodi Picoult having just started that book I agree with the points that she made. 

I felt really bad for the mother of Jacob and Theo because of everything that she was put through. It must be really hard to raise a kid with aspergers and on top of that have to raise another child as well. She was under appreciated and all she did was for her children. Part of the story was from her perspective and you could see that she had ambitions that she was never able to live out because of her kids. another thing that I saw that Izzy didn't mention was this scene about the mother not thinking about herself. It is the scene where the police officer comes to their house to ask them about the murder of Jess. The mother, Emma ends up talking to the officer and he comments on how much Jacob knows about forensics, Emma says "Tell me something I don't know." then the officer says "You have really pretty eyes."  I thought that this really highlights how the mother doesn't even think of herself anymore. 

I felt much worse for Theo than I did for Jacob or the mother because he was at a tough point in his life and he was fully aware of what people thought of him and his brother. I agree that Jacob ruined a lot of things for Theo and that he never lived up to the big brother expectations that Theo had for him. 

Also, Jacob is really smart and has an interesting perspective but I didn't really connect with him the same way that I felt bad for Emma and Theo. The only time that I really got caught up in the parts of Jacob's narration is when he began to talk about Jess. I thought it was so sad that he was in love with Jess, or at least assumed that he was, because Jess would never really feel the same. I was surprised that Izzy didn't mention this in her blog because it was a big part of the story, maybe she just hadn't reached that point of the book yet. It is a really interesting part of the book and I think that as a reader it was interesting and really gets you to pity Jacob. 

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.