Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Plain Truth by Jodi Picoult

This is the third Picoult book I've read. As with the others (Salem Falls and My Sister's Keeper), it was a quick, easy, and engaging read. A young Amish girl has a baby in the middle of the night without anyone knowing she was pregnant. The next morning, the baby is discovered dead in the barn and not hidden very well. The girl is the main suspect and put on trial for murdering her baby. In the middle of all of this, a high powered attorney from Philadelphia goes to her aunt's house in the country to relax and reevaluate her life. She ends up wrapped up in the Amish girl's life as her friend and attorney. Forced by the court to live with the Amish family, she spends months getting used to their beliefs and way of life, while building her case to defend the Amish girl.

The book is strong in character development. I felt the story was good, but did slow down in a couple sections. Maybe it was a little longer than it needed to be. And the ending was not too earthshattering. But I found learning about the Amish way of life interesting. And even though this is a fiction book, I take to heart that the author did her research and is protraying their world accurately.

3 comments:

allisonmariecat said...

Oh, this sounds cool. I love learning about something new (like the Amish culture) when reading fiction.

Trish @ Love, Laughter, Insanity said...

This is my sixth Picoult book and I'm starting to find that the characters all blend together--which is a little disappointing to me. I loved My Sister's Keeper, Keeping Faith, and The Pact, but even the characters in those books can kind of mesh with similar characters across the board. Maybe I just need to give it some time before the next one. :)

And, yes, I think Picoult takes great pride in "knowing" her subjects, which I really appreciate as a reader. Sorry to gripe--Picoult is one of my favorite authors regardless if the characters seem a little interchangeable :)

Jordyn said...

Really? I found the ending pretty earth-shattering... not the end of the court case, but the END END. Surprised the heck out of me.