Recently Read: The Tenth Circle

This is the second in a series I've started doing where I just discuss an interesting book I've read recently.  Click here to see my thoughts on To Kill a Mockingbird.

This book is called The Tenth Circle: A Novel by Jodi Picoult, who is my favourite author at the moment.  I can just pick up one of her books and start reading, knowing I'll enjoy it without knowing anything about it.

The basic plot line to this one is about a 14 year old girl who is raped by her ex-boyfriend at a house party, however no one believes her and thinks she is just making it up to get revenge on him for breaking up with her.  She is driven to self-harming and evens attempts suicide.

In Picoult's books there are always more than one protagonist so each chapter is from a different point of view, the girl, her mum, her dad, the detective, even the mother's lover at one point too!  This way you get a lot of different perspectives, but it also keeps you thinking, trying to work out the truth for yourself.

Then of course there is the twist... I won't give it away as it came as a huge shock to me!  Especially as Picoult's twists always come in right at the end - if you have seen/read My Sister's Keeper by her then you will understand! - whereas this one was a lot earlier, more in the middle.  There is another one at the end too but I had kind of seen it coming, and it was connected to the first twist; the first one was definitely the biggest surprise!

One thing I love about Picoult's novels are that she often includes a minority community into them somehow, and I just love reading about their lifestyles and how they differ to our own.  The ones that come to mind are the Amish, Native Americans, and in this one Eskimos (don't worry I have checked, that is completely politically correct!).  She brings it into this book as the girl's father was brought up in a Yupik (an Eskimo tribe from Alaska) community and his childhood is often referred back to throughout the book.  How accurate these descriptions are I do not know, but I'm sure she does her research!

Overall, this wasn't my favourite Picoult novel (I love the ones with lawyers for some reason!) but it wasn't my least favourite either.  If you liked My Sister's Keeper you will probably like this too, although I will warn you now, it is very creepy at the start with sexual references, especially when you remember they are only 14, ahhh!!

Please excuse my writing style, I feel it's still a bit higglety pigglety but I do do maths at uni, we don't write, pffft!!!!  Hopefully it will improve with time, thanks for reading :)

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