Salem Falls
Customer's review
A modern-day Crucible?
A story of lies, betrayal, sexuality, predjudice and of course, love.
Jack St.Bride moves to Salem Falls after being released from prison for a crime he didn't commit, hoping to start over. Addie Peabody (weird last name...) is getting by, dealing with her achoholic elderly father, her eccentric staff and the death of Chloe. Then, there's everyone else...
While it's slow to start, you soon get sucked into the intertwining lives of all the difference characters, including a quartet of girls, Chelsea, Whitney, Jill and Meg, who have a dark secret, and Jack is caught in the middle of it.
While it was a very entertaining book, I couldn't help but feel somewhat irratated with Addie. Everything seemed to happen to her, and I felt that she was boring and created to induce sympathy. Meg and Jill also irratated me a bit, but for different reasons. One thing about Salem falls is the constant plot-twists, including a shocking on right at the end that will leave you thinking.
Entertainment
This being the sixth novel I have read by Jodi Picoult I have become very familiar with her chosen format for a novel, in which lawyers and moral dilemmas feature strongly. It may be that her novels are a little predictable but the format works and I enjoy reading them. After all that is what it's all about, entertainment.
Salem Falls is no exception, this time the themes are rape and witchcraft. The protagonist Jack St Bride has the unfortunate experience of not once but twice being accused of rape after becoming the object of teenage girls' fantasies. The first time it happened there was no escape as the tension between truth and fiction drove events along. As a man having wrongly served a prison sentence he arrives in Salem Falls and tries to make a new life for himself with the help of Adie Peabody. He is noticed by a group of teenage girls in Salem who are experimenting in Wicca, a witchcraft religion. He has a very strong effect on Gillian Duncan a very troubled teenager who is their ring-leader and it is her he is wrongly accused of raping. This time though he has more support and one hopes that truth will win the day. Read the book to find out though, in fact the ending left me feeling very sorry for Gillian with Amos Duncan as her more than controlling father!
Another fab, engrossing novel from Jodi Picoult
An interesting take on what it's like to be an outsider starting afresh in a new, small town, trying to escape an unhappy recent past, and what happens when that past becomes public knowledge, and seems to be happening all over again.
Salem Falls is very enjoyable and an engrossing read, I have read a few of Jodi Picoult's novels now and find them all enjoyable, and difficult to put down once started! I like the way that the author deals with the present time, and also intersperses chapters of past events so we start to gradually build up a fuller picture of some of the main characters, a technique which she uses in other novels too.
I like the way that the gentle, loving relationship is developed between Jack St Bride and Addie. The writer tackles rape, abuse and even witchcraft in this work.
A talented author writing accessibly about often very difficult and/or topical issues.
So disappointing!
I have really enjoyed all the Jodi Picoult novels I've read so far, but this one was very disappointing. In the past I've loved the way she takes an "issue" (date rape for example) and puts it in the context of a thought-provoking and gripping story-line. However, too much of this was unbelievable, from the underage sex trial, to his experiences in prison, getting a job at the diner, the witchcraft. I felt I was being expected to swallow too much that was simply incredible and accordingly failed to empathise with the characters. Read her other books, not this one!
un-put-downable
This is the only J.P. book I have read ,and it makes me want to read more. It's engrossing from start to finish. Unlike one of the other reviewers, I didn't guess the real truth behind one of the pieces of evidence and so the ending carried the intended shock.
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