The Tenth Circle

This was disappointing. It's really rare for me not to finish a novel and even more rare for me to not finish one when I've read and enjoyed other books from an author. Generally speaking, I like Jodi Picoult's writing, and I usually really feel compelled by her characters. Sadly, no so much with The Tenth Circle. I believe in being honest about what I like and don't like, and I did not like this and cannot recommend it.

The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult

I was listening to this today as I was painting and cleaning, and I got to the point where I had to turn it off because it was so blah. Nothing at all compelling about the characters, really. Instead, Picoult used outrageous teenage party antics to try to get the reader's attention, in my opinion, anyway. I've heard of teenage "sex" parties, but I think, like most things controversial and shocking, such events are rare, and I actually believe that including them in the novel was not only unoriginal, but silly sensationalism to "captivate" an audience. I just don't buy it. Obviously that bothered me, and it was probably the reason I chose to turn this off and listen to music instead.

However, there were other things, too, like a lot of pontificating without any real plot. And the pontificating was about extramarital affairs, past bad behavior, teenage cutting, first love/break ups. I'm fine with some drama, but all of it put together added up to, hmmmm, what's the word? Unauthentic. It felt forced, is what I am saying. All in all, just too much drama-rama without any heart or realism to make me feel connected in anyway to what the characters were experiencing.

I'm disappointed, to say the least. I've read other books by Picoult, and while I do think she tends to use manipulative tactics as a gimmick in general, those books were plot driven and the characters had something to offer. I won't rate this, but I would recommend you read something like My Sister's Keeper or Keeping Faith, both of which I really enjoyed. They were far better and more interesting than this. Picoult is a really good writer, stylistically speaking, but this story just isn't the best sample of her work.

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