Perfect Match

Perfect Match by Jodi Picoult is possibly my favorite novel by this author. I have read many, many offerings by her, however this one seems to me to be the most intelligent, most sensitive and furthermore has the most twists. I love the way that this writer leaves me guessing right up to the end, every time. It’s never forced, it’s just a sudden surprise. It’s worth reading her novels even though many of them (like this one) are quite long. The plot of Perfect Match involves a lawyer and her family. She has one little five year old boy. Suddenly she sees him acting out sexual abuse on a toy. Horrified, she makes assumptions and races forward from there. Don’t think you can guess this one. You will be stunned by the ending but it will still come off as real. I loved it.

How far would you go if your five-year-old son were sexually molested? Jodi Picoult takes on this question in PERFECT MATCH, a story that kept me reading all night. Nina Frost, a dedicated prosecutor specializing in child sexual abuse cases, Caleb, a stonemason, and their young son, Nathaniel, are a happy Maine family until Nathaniel suddenly stops talking. What has happened to their gregarious child, Nina and Caleb frantically wonder. The answer becomes clear as Nathaniel exhibits signs of having been molested, but only he knows the identity of his abuser. Using American Sign Language, which he learned from his therapist, he eventually leads Nina to a shocking answer. Nina, who has spent her career attempting to protect children from abusers, flies into a rage so intense that she barely recognizes herself. A mesmerizing courtroom drama then plays out. This is not an ordinary book about a run-of-the-mill trial. It is filled with twists and turns, and all the while, the Frost family is tested. Will Nina, Caleb and Nathaniel exist as a family after the long emotional ordeal comes to an end? And what will that end look like? As she always does, Jodi Picoult makes me think. In PERFECT MATCH, she tackles an uncomfortable subject head-on and in a well-written, thoroughly researched book, she makes me wonder to what lengths I would go to protect my child.

Great delivery, no rips, no folds , no tears . Another great book from a GREAT author.

To be a good writer means you either have to know a lot about a lot of things, have great resources, or a combination of the two. A good attorney is a lot like a good writer, except they learn about the information that pertains to facts of their cases. Having been a juror on a serial murder case involving DNA evidence in 1996, my world was opened up to a fairly new (at that time) way of proving guilt or innocence. It wasn't dry and clinical information; it was fascinating. What was fascinating was the fact that DNA proved that a person, and no other, did an illegal thing, and their DNA proved it. When Prosecutor Nina Frost believes, because of DNA evidence, that someone sexually abused her little son, she does what most mothers would do. In the process, the courtroom drama that unfolds will hold you spellbound. The story that is wrapped around Nina, her son Nathaniel, her husband Caleb, and the other man in Nina's life, Patrick Ducharme, will tug at your emotions and have you realizing things you never thought you would.

Perfect match was a great read with a couple unexpected twists. A solid choice for those intrigued by the way people's minds work.

This is a hard review to write. I would agree with many of the negatives raised in the one and two star ratings: SPOILER ALERT 1. The formula used by Picoult in this book has been used in most of her books and is getting a bit tired and seems lazy 2. Many of the characters are one-dimensional and very unrealistic and Nina is an unlikeable narcissicist with an saint of a husband and a creepy stalker of a 'friend' who has held a candle for her for 30 odd years for reasons that are very unclear. A bit hard to swallow 3. The attempt to write from the perspective of a 5 year old doesn't work. There are a few authors who really capture well what it's like to be a child (The Ramona Quimby series stands out in my mind, can't remember the author) and I don't think Picoult is one of them. Quite unrealistic and in places a bit sickly 4. There would be many other signs that the child was being abused before he went mute (physical signs of rape and presumably the child would have protested a lot more about going back to Mass and his behaviour would have changed markedly) 5. You have to suspend disbelief that this would play out the way it did: the main character's son being a victim of the exact type of cases she tries, the priest's brother (who was selfless enough to donate bone marrow but evil enough to abuse children) coming to town, molesting a boy and then it being blamed on his brother with the same DNA.. 6. The prosecutor's character is half developed and she doesn't really do that until late in the story, by which time you're wondering why we would suddenly care about his personal life. etc. etc. So why did I give it 3 stars? I'm not entirely sure, but there's something about her books. I know I'll keep reading them even though often I find the characters to be one-dimesional and unrealistic and her men particularly seem to be very sickly sweet (at least on the surface) and to do anything for their women. I think it's because she always picks interesting subject matter and builds suspense well. This book covers a very interesting and controversial topic and is readable, but just be warned that it is neither realistic nor particularly well written and there will be times you'll be rolling your eyes over the perplexing relationships and behaviour of the characters.

Nice read

I’ve just started reading Jodi Picoult’s books. I don’t know what took me so long to, but I am hooked!