The Tenth Circle

Incredible book. Unfortunately, I received a paperback version (which I already own), even though I ordered a hardcover. Sigh.

Already this year, I've read quite a few novels, and Jodi Picoults "The Tenth Circle" is certainly one of the best so far. From the minute you read the last page and close the covers of the book, the story continues to stick with you, poking and prodding parts of your brain, making you think "What if this were me and mine? How would I react? What would I do?" A quick read, I was able to complete this book in only three days, but the characters have stuck with me for much longer. "The Tenth Circle" tells the story of Daniel Stone, his wife Laura and their 14 year old daughter Trixie. Daniel, who is a comic book artist and stay at home dad, is struggling with the thought of his daughter growing up and away from him, while at the same time pushing away his past which threatens to bubble up and engulf him all over again. When Trixie is raped at a sexually driven teen sleep over, Daniel's anger and temper blend into the new, quiet Daniel. Soon Daniel no longer recognizes himself, let alone his wife and daughter. As the story progresses, we see Trixie's struggle to fit in after she has been so harshly violated. We also see how her accused rapist must deal with the changes that face him. While he feels that he has done nothing wrong, Trixie feels as though he has ruined all she ever had. The character of Jason, Trixie's rapist, is one that I found very hard to hate. In fact, in parts of the novel I found myself sympathizing with Jason over Trixie. While I know that what happened to Trixie was indeed rape, I think her unwillingness to tell the truth made it harder to believe all that she said she felt. With Jason, you see the crumbling of a strong and well built future. You feel his pain as he goes through the motions watching his life fall apart at the seams. This novel focuses on many true to life situations including the rampant use of sexual games by teens, the onset of drugs, and other rather scary situations that face our children today. Read this book with an open mind and remember that our decisions do not only affect ourselves but all of those around us.

This may be Jodi Picoult's new masterpiece. I've read thousands of books and I can't remember ever being affected by one like this story. Many people may have heard the book is about date rape, but that's just the beginning. Jodi doesn't just show how it happens. She takes you there. Kids barely out of middle school, fourteen years old (and in many places even younger) find themselves at parties with no adult supervision, doing drugs, drinking, playing group-sex games with no precautions taken against pregnancy, STDs, or even AIDS. The kids don't know what they are doing; they don't even really know if they want to be doing it. All they know is if they don't do it and look like they want to, the whole school will be ridiculing them the next day. The situation is tailor made for rape, overdose, out of control fights with weapons, fatal car crashes on the way home. This isn't fiction. Every week some story like this is in the papers. A family is devastated, everyone goes to the funeral. And the next week another party. Jodi doesn't just make the point that the system fails rape victims, kids, victims of other crimes, and people who are arrested but innocent. One reason date rape situations are so difficult to prosecute is they arise out of the sort of messy and murky fact situations above. Nobody remembers anything. Nobody is thinking clearly. Kids lie about what happened because they know they can get in trouble themselves. We see the downward spiral of ruined lives and deaths, one after another. You feel what the characters are feeling. You know at what point lives are slashed in two, before and after, with no going back. This is truly a situation with no winners and all losers. Jodi presents every character sympathetically. They all have their faults. Some of them do terrible things. But they are all human beings, and all totally believable. The story starts out emotionally like a grey rainstorm; it picks up speed until the ending hits you like an F-5 tornado. If you read no other book this year, read this one. This woman's talent just keeps building and building.