~*The Pact by Jodi Picoult*~

4 Stars I find myself often not feeling much sympathy for the characters in a Picoult novel. I found Melanie to be the most unlikable character I have read in a long time. I understand her pain in losing her daughter and I understand that she hated Chris for his part in it but I really feel as if this went beyond her daughter's death. I feel as if Melanie's anger was released after Emily died because of all the resentment and jealousy she felt towards Gus. Gus came into the Gold's lives and kind of took over. As the book said she was a hurricane. Mel wanted to be free sexually like Gus but she could never allow herself. She wanted to be strong like her but she pushed that deep down as well. Part of her knew how Michael felt about Gus as well. I think that was a very big part of the anger and change in Mel. She was a character that you should feel for but you really don't. I feel the same about Emily. We know Emily before she is born so we should be heartbroken at the loss of her but yet we are not. At least I am not. I feel for the thing that happened to her and I understand her in a way. I grew up with my own Chris. I know what it is like to have a life planned out for you from the time you are a child and how you are expected to be with the person forever before you are even six. The thing is Melanie had her chance to break free and chose to to take it. She wanted Chris back and she had him back. She had chances to be open with him, chance to share and she chose not to. She chose instead to *********spoilers read not further******** make this boy she loved, her best friend be a party to her death. She left him to feel the grief and anger. To deal with the after math and in reality she never seemed to feel an ounce of guilt for it.*****Spoilers over******* This is a great character study as most of Picoult's books are and I enjoyed it but I am not sure if this will be a read again.I agree it is better than My Sister's Keeper but not better than Nineteen Minuets. I gave it 4 stars because I figure if she can make me have such strong feelings of dislike for two characters then she is doing something right!