Name & TGPF
username: Lauren - SapphireDreams
Book title: Picture Perfect
Author: Jodi Picoult
Link to book: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Picture-Perfect-Jodi-Picoult/dp/0340897961/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1281650179&sr=8-1
Book title: Picture Perfect
Author: Jodi Picoult
Link to book: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Picture-Perfect-Jodi-Picoult/dp/0340897961/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1281650179&sr=8-1
Main characters:
Cassie, Alex, Will, Ophelia.
Ideal audience: Adult
Genre: Fiction; based around relationships and amnesia/mental health.
Ideal audience: Adult
Genre: Fiction; based around relationships and amnesia/mental health.
The one thing that confused me about this book is the way
that it's been marketed in the UK: it's one of her most recently published
books (so I think), but is actually one of her earlier works, dated 1995. I
don't know why they're in the order that they're in, but I believe that it's
slightly deceptive to call it a 'new' book of hers.
Blurb: A woman
wakes to find herself in a graveyard, hurt and bleeding, her memory wiped
clean. She doesn't know what she's doing there - or even who she is.
She is rescued by a
police officer, himself a newcomer to Los Angeles. After days of waiting, she
is taken by complete surprise when she is finally identified by Alex Rivers,
Hollywood's biggest movie star - and her husband.
Cassie is dazzled and
bewildered by the fairytale in which she suddenly finds herself. But everything
is not quite right, and there is something dark and disturbing behind this
glamorous facade. It is only as her memory gradually returns that her picture
perfect life comes crumbling down, and Cassie is faced with choices she never dreamed
she would have to make.
Jodi again chooses to tackle a complicated subject which
most people don't think about, or read about but don't really understand. This
time, her novel is about...
**SPOILER ALERT OF SORTS**
...domestic violence and abuse. She writes this book very
well, but it doesn't have the level of depth that some of her later novels has,
which I suppose comes with getting a feel for your own writing and your ability
improving.
Some things confuse me about this book: like how can a
person with amnesia who doesn't remember ANYTHING about herself, even her own
name or family, recognise and remember the names of movie stars and
celebrities. I can tell you, if I had amnesia, they would be amongst the first
to go! I guess that amnesia is complicated, but to me that's one step too far.
Cassandra Barrett is a top physical anthropologist (it
explains what that means but I can't remember exactly. It's to do with bones
and the evolution/development of the human race from a genetic perspective. I
think) who, by sheer coincidence of being in the right place at the right time,
ends up meeting and later marrying the top movie star in America, Alex Rivers.
Her life is turned upside down as she has to deal with the trials and tribulations
of being married to a superstar, as well as his violent and abusive temper when
the press coverage and rumours don't show him in a positive light. But all is
not as it seems, and when Cassie wakes up in a graveyard with a deep head wound
and no idea who she is and where she comes from, she has to try and learn what
brought them together in the first place, and just how she got to where she
did.
Jodi has shown once again how she can take something
sensitive and make it into workable fiction, looking at the emotions and
thought processes of someone in a situation most of us can't possibly imagine.
This one was somewhat slightly frustrating and irritating however; the moment
you learn that she is being beaten, you wonder why she doesn't leave. It's hard
for someone who has never been in that situation to work it out, but regardless
you feel it. I found myself continuing to read for different reasons to normal,
and that was to hopefully see that she gets her act sorted and leaves him. (I
will not spoil the ending as to whether she does or not) Cassie made me like
her, however even with the 'good guy/white knight' Will Flying Horse (Native
American, before you question), I wasn't invited to like them in the same
manner than I am in other books.
It is a beautiful and a very sad book, with an underlying
Native American theme which, unfortunately, frequently feels out of place. The
additional characters such as Will and Ophelia, I believe aren't developed to
their fullest, even Cassie to some extent, and could have done with more.
Would I read it again?: I think I would, if only to
understand the book more and get something more from it that I might not have
got the first time. It is a good and pleasurable read, just not to the level of
some of her others. I would recommend it, but not as a first example of her
work.
All in all: 4/5. A well thought out story, with some
detailed scenarios and a good level of background to understand how they got to
where they did. However, some of the characters often needed more than they
were given, and there is a very poor sense of time moving onwards; it is VERY
difficult to work out just how much time has passed, regardless of the fact
they give you a year of occurrence: did her regaining her memory take 6 days or
6 weeks? This much irritated me, but did not stop me reading until the end.
This does not read like a typical Picoult book in relation
to her later works, but does read with clarity, attention to detail and a very
strong story throughout.
