March 6, 10:19 a.m.

I just finished Nineteen Minutes
It's such a strong, overwhelming story, I can't help but talk about it everywhere :P

It really is so awesome and so, real. That's what I like about Jodi, she makes her books so darn controversial and characters so powerful it seems like I know them out of the pages.

Well, I don't really like to spoil a good read, but I can't help but to spill out all my thoughts on NM. Anyway, it's not much of a spoiler, since the book is really intense in the process and not really the end. But I'm still not revealing the epic end.

I started reading this at 12:00am on Mon >.<
Was so hooked I only slept at 2:30.
It's Wednesday and I'm done!
It's creepy how I cannot put this book down. I was totally addicted to this page-turner. Seriously, I think this book caters to a lot of genres and stuff like how there is romance, family, humour, tragedy, courtroom thrill. The characters are amazing too. The essence of a high school kid and environment is totally captured. The thing is, she makes police officers and lawyers and moms and dads totally relate-able. Each character tugs at your heartstrings until you get tangled in a knot of emotions and thoughts, at the same time, making you hate some people but still be able to relate to them. Amazing woman.

Must you must be warned that the book contains mature content, sexual themes and coarse language. But who cares.

A short synopsis:



In this emotionally charged novel, Jodi Picoult delves beneath the surface of a small town to explore what it means to be different in our society.

In Sterling, New Hampshire, 17-year-old high school student Peter Houghton has endured years of verbal and physical abuse at the hands of classmates. His best friend, Josie Cormier, succumbed to peer pressure and now hangs out with the popular crowd that often instigates the harassment. One final incident of bullying sends Peter over the edge and leads him to commit an act of violence that forever changes the lives of Sterling’s residents.

Even those who were not inside the school that morning find their lives in an upheaval, including Alex Cormier. The superior court judge assigned to the Houghton case, Alex—whose daughter, Josie, witnessed the events that unfolded—must decide whether or not to step down. She’s torn between presiding over the biggest case of her career and knowing that doing so will cause an even wider chasm in her relationship with her emotionally fragile daughter. Josie, meanwhile, claims she can’t remember what happened in the last fatal minutes of Peter’s rampage. Or can she? And Peter’s parents, Lacy and Lewis Houghton, ceaselessly examine the past to see what they might have said or done to compel their son to such extremes. Nineteen Minutes also features the return of two of Jodi Picoult’s characters—defense attorney Jordan McAfee from The Pact and Salem Falls, and Patrick DuCharme, the intrepid detective introduced in Perfect Match.
Rich with psychological and social insight, Nineteen Minutes is a riveting, poignant, and thought-provoking novel that has at its center a haunting question. Do we ever really know someone?



Taken from: jodipicoult.com
Some of you must have gone off to YuFeng's blog or something by now.
FINE. Not that I care. Your Loss :P

I think Jordan McAffe is like the most awesum lawyer ever, I am totally in love with his character, like, to the core. Love his wife and kid too. Amazing family.

I think I sympathise with Peter too. He sounds like somebody I'd totally hang around with. He's a little geek that seeks refuge in the safety of his computer, away from the constant bullying and taunts. He actually sounds like a wonderful person. Not much of flaws mentioned, except probably a little geeky, skinny. But really, underneath the shy, dodgy bully victim behaviour lies a rather gentle and fragile soul.
-insert sad-damn-it-would-be-awsum-if-he-was-real- face here-

Go on roll your eyes.
Except you don't see that that is mirrored in schools,
Oh the horror and cruelty of our world, I'm not talking about wedgies and locker slams [cause that would just be totally impossible in our Singapore schools] 

But what is present in all schools, hierarchy of students, exclusion of others.
And faces of some that are really just masks, for self-preservation, for fitting in.

Because adolescence is not about standing out, it's about fitting in.
And then, when you gets so deep in, you can't get out, no matter how much you hate it.
Because, when you're at the top, when you take one wrong step, you're gonna fall.


Probably impossible again, but how much of bullying, exclusion, how much of anything is going to happen before somebody snaps, before anybody stops it or changes it.
If they can at all.

Agree?

I totally cannot portray it all here. Read it for yourselves and find a friend in Peter, enter the miserable life of Peter Houghton and watch him snap, and feel your heart snap too.