This book was HEAVY. And I don’t mean heavy in weight, I mean heavy in drama and sadness and tragedy. For those reasons, it was a difficult and slow read. It deals with suicide, unfair murder charges, tight-knit families, and young love. All of these topics can carry immense weights as individual book themes, so when you have them all together in this one novel, I found it was almost too much to read and digest. The story is nothing less than completely tragic. While reading, I was empathizing with Emily and the heavy feelings she was carrying about her relationship with Chris and her trauma. Chris and Emily spent practically every minute of their entire lives together. We learn that neither of them has memories that don’t involve the other person. I can understand how that can cloud and muddle romantic and familial feelings. I couldn’t imagine dealing with all that at only 17 years of age. I feel saddened that Emily felt that she couldn’t be honest with her parents or with Chris. It is heartbreaking that she felt the only way out was through suicide. Emily states:

I’m too much of a coward to kill myself. And too much of a coward to live.

Jodi Picoult, The Pact
I know that mental health and suicide is a very real and prevalent issue in society, especially amongst young people. Even though this book was first published over 20 years ago, the themes of it still relate and can be understood today. After reading it, I don’t believe that Emily wanted to die. I think she felt it would be harder to keep on living. Harder for herself, harder for Chris, and harder for her family. I feel immense sorrow and pain for anyone, fictional or real, who feels that suicide is their best option.

I enjoyed the writing style and language of the story. Even though the timeline goes back and forth between past and present-day, it is easy to follow and I didn’t get lost about the timeline or confused about the characters and their placement. I certainly was interested in the story and the outcome the whole way through, and the author maintained my interest until the very end. I remember feeling my heart rate increase and the suspense build inside of me at one point as I rushed to turn a page. That’s an experience I often only feel in suspense thrillers or rare books by my favourite authors.