The Tenth Circle

Well I was debating about this giveaway. I was going to skip over this book, as I wasn't thrilled with it and didn't really want to do a "book report" on it and wasn't super excited to pass it on like I have been the last two books I read. So I moved on and started The Lovely Bones, but I'm not making much progress on that one (truth be told, it's all Nertz' fault) so instead of sitting around waiting on that, I thought I'd offer this one up after all.
And in hindsight, this is a good book... it's just not as good as the first two. It's hard to read an 8 when the last two you read were 10's, you know?

Anyway, here it is; The Tenth Circle by Jodi Piccoult. I really like Jodi Piccoult's writing. She has easy reads and good stories. My favorite thus far from her library is My Sister's Keeper. Awesome.
But to get it out of the way, here's what I didn't love about this book, The Tenth Circle:
The story revolves around Daniel, his wife Laura, and their teenaged daughter Trixie... Daniel is a comic book artist. I got a little bored with that aspect of it. Piccoult went into much detail of his projects, the story he was writing, the parallels between his real life and his comic book storyline, and there are pages of his actual comic in between all the chapters of the book. I tried to follow along, feigning interest, but I'm just not into comics, superheroes and villians. So by halfway through the book I felt like those pages were in my way of a good story. No big deal, I just skip over those parts. If you're at all into comicbooks, superheroes or how they're created, you would like this.
Second, Trixie is a teen who's story gets very detailed when it comes to things going on in her teenaged life... at parties and such. As in um, Rainbow Parties, if you've ever heard of that term, and other things of that nature. Along with drinking and drugs and other promiscuity. And let me point out that Trixie is just fourteen years old. Now, I'm not a prude when it comes to books... It's easy to skim over things that I don't care to read. I'm not opposed to sexual things being accounted when they're a part of the picture of the story or in relaying who that person is. But this one bothered me. I know Piccoult was just trying to "keep things real" and I'm sure she felt some of it was needed (okay, obviously she felt all of it was needed, or she wouldn't have written it) to lay the groundwork for the fact that this story is about a rape case. But still, it was disturbing to me. It was like being there; watching these young *young!* teens doing these things. It would have been different if it was about a group of 18 year olds, or college kids... but 14 year olds using their bodies and throwing themselves around like that... it just doesn't sit well with me. I mean I know these things are a reality in our world, but it's just sad and I didn't especially like to have to face it in such detail in the book. At the beginning of the book, no less.

Anyway, so that's all that was negative. And easy enough to get past.
The story itself was good enough. This little family's lives in a small town are turned upside down with a traumatic event (rape -I already gave it away) and things continue to get more and more complicated with new developments coming to light of betrayal, attempted suicide, and a sudden death, all while the three of them are trying to heal, love and become true to not only each other but to themselves and their pasts. In typical Piccoult fashion, you find many insights into human behavior. She touches some interesting and very real dynamics of Daniel and Laura's marriage and also the powerful bond between a father and his daughter.

So. This one is up for grabs... Savannah's had fun helping me draw names for the last two giveaways, and I've had fun passing on a little something fun and free to the lucky readers, so get your name in here! If you're interested in a paperback copy of The Tenth Circle by Jodi Piccoult, and if you leave me a comment by next Thursday, March 6th and if I draw your name, I'll send it right to your door... Passing on the good reads!

*Be sure I either have your email address, that it comes up in your google/blogger profile, or that I at least have a link to your blog so that I can get ahold of you to get your mailing address!

**ETA: Congrats Amy! Enjoy!!**