Courtnie,+Danielle,+Kim,+Olivia+-+The+Pact

Danielle Volpe, Kim Kerekes, Oliva Reyes, & Courtnie Miller
 * The Pact**

The Pact by Jodi Picoult is a great choice for an independent reading book fro many reasons. For one this book is one of Jodi Picoult books she is known to have interesting and suspenseful stories that are very fascinating to all age groups for example __My Sister’s Keeper__ and __Nineteen Minutes__, "… an affecting story of obsession, loss, and some of the more wrenching varieties of guilt. A moving story, mingling elements of mystery with sensitive exploration of a tragic subject."(Kirkus Reviews). This book seems like an interesting page-turner that we would all enjoy reading. This book is about two close families that form a hate for one another after the death of one of the families draughters. The reason they turned against each other was because the son of the other family was the one who killed the daughter. She was shot as a part of the suicide pact, this left the two families devastating and asking questions about what happened, why did this happen, was it out of love or hate? The Pact touches on a ton of psychological issues that interest the four of us greatly. Just by reading the plot summary, we are already hooked. This book will certainly be one that we will leave us with shock and overwhelming sympathy.

Week 1
 * APPROVED**

A - B - C - D -


 * Questions**
 * 1. What did you first think when the book started, who did you think was married?**
 * 2. Whose your favorite character and why?** **3. Would you ever kill someone out of love?** **4. What happened to Emily in McDonalds?** **5. What do you predict about the ending of the book?

Summary: During the book club meeting we discussed that characters in the book, the theme of the book, the setting of the book, and many other things, such as what we think he characters look like, how they feel, and how they react towards others. We talked about who reminded us of certain people. We predicted what we think will happen in the book and we discussed who was our favorite character and why we chose them as our favorite. We also discussed what we would do for love, being that love is one of the main themes in the novel, and betrayal as well. For the next book club meeting we have a lot more to discuss because the book took a very interesting turn.

Week 2 - Language

A - B - C - D -

Discussion Questions: 1. Do you think Chris is innocent? 2. When did he go to jail? 3. What was Emily's mom doing that was unusually? 4. How was Chris's experience in jail?

Summary: Chris is now on trial for supposedly killing his girlfriend, Emily. After the funeral everyone seemed to be accepting the fact that Emily is no longer with them, besides her mother, Melanie and of course Chris. She can't get over the death of her daughter. Chris continuously tries reminiscing about times in his life, and the best times were with Emily. The only way to calm him down is for him to think about his swim meets. On his eighteenth birthday everything was going fine until the Hartes got an unexpected visitor, the police. Chris Harte had to be taken to the county jail and held until the trial date which was six to nine mouths. He was charged with a first degree crime of murdering his girlfriend, Emily Gold. Will the jury side with Chris or will he be spending many more birthdays in the county jail. In jail Chris keep to his self mostly but one of the other inmates in maximum security named Hector started talking to him. Chris didn't want to share his story so he didn't answer Hector, that was a bad choice though, Hector than took out his sharpened razor blade and told Chris he better watch out. Chris was not in jail he was in hell.

Week 3

Discussion Questions: 1. Do you think Chris pulled the trigger or Emily? 2. Do you think the jury will side with Chris? 3. Did he meet anyone else besides Hector in jail? 4. Why was Chris put in isolation for five days? 5. Who is Chris' lawyer for the case and do you think he was a good choice?

Summary: In this section of the book Chris is still locked up for the alleged murder of Emily Gold but he met a new inmate that he became close with, Steve. Steve was in the county jail for murdering his baby son, shaking him so hard that he died. Although Chris didn't want to become too close with anyone in the jail, Steve and him had each other's backs. Hector was not a fan of Steve nor Chris so one day he decided to get Chris in trouble, he planted a prohibited cigarette in Chris' shoe so when the guards came they saw this and he immediately was put on isolation for five straight days with only one hour to shower. He clearly could have snitched on Hector for putting it there but he knew the consequences of that would have been far worse than isolation. Hector was impressed that Chris could keep a secret so he left him alone. Jordan is Chris' lawyer for the case. Jordan will be anything to win the trial and bring him safely home. He was a good choice for a lawyer.

Week 4

Discussion Questions 1. Who came to visit Chris? 2. What was some surprising news about Emily? 3. Where did Chris get moved to in the jail? 4. How is the Harte's and the Gold's relationship now? 5. Was Chris planning on killing himself the night of Emily's death?

Summary: As we shared Countries' delicious homemade cookies we discussed The Pact. Chris is still in jail for the murder but the trial day is coming sooner. Every once in a while Michael Gold would visit Chris in jail. He would just talk to him and see how everything was going with him. Chris was shocked to hear that Emily was 11 weeks pregnant, the jury was going to prove that Chris killed Emily because of the baby but he clearly didn't know anything about the pregnancy. They would not be able to prove that any longer. The Harte's and the Gold's used to be he best of friends but after the incident they became distant and started to hate each other. It was Gus' worse nightmare she didn't just lose Emily she lost her best friend also. Another surprisingly fact that we learned as we read was that Chris was never suicidal he was just planning on trying to convince Emily that she shouldn't do this but in fact he was never suicidal. He couldn't live without her but now he had to.

Questions 1. Was Chris guilty or innocent? 2. Do you think Emily truly loved Chris, to do this to him? 3. How did your feelings change during the course of the book? 4. What happened with Gus and Michael? 5. What did Michael & Melanie do?

Summary: While discussing our book we talked about what we liked and what we didn't like in the book. We liked the way that the book was written. We liked that the book was written in flashbacks and that the author showed how strong the affection was between the two characters. Our group did not like the way the trial was set up in the book. The witness' statements took too long and they didn't seem that necessary.**