About this title: After being wrongfully convicted of statutory rape, Jack St. Bride moves to a small New Hampshire town to start a new life. When a teenaged would-be witch is raped in the woods, Jack becomes the chief suspect in the crime. Soon, the whole town is drawn into a maelstrom of accusations and disturbing revelations.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Edition: Trade Paper
Binding: Softcover--Good
Publisher: Washington Square Press, New York
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9780743418713ISBN:0743418719
Description: Good. No Jacket. Trade Paper Fiction Fiction: Picoult's novel about romance and accusation in a small New England town, plus a teaser chapter from Nineteen Minutes. A pretty good trade paperback edition that is creased on the top outside corner of the rear cover with a note on the inside. read more
Description: Acceptable. Former Library book. Shows definite wear, and perhaps considerable marking on inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Very good. 2002 Washington Square Press Softcover(Trade PB) Edition. Some wear/creasing to cover, text clean with stong binding. Ships Fast! read more
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd., London
Date Published: 2005
ISBN-13:9780340976883ISBN:0340976888
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Reading creases and slight lean to book. 472 p. Includes interview with the author and book club discussion questions. read more
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Washington Square Press
Date Published: 2002-08-06
ISBN-13:9780743418713ISBN:0743418719
Description: Like New. 2002 stated first edition paperback no marks and is in great condition All of our products are cleaned with an disinfectant for your protection before shipping. read more
Description: Good. EXCELLENT value for money and ready for dispatch. Delivery usually within 3/5 days. Our reputation is built on our Speedy Delivery Service and our Customer Service Team. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Hodder Paperback, London
Date Published: 2005
ISBN-13:9780340835531ISBN:0340835532
Description: Good. No Jacket (as published) 5" x 8" Another popular novel from Miss Picoult, some evidence of reading but a clean and sound copy. All orders processed and shipped promptly from the UK, usually within 24 hours. Call or email us with your questions. We do not use stock photographs, the picture displayed is of the actual book for sale. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Hodder Paperback, London
Date Published: 2005
ISBN-13:9780340835531ISBN:0340835532
Description: Good. No Jacket (as published) 5" x 8" Another popular novel from Miss Picoult, some evidence of reading but a clean and sound copy. All orders processed and shipped promptly from the UK, usually within 24 hours. Call or email us with your questions. We do not use stock photographs, the picture displayed is of the actual book for sale. read more
Description: Good. **SHIPPED FROM UK** We believe you will be completely satisfied with our quick and reliable service. All orders are dispatched as swiftly as possible! Buy with confidence! read more
Description: Good. **SHIPPED FROM UK** We believe you will be completely satisfied with our quick and reliable service. All orders are dispatched as swiftly as possible! Buy with confidence! read more
Description: Good. **SHIPPED FROM UK** We believe you will be completely satisfied with our quick and reliable service. All orders are dispatched as swiftly as possible! Buy with confidence! read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Hodder Paperbacks
Date Published: 2005
ISBN-13:9780340835531ISBN:0340835532
Description: Very Good. Fiction. Jack St. Bride was once a beloved teacher and soccer coach at a girls' priv ate school-until a student's crush sparked a powder keg of accusation and robbed him of his career and reputation. Now, after a devastatingly public ordeal that left him with an eight-month jail sentence and no job, Jack re solves to pick up the pieces of his life. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Washington Square Press, N.Y.
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9780743418713ISBN:0743418719
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Slight tilt to spine. Binding good, clean text, sturdy. Cover has generalized wear, edge wear, creasing, small tear at one spine end. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 464 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Hodder Paperbacks
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780340962787ISBN:034096278X
Description: Good. **SHIPPED FROM UK** We believe you will be completely satisfied with our quick and reliable service. All orders are dispatched as swiftly as possible! Buy with confidence! read more
"In her novel Salem Falls, Jodi Picoult, not for the first time, managed to allow me to soar into a story that took my breath away. The complexity and intricateness of the book really impacted me. This book showed me what can happen when the smallest of actions are misconstrued, or what a lie can bring about.
A theme of the story is that a rumor or lie can always outrun a truth. In the book, Catherine Marsh, a fifteen-year old girl, wants to bad to believe that her soccer coach, Jack St. Bride loves her. She thinks she is completely in love with him, and starts to write fictional accounts of her day's events including Jack. When her father reads of these fake inappropriate stories, he gets extremely mad and decides that he wants Jack St. Bride locked up. Jack's lawyer, knowing Jack will be convicted of sexual assault because of the evidence collected and Catherine's testimony convinces Jack to accept a plea bargain sentencing him to eight months in prison, instead of seven years, and instructing him that he is required to register as a sex offender wherever he chooses to live.
Another theme of the story is that people don't often know others as well as they seem to think they do. When Jack finishes serving his sentence, he takes the few belongings taken with him to jail and immediately leaves his former home of Loyal, New Hampshire and goes a little way down the road to Salem Falls. When he arrives in this new place he sees a "Help Wanted" sign sitting in the window of a small building entitled the Do-Or-Diner and is hired as a dishwasher and busboy. The owner of the diner, Addie Peabody is curious about the man, and in just a few short weeks realizes that her mangled heart has made room for Jack. She falls for him, only knowing a handful of information about him, but trusting nonetheless. When Jack is once again wrongly accused of a crime because of his reputation, Addie begins to second guess her choices and doesn't know if she can put her faith in Jack. While Addie searches for answers, Jack is locked in the county jailhouse and is desperately hoping that someone will believe his story this time.
The character in this story that intrigued me most was Gillian Duncan. Gillian lives in Salem Falls, and like everyone else, wonders about the past of the mysterious and handsome stranger who has just moved in. Though Gillian is curious to know of Jack's demons, she has secrets of her own. With no one but her coven made of her three best friends Chelsea, Whitney, and Meg knowing, Gillian practices the Wiccan art of witchcraft. Though she eventually learned of his shady conviction, Gill soon becomes obsessed with Jack and uses her powers to try and make him fall for her, or at the very least be attracted to her. When it becomes clear however, that Jack is not going to do anything with Gillian, she decides to cry wolf to punish Jack: she reports to the police that he raped her. Now everyone in the town of Salem Falls is focused on only one thing: whether or not Jack St. Bride is guilty of this crime.
Will Jack once again fall victim to the lies and slander of a teenage girl? Will he have to return to jail and serve another sentence for a crime of which he was wrongly accused? Will he ever get to truly be with Addie, or will he be destined to a life of rotten luck and routine? Read Jodi Picoult's Salem Falls to find out. I would recommend this book to teenage or adult girls. Because it is a story of love and lies, most boys probably would not enjoy the novel, but I would recommend it to anyone who loves a good mystery or romance.
"I think this is the weakest Picoult book I've read so far - well, OK, Change of Heart didn't win a Pulitzer with me either. I go into one of her books expecting a certain amount of cheap romance and schmaltzy cliches, but I also expect both a real twist in the plot and a thought-provoking analysis on a current issue, but this one didn't really deliver.
Quick synopsis: the protagonist, having just come out of 8 months in jail for a statutory rape charge, shows up in a small town, and falls in love with the owner of the local diner. Then he is accused of raping another girl and the whole nightmare starts all over for him.
Pros: I love literary references and plot lines that are a commentary on other plots, so I really enjoyed the references to The Crucible, although I thought having it set in a town with a historic association to witch trials was laying it on a little thick. Another pro is certainly the fact that I raced through the book to get to the ending, but then I ended up feeling let down. I also like that Picoult left a certain amount of mystery about the supernatural in the book.
Cons: First, the unbelievable amount of sappy cliches, presumably meant to make the reader swoon in vicarious passion and pity. It felt like the romance parts of the novel were written by doing a search on the most popular cliches in trashy books, rather than out of any depth of understanding. And the corniness doesn't stop there - the author does everything possible to turn the protagonist into a naive Prince Charming, but ends up looking like a moronic Dudley Do-right. I was really hoping that he would turn out to be the rapist in the prior case, just to break the unrealistic and monotonous theme of "innocent man with the world against him". But of course, he and his lady love are perfect in every way. The author even goes into how he intellectually inspired all the inmates and managed to avoid being raped in jail. This is because he wouldn't be fantasy material for sentimentalists if he'd been homosexualized and degraded - but I think Picoult misses the opportunity to draw an intriguing parallel between a rape happening to him and being ascribed to him. It also makes the point that having enough dignity and personal strength will keep someone from being raped (wow, if only the victims in the book had known that).
The thing that really, really annoyed me was the fact that the "surprise" ending (that the victim is being molested by her father) is obvious from pretty early in the book, so I was just waiting for the satisfaction of seeing that revealed. Instead the book puts it in the very last paragraph and the molester goes unpunished. Presumably this is because the girl "deserves" what is happening to her (no effort is spared in making her out to be a spoiled, selfish and vindictive vixen - because of course, that's what teenagers from broken homes are when they act out). But the end message is that it's fine for the real crime to go unnoticed and unpunished - the important thing is that the two lovers are able to ride off into the sunset together."
"I think that this book was very fast paced and nicely done. The plot was well thought out, and let's just say that the twist at the end left me completely shocked. Jack St. Bride was wrongly convicted of sexually assaulting a teenage student of his at a girls private school. After spending eight months in jail, he arrives at the small town of Salem Falls, where he gets a job from Addie Peabody as a dishwasher at the Do-Or-Diner. As the two begin to develop a realtionship, people start digging into the mysterious, attractive, stranger's past, and find out about the criminal charges. Fearing for their daughters and the safety of the town, the people turn against Jack, and hope to run him out of town. However, one fateful night changes everything. Gillian Duncan, daughter of the wealthy Amos, was out in the woods with her friends when Jack arrived, stumbling drunkenly to their feet after a large fight with Addie over her deceased daughter. Jack, as a result of the intocication, can't remember what happened, Gillian cries rape, and Salem Falls is out for blood."
"This is one of my favorite Picoult novels thus far. I honestly did not know how I would feel about this book going into it because I realized the plot and knew that it would touch some heavy sexual issues. However, once again, Picoult conveyed her message in such a clear and concise manner that even this most delicate subject was brought forth to shine. I describe Picoult's novels, and I will most likely mention this in other Picoult reviews, as having 'twists', one that you can almost anticipate and then another that honestly slaps you in the face. The more I read Picoult, the easier the second twist becomes to identify, as I did in this book (the 'twist' that comes in the closing sentance of the novel). I found myself sitting on the cold, hard benches in the courtroom beside Addie. My fists were clinched tight in anticipation and fear. I walked down the corridor of the prison with Addie every time she paid a visit to Jack. I felt the sweat pouring every time Matt Houlihan gave his rebuttal following the testimony of a witness for the defense. I was so overwhelmed with joy when Jack was found not guilty that I found myself jumping around with Selena Gomez. And, in the end, I could feel the disappointment of Gillian Duncan-the feeling of entrapment by her father and the utter fear that she would have to endure from her own father the things that she had wrongly accused Jack of doing. The realization that she may have only done those things to give herself the courage to tell someone what was truly happening to her every time her father felt the creeping of desire and she was the only one within reach."
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