SPOILERS!!!
I was right about my suspicions, so that didn’t come as a surprise.
What I found most interesting was Trixie’s confession about the events of the night in which she was raped. I’m not a parent, but I can imagine the way Daniel felt on hearing his daughter. During the novel he makes dozens of references to Trixie as her little girl, references to her childhood, so as a reader you can feel as shocked as he might have felt. The author doesn’t focus on Daniel’s reaction or feelings because I think readers are doing all the feeling after getting to know this girl through the book. This girl who was just a child a couple of years ago admits to having drunk almost to oblivion, buying drugs for her and her friends (it’s not clear if she’s smoked pot, but she makes reference to that), and having sex when she’s obviously not mature enough to decide any of this. I also find interesting the way the legal system works. A simple word ‘no’ can decide whether a woman has been raped or not. It doesn’t matter if the woman fights or pushes the man, if there’s not an uttered ‘no’ in the air between them, then there’s no rape. Shocking.
I really loved the book. It got me hooked since the beginning. The part between Trixie and Willie didn’t engage me because I think that only delayed the encounter between Trixie and her father, and didn’t add much. Apart from that, I enjoyed the novel as much as I’ve enjoyed other novels by Jodi Picoult.
My Reading Journal 