Perfect Match by Jodi Picoult - BOOK REVIEW

I first read a Jodi Picoult book back in 2008, when I devoured the brilliant Nineteen Minutes in not much longer! Following that excellent read, I began buying her other novels and quickly finished Plain Truth straight after I had read Nineteen Minutes. But then I had a long gap and it was around eighteen months until I read another of her novels, though I’m not sure why!

But after reading a disappointing novel by my beloved Tess Gerritsen (Bloodstream), I wanted to have a great book to compensate – so I turned once again to Jodi Picoult and picked out a book from my collection – Perfect Match. I picked it up to begin reading – and only stopped some 200 pages later! Wow!

How reassuring to find another book I want to engross myself in for hours, to carry around with me, to creep off to bed early to read… Being the Easter holidays, I was happily offering computer time to my surprised children, as I disappeared off somewhere with my next hundred pages calling me…

So, what’s Perfect Match all about then? As any fans of Jodi Picoult will know, there’s bound to be some legal trial coming up and yes, you’re right, that’s central to this one too.

We meet our leading lady early on – Nina Frost, assistant district attorney in Maine, USA. (Incidentally, Gerritsen’s Bloodstream was set in Maine too.) She’s professional, efficient, confident and competent – what you might expect from her choice of career. But there’s another side to her too, her home life and here, we meet her husband Caleb and her son Nathaniel.

Caleb is self-employed and works outdoors, building walls and other stonework. He comes across as nice enough, but a bit uncharismatic. However, Nina loves him and they’re happily married, both successful and living a pretty good life really.

They both love little Nathaniel, who’s just five years old. A real sweetheart, he seems to have a great life too and everything seems fine. Then one day, he just stops talking. They take him for some medical tests, culminating in a meeting with Dr. Robichaud, who is a psychiatrist. While he’s there, Nathaniel’s actions lead the psychiatrist to believe the little boy has been sexually abused.

Further physical examinations prove an assault has taken place, which sends Nina and Caleb’s life into instant turmoil. Of course, any parent in that situation must feel awful, we can all sympathise with that. But for Nina, it is arguably even worse. Part of her job is working with abused children whose parents are hoping for a conviction. She knows how traumatic it can be for young children to face a scary courtroom and tell strangers there all about the abuse they have suffered. There is no way she wants Nathaniel to go through that – but how can she prevent it?

I don’t want to go into too much of the plot from here, as it is full of twists and turns, shocks and surprises. The novel does start with a brief court scene, then the story goes back in time to explain how the first scene took place.

There are many themes covered in Perfect Match and the main one is – How far would a parent go to protect their child? And how far SHOULD they go? As a mother myself, it is something I have thought of before and I’m sure we have all considered similar topics. I see myself as quite a calm, peaceful and non-aggressive woman, yet I know I would fight to protect my kids, if I really had to.

We’ve all watched the News and heard about the nursery school teacher sexually abusing young children in her care, or the Catholic priests accused of sexual abuse, or the care home workers. It’s all around us. Each time, we feel anger. We understand when people shout at the accused in the dock or if they break the windows of their homes. But no-one really knows how you would react, until it happens to you – and hopefully, it won’t.

But it happens to the Frosts - and Nina’s actions have a big affect on both Caleb and Nathaniel. This is fascinating to watch how their relationships change and it seems very realistic and believable. It is easy to picture the characters and you get to know them well.

Although some reviewers have suggested Nina is rather a cold character, I found her easy to relate to, simply as a mother and I did like her. Nathaniel seems very accurate too. It is hard to write a voice for a five year old, but Picoult does a great job.

The slight problem I had was with Caleb, who never seemed to develop into anything more than a grey shadow. It might just be because I didn’t like him. I really wanted Nina to leave him and go off with Patrick Ducharme, the policeman who has loved her for years. He comes across as much warmer than Caleb and I felt I knew Patrick better and liked him much more too.

But this is only a slight criticism and didn’t detract from my overall enjoyment of the novel. It really is a great read. It is well-paced and exciting, but also quite deep, as it throws up lots of issues and situations that make you think and wonder what you would do in that position.

It is definitely the sort of book that could be read in a couple of hours – or a couple of days in my case, as real life kept getting in the way! The novel itself is around 400 pages long, but each page seemed to fly by and I thoroughly enjoyed the whole story. I rated it 9 out of 10 and would definitely recommend it.

The paperback edition of Perfect Match is currently selling for £4.97 on Amazon UK, but I was lucky enough to pick my copy up for 50p from the local charity shop.


The Jodi Picoult books I have read, with my ratings -

Nineteen Minutes, 9.5/10
Plain Truth, 9/10
Perfect Match, 9/10