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The Tenth Circle

by Jodi Picoult (Goodreads Author)

3.41 of 5 stars 3.41 · rating details · 66,403 ratings · 3,925 reviews

Jodi Picoult, the New York Times bestselling author of Vanishing Acts, offers her most powerful chronicle yet of an American family with a story that probes the unbreakable bond between parent and child -- and the dangerous repercussions of trying to play the hero.

Trixie Stone is fourteen years old and in love for the first time. She's also the light of her father's life -...more Jodi Picoult, the New York Times bestselling author of Vanishing Acts, offers her most powerful chronicle yet of an American family with a story that probes the unbreakable bond between parent and child -- and the dangerous repercussions of trying to play the hero.

Trixie Stone is fourteen years old and in love for the first time. She's also the light of her father's life -- a straight-A student; a freshman in high school who is pretty and popular; a girl who's always looked up to Daniel Stone as a hero. Until, that is, her world is turned upside down with a single act of violence...and suddenly everything Trixie has believed about her family -- and herself -- seems to be a lie.

For fifteen years, Daniel Stone has been an even-tempered, mild-mannered man: a stay-at-home dad to Trixie and a husband who has put his own career as a comic book artist behind that of his wife, Laura, who teaches Dante's Inferno at a local college. But years ago, he was completely different: growing up as the only white boy in an Eskimo village, he was teased mercilessly for the color of his skin. He learned to fight back: stealing, drinking, robbing, and cheating his way out of the Alaskan bush. To become part of a family, he reinvented himself, channeling his rage onto the page and burying his past completely...until now. Could the young boy who once made Trixie's face fill with light when he came to the door have been the one to end her childhood forever? She says that he is, and that is all it takes to make Daniel, a man with a history he has hidden even from his family, venture to hell and back in order to protect his daughter.

The Tenth Circle looks at that delicate moment when a child learns that her parents don't know all of the answers and when being a good parent means letting go of your child. It asks whether you can reinvent yourself in the course of a lifetime or if your mistakes are carried forever -- if life is, as in any good comic book, a struggle to control good and evil, or if good and evil control you.(less)

ebook, 400 pages

Published March 7th 2006 by Atria Books

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Jul 19, 2007 Nichole (Dirty H) rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

So if one were to compare popular fiction with dining, you could probably say writers like Danielle Steele, John Grisham, Nora Roberts, etc are the McDonald's of writers. I would probably equate Jodi Picoult with Applebee's. Reading a Jodi Picoult novel is like casual dining. You pretty much know what you're going to get, and you don't expect anything life altering. But it's entertaining, it's atmospheric, and it certainly feels at least a bit more upscale.
This novel is about a family: a mom, a...more

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Jan 02, 2008 Suede rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Jodi, Jodi, Jodi. We need to talk. I like you, I really really do. I think you are a fun girl to fly with, and I like hanging out with you when no one else is around to make fun of me when they see us together. But I feel as though our relationship is going the way of Beatrice Sparks. I mean, we really hit it off with My Sister's Keeper. And that first meeting was soooooo gooooood. But this relationship has taken a serious nose dive. 10th Circle, wha? Are you on drugs? Did you have a lobotomy? W...more

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Aug 17, 2008 Tracy rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, contemporary-fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I think the honeymoon's over for me and Jodi. When I first read The Pact and Plain Truth, I thought she was great, but now she's leaving the cap off the toothpaste and her dirty socks on the floor. I truly wanted to love this book, and in the beginning I thought perhaps we were back to the standards of The Pact, but by the middle of the book I realized this was not the case.
First of all, there was way too much going on in this novel. I liked the dad's character and the parallel of his comic boo...more

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Apr 20, 2013 Petra X rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

Although I had read quite a number of Jodi Picoult books, I was doubtful about this one because it included a lot of the material in comic-strip format and I do not like comics or graphic novels at all. I needn't have worried though, because the story reads just as well just sticking to the text. In fact, especially after the tedious writing and despicable characters of Mercy, I was really surprised by some good storytelling and quite well-rounded characterisations. The research Picoult had put...more

like 30 likes · see review

Jan 11, 2010 Rose Ann rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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May 24, 2008 Ashley rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: all mature high schoolers and even parents

Shelves: by-jodi-picoult, for-school

The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult is based on a fourteen-year-old girl, Trixie Stone, who is madly in love for the first time with an upper classman named Jason Underhill, who happens to be the star hockey player of the town and well known by everyone. Sadly though, Jason doesn’t love Trixie; he merely only likes her. Because of this fact, after he broke off their relationship, he was the only one to move on. Trixie became depressed, desperate, and determined. To relieve her emotional pain, she b...more The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult is based on a fourteen-year-old girl, Trixie Stone, who is madly in love for the first time with an upper classman named Jason Underhill, who happens to be the star hockey player of the town and well known by everyone. Sadly though, Jason doesn’t love Trixie; he merely only likes her. Because of this fact, after he broke off their relationship, he was the only one to move on. Trixie became depressed, desperate, and determined. To relieve her emotional pain, she began cutting, which is a sign of deep depression. Also, she created a barrier between her and her dad, just as Jason had done with her.

But after Trixie was convinced by her best friend Zephyr that she should make Jason jealous by hitting on other guys and appearing to be easy, she lies to her dad by telling him that she is staying the night with Zephyr and that Zephyr’s mom will be there. When in reality, Zephyr’s mom is out of town and they are having a party full of guys, including Jason.

That night after giving oral sex to countless guys and playing strip poker, she finds herself alone with Jason. After realizing he doesn’t really want her back, but instead just wants to be friends with benefits, she tries to get away from him. Failing to do so, he rapes her.

Making the right decision, she chooses not to stay the night with Zephyr. Instead, she goes home in the middle of the night and places herself in the bathroom floor, where her father finds her crying and shaking violently. Then, she tells him. “Daddy, he raped me.”

After that night, Trixie’s life turns upside down.

They press charges and await a trial... but how can there be a trial if the suspect winds up dead?

What happens next? I can’t say, but you can find out. But I do have to say, things don’t always turn out the way you expect them to.

*** Sadly though, The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult has been challenged from a few highschools across the world because because it includes suicide and also sexual content, such as date rape and adultery. But in my opinion, it shouldnt be challenged nor banned because Picoult is not encouraging teens to do negative things but instead to send out a message: Do we really ever know anyone as well as we think we do?
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Feb 07, 2013 Mirna rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The hero is Daniel Stone, a wild man with not quite of a dark past but romantic. The story evolved around his daughter Beatrice Stone, aka Trixx, a fairy princess lost in the misty dark forest known as Puberty. How tragedies pounded his family like an eternal avalanche, with incidents and accidents intertwined smoothly along the chapters. One thing is sure, you wouldn't want to stop just yet, until you can assure yourself the Princess is safe and sound, just as Daniel had felt in the story.

Picou...more

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Mar 08, 2009 Laurie Armstrong rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: suspense

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jan 08, 2013 Larry Bassett rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

When you read the Acknowledgements at the front of the book, you know The Tenth Circle covers a lot of territory: rape, teenagers, Dante, comic book superheroes, Alaska. Don’t say she didn’t say to you right off, “This was a massive undertaking…” No kidding, Jodi! She doesn’t do easy topics.

Who has ever had a boyfriend who played hockey? I mean, I grew up near Detroit so I knew about Gordy Howe, the star. But there was no hockey as a high school sport. The story is in Maine so things are evident...more

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Apr 21, 2008 Lisa rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: book clubs--great discussion topics!

Recommended to Lisa by: book club

First, what I like about The Tenth Circle: Like the only other Jodi Picoult book I've read (My Sister's Keeper), I think the author does a really good job of picking interesting subject matter, and presents it in a compelling way. (As the mother of both a son and two daughters, I found the subject of this particular book to be thought-provoking. Was the 14-year-old protagonist raped, or not?) Picoult does an outstanding job of showing the flaws of her characters, and I think it's the highest com...more

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Jan 11, 2008 Jennifer rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

So I think I'm missing something in Jodi Picoult's writing. This is the third book I've ready by her (Pact, Sister's Keeper) and I must say that I've felt the same way about all three. I don't really like the characters. I find it hard to feel sympathetic or compassionate towards anyone in the stories. Not that this is a requirement, but I think liking someone or feeling sympathy or empathy for them, makes for good reading. I will give Picoult credit in that she keeps me hanging on. I haven't no...more

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Sep 09, 2007 Samantha rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Anyone bored enough

This book is pure popcorn; the sort of thing you read not for the writing or the social impact, but because the story is like a soap opera you can't quite quit. Granted, I thought her vignettes about family life were compelling and well-written, and touched upon the feelings a family unit generates; and her descriptions of the father-daughter, mother-daughter, mother-father dynamic were really nice... but the over all book wasn't really literature. A good weekend read. The interspersion of comic...more

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Dec 24, 2008 Marcia rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

Subjects: father-daughter relationship; suicide; rape victims; comic strip.
Evaluation: The Tenth Circle is the story about a father going through the nine circles of hell to save his daughter, his marriage, and himself. Author Jodi Picoult parallels each chapter in her book to Dante’s Inferno. Picoult collaborated with graphic novel artist, Dustin Weaver to express through illustrations, Daniel’s journey through hell, appropriately titled, The Immortal Wildclaw In: The Tenth Circle. Young adults...more

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Nov 04, 2008 Beth Anne rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Beth Anne by: joy

joy is my new book supplier, so i'm not-so-slowly working my way through her jodi picoult collection.

so far this was my favorite of the three picoult books i've read. firstly, i really liked the comic book theme and the references to Dante's Inferno throughout the book. starting every chapter with a snippit of the Daniel's comic book was a great way to move the story along, through his eyes and mind.

though i have to admit, i figured out the ending about half way through the novel...picoult's boo...more

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May 28, 2008 Hope rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I recently read The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult. On the surface the Stone family seems normal and perfect, but as the story continues their relationship falls apart. Daniel works at home as a comic book artist to be a stay at home dad for Trixie, while his wife Laura is a full time college professor. Daniel and Laura seem to put their daughter Trixie before everything else in life until the one time she actually needs her parents they aren’t by her side like she needs them to be.
When the wors...more

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Nov 30, 2007 Lain rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'm always up for a good psychological thriller, and Picoult certainly knows how to pick her topics. Memory regression, teen mass murder sprees, suicide pacts - you name it, and she's right there.

Though this book approaches the topic from an oblique angle, The Tenth Circle is, at its core, a story about family and the strength of those familial bonds. By tracing what happens to the Stone family after their daughter, Trixie, claims she has been raped by her ex-boyfriend, we investigate what love...more

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Jun 26, 2007 Karen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Everyone

Shelves: i-read-it-you-should

There’s a surprise at the end of this book that I wish I had known about before I started reading. The Tenth Circle is a metaphorical journey through Dante's Inferno, told through the eyes of a small Maine family whose hidden demons haunt every aspect of their seemingly peaceful existence. Woven throughout the novel are a series of dramatic illustrations that pay homage to the family's patriarch, comic book artist Daniel Stone, and add a unique twist to this gripping story. Trixie Stone is an im...more

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May 09, 2008 Cenoura do Lado rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2007, all, pt

Daniel Stone, autor de banda desenhada, nunca suspeitou nem por um momento que o mesmo rapaz que a sua filha de catorze anos, Trixie, amava pudesse infligir-lhe o pior dos males. Seria possível que o mesmo jovem que um dia tinha feito o rosto de Trixie enche-se de luz a tivesse drogado e depois violado? Ela afirma que foi o que ele fez, e basta isso para que Daniel, um homem que escondeu o seu passado até a sua família, se aventure a ir ao inferno e a voltar para proteger a sua filha.
Cheio de i...more

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Mar 14, 2007 Marissa rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: couldntputdown

This book was an amazing read. Told from the point of view of the girls father, it tells the story of a family who's life is thrown apart by the daughters cry of rape. The father, a comic book writer, tells his side, worries and thoughts through his newest comic book story - the hero a father who is thrust into the layers of hell to try and bring his kidnapped daughter back to him. Entering as a man, once he enters he finds it is not himself that entered hell at all, but a beast, an animal - one...more

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Jun 06, 2007 Jest rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

We can't keep Jodi Picoult on the shelves in the bookstore where I work. I picked this one up just to see what all the fuss is about and before I knew what was happening I was a hundred pages into it.

Picoult's great strength seems to lie in creating a suspenseful build-up as the reader waits for Devastating Tragedy to descend on her characters. Unfortunately, she doesn't seem to know what to do after that and covers up by adding one big 'dramatic' plot twist after another.

It could have been sa...more

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Sep 14, 2008 Valerie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: own

This was the first book from Jodi Picoult that I have read. I bought it because I have a obsession for buying books right now for some reason and it said it was a Lifetime movie now too. I also bought My sister's Keeper at the same time.
The love of a daughter, and what you would do for that daughter was the main point I got from this book.
There was some cursing(I just read past it), the wife was having an affair, and the rape of a teenager and how it then controls their lives. So if you hav...more

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Feb 21, 2009 Shana rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Feb 21, 2009 Laurie rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-other

I read this book because I saw that it had been made into a TV movie and it looked interesting. I have to say that I was a little disappointed. The characters were well-developed but the plot seemed to drag. The Stone family is living a quiet life when a sudden claim of date rape shatters their world. Daniel Stone is a sucessful graphic artist and his wife Laura is a scholar. Their daughter, Trixie, attends a party and tells her family that she is raped by another party-goer. When the boy turns...more

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Jan 30, 2009 Diane rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I liked this newest book from Jodi Picoult. I have been a fan since picking up "The Pact" several years ago.

There is definitely a lot going on in this book, each family member has their own demons that they need to face and come to grips with. Daniel is the graphic artist and father in the family. We learn of his past bit by bit and why he fled his childhood home. Laura Stone is the mother who is at a crossroads in her marriage and having an affair with a much younger man. She is a Dante schola...more

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Nov 30, 2008 Beth rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Another "issue" book by Picoult, this one deals with a young teen (14) Trixie who is raped --- or is she? Anyway, the book is partly presented in comic book form with a lantern-jawed hero who descends into Dante's hell (hence the title) to rescue his daughter. In real life the father (can't remember his name) who was both a cartoonist and an at-home dad, tries to find his daughter who has run away after her ex-boyfriend is killed (or commits suicide)because of the trial that has come up because...more

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Apr 06, 2013 Alannah Clarke rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: paperback, reviewed

The Tenth Circle looks at that delicate moment when a child learns that her parents don't know all of the answers and when being a good parent means letting go of your child. It asks whether you can reinvent yourself in the course of a lifetime or if your mistakes are carried forever -- if life is, as in any good comic book, a struggle to control good and evil, or if good and evil control you.

Ok, I may have said that all Jodi Picoult's novels followed the same near-enough pattern, but that was b...more

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Jan 31, 2013 Mónica Silva rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Opinião no blog http://howtoliveathousandlives.blogsp...

No âmago deste livro encontra-se uma estória sobre uma violação. Uma violação a uma adolescente, que rapidamente vira uma pequena localidade de pernas para o ar. E, como em muitas pequenas comunidades, as pessoas nem sempre tomam o partido da vítima. Trixie, a vítima, passa a ser ridicularizada na escola e desacreditada pelos seus vizinhos e amigos. Assim, a autora aborda os problemas da juventude, a integração na escola e a sexualidade na...more

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Jan 18, 2013 Pamela S rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I can totally tell that a lot of research of facts and evidence about a wide range of topics have been done in order to write this book. I am very impressed by this book; love how the author can make a lot of twists and turns through just a simple idea. The author has effectively used a wide range of vocabulary to paint rich, vivid pictures in the mind of the readers. Besides painting pictures, i am also aware that the author also tries to engage the reader more by writing what does the main cha...more

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Jan 17, 2013 Parker rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

What can I say about The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult? Well for one I can say that I loved the book so much that I would recommend it to anybody who asked me. The characters are all relatable and they all have motives for doing what they do. The premise of the book is basically the way things that happen and how people who see it from different perspectives and how it makes people see people differently depending on how they heard what happened.
The main character is Trixie Stone an emotionally...more What can I say about The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult? Well for one I can say that I loved the book so much that I would recommend it to anybody who asked me. The characters are all relatable and they all have motives for doing what they do. The premise of the book is basically the way things that happen and how people who see it from different perspectives and how it makes people see people differently depending on how they heard what happened.
The main character is Trixie Stone an emotionally unstable 14 year-old girl and like most teenage girls lets her emotions and hormones effect what she decides and thinks. Her father Daniel Stone is a great supporting character he is a man that has a dark history he tries to forget and he will now do anything for his family especially his daughter, who is the person who really made him realize how much his life and being really meant. His wife Laura used to be a straight arrow until she met Daniel who led her to making her drastic change to being more spontaneous and free but, when Trixie was “dropped” into her life she straightened back out. This ultimately led to her lack of loyalty to her husband because she wanted her spontaneity back.
The story is all about the family going through the “deadly sins” that happen to them. First there is the rape which happens to Trixie by her ex-boyfriend at the party she goes to. Another is the lust which is performed by Laura who cheats on her husband with her student named Seth. Last is murder which is unknown who performed until the end of the book which most of the main conflict in the book is about. The theme of this book is mostly not believing what you think is the truth until it is the truth. I believe this because the further you get into the book the more twists happen to what has actually happened to the characters like when Trixie hide what actually happened to her until she was asked later on.
Jodi Picoult’s writing style is all about seeing the story from different characters’ perspectives to find what they think and how those characters are affected by what is being said and what people think. She keeps you wanting to keep reading by finishing each section by hinting what is going to happen next or leaving off at a section that has high tension. The book keeps you questioning what you think of the characters and how you feel about them based on their action and how they react to their surrounding and what happens to them.
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Jan 07, 2013 Annamarie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I decided to read this book after I was left touched and blown away from Jodi Picoult's previous book, My Sister's Keeper. After I was done reading The Tenth Circle, I honestly felt nothing. Nothing for the characters, Jodi, and the book.

The main genre of this book to me was love. There was a lot of lack of love in the beginning of the book as the Stone family seemed very distant from one another as Laura was being very "focused" on her students and Trixie's complications with Jason while Danie...more

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Pregnant??	12	141	Nov 19, 2012 06:57am
did i miss something, or is the drunk (joseph) daniel's long lost dad?	18	189	Oct 22, 2012 12:29pm
Cane?	5	80	Oct 29, 2008 09:07pm
The movie compared to the book	7	118	Jul 01, 2008 08:14pm
The movie (6/28/08)	53	120	Jun 30, 2008 08:37pm

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About Jodi Picoult

Picoult was born and raised in Nesconset on Long Island, New York. Her first story, at age 5 was "The Lobster Which Misunderstood." She studied writing at Princeton University, graduating in 1987, and had two short stories published by Seventeen magazine while still in college. Immediately after graduation, she took on a series of miscellaneous jobs, from editing at a textbook publishing company t...more

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Quotes from The Tenth Circle

“Change is a funny thing. We never are quite sure what we are becoming or even why. Then one day we look at ourselves and wonder who we are and how we got that way. Only one thing about change remains constant...it is always painful” — 423 people liked it

“You couldn't have strength without weakness, you couldn't have light without dark, you couldn't have love without loss” — 422 people liked it

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