Liza's Reviews > The Tenth Circle

The Stone family members all have secrets to hide: an affair; a past that is haunting; a night that ruined two lives. And those secrets all connect to bring a family to their knees. Trixie is the daughter of Daniel and Laura, a freshman in high school who has found her first love. But when her love goes wrong, her mother's and father's secrets surface, giving Trixie a glimpse of her parents she could not have imagined. Laura seems the quiet professor, and Daniel the work-at-home dad who is a comic book illustrator. But under Daniel's cool exterior lies a beast whose head has not reared since he ran from Alaska when he was Trixie's age; when his daughter is hurt and in danger, his past cannot be quelled any longer. Soon the whole family is under suspicion of murder - and one of them is lying to protect the others. Jodi Picoult chooses topics that are challenging to read about, and this book is no exception. Though I found some of the plot twists predictable, and some of them a bit unbelievable, the story was pretty good. The novel was interspersed with pages of a comic which added to the story and showed some of Daniel's character. And a fun little game: within the art of the comic pages, letters were hidden to reveal a quote which encapsulates the theme of the book. Not my favorite book of Picoult's, but the ideas in her stories always make you think about your own life and difficult situations you have been, or could be, in.