Nineteen Minutes: Summary and book reviews of Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult, plus links to an excerpt from Nineteen Minutes and a biography of Jodi Picoult.
Nineteen Minutes A Novel
by Jodi Picoult
Hardcover: Mar 2007,
464 pages.
Paperback: Feb 2008,
464 pages.
In nineteen minutes, you can mow the front lawn, color your hair, watch a third of a hockey game. In nineteen minutes, you can bake scones or get a tooth filled by a dentist; you can fold laundry for a family of five....In nineteen minutes, you can stop the world, or you can just jump off it. In nineteen minutes, you can get revenge.
Sterling is a small, ordinary New Hampshire town where nothing ever happens -- until the day its complacency is shattered by a shocking act of violence. In the aftermath, the town's residents must not only seek justice in order to begin healing but also come to terms with the role they played in the tragedy. For them, the lines between truth and fiction, right and wrong, insider and outsider have been obscured forever. Josie Cormier, the teenage daughter of the judge sitting on the case, could be the state's best witness, but she can't remember what happened in front of her own eyes. And as the trial progresses, fault lines between the high school and the adult community begin to show, destroying the closest of friendships and families.
Nineteen Minutes is New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult's most raw, honest, and important novel yet. Told with the straightforward style for which she has become known, it asks simple questions that have no easy answers: Can your own child become a mystery to you? What does it mean to be different in our society? Is it ever okay for a victim to strike back? And who -- if anyone -- has the right to judge someone else?
Told as a series of flashbacks from multiple points of view,Nineteen Minutes is a powerful read that kept this reader up until 3 am. As always with Picoult, the issues are never black and white and the plot is never quite as simple as it might at first seem. Readers looking for easy answers won't find them in these pages. (Reviewed by BookBrowse Review Team).
Kirkus Reviews
Usually so adept at shaping the big stories with nuance, Picoult here takes a tragically familiar event, pads it with plot, but leaves out the subtleties of character. Though all the surface elements are in place, Picoult falters in her exploration of what turns a quiet kid into a murderer.
Booklist - Kristine Huntley
Every bit as gripping and moving as Picoult's previous novels, Nineteen Minutes will no doubt garner considerable attention for its controversial subject and twist ending.
Library Journal
Picoult has that rare ability to write about an unnerving subject in a way readers will find absorbing. Her 14th novel, perhaps her best, is highly recommended.
Publisher's Weekly
Starred Review. The author's insights into her characters' deep-seated emotions brings this ripped-from-the-headlines read chillingly alive.
Recent Reader Reviews
Rated of 5
by Lauren Conrad Nineteen Minutes This was one of the best books I have ever read. Being a high school student helped me relate to so many characters in the book. I recommend this book to every high school student, as the characters can all be found in any school. There is the... Read More
Rated of 5
by taaaymanderson3 Nineteen Minutes I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is even considering reading it. Picoult goes above and beyond her traditional love stories and reels you in with the act of violence of the small town of Sterling, NH. Nineteen Minutes makes you have... Read More
Rated of 5
by Reader734 Feminist view in whole. I no not think this is a good book. From cover to cover the book is filled with feminist views on how The author believes young men behave. None of these acts would ever happen in a real school without a teacher noticing and the bully being caught.... Read More
Rated of 5
by Kaylee Clark An A for Jodi Picoult’s Nineteen Minutes Bullied or not bullied, everyone has a story. Some may take a different path than others in life. It’s like the saying we have all heard before, “Everyone is Different”. The main character of Jodi Picoult’s book Nineteen Minutes is a 17 year old... Read More
Rated of 5
by Mika Recommended. This book is a nice book. At least better than I had expected. It creates suspense and also has a twist ending. It is a really unpredictable book that makes really excited to read on. I rate it a 4/5 because it really deserves it. The only bad... Read More
Rated of 5
by Ttray Nineteen minutes The ending was poor, Why would she do what she did to someone she repeatedly says she "cant live without"? Considering the non existent relationship between her and Peter because she was to weak to stand up for herself.
This book does... Read More
Jodi Picoult is the bestselling
author of fourteen books to date. She
was born and raised on Long Island
before studying creative writing at
Princeton. While still a student she had
two short stories published in Seventeen
magazine. On being told that someone was
going to pay her for something she'd
written she immediately called her
mother who responded. "That's great,
who's going to support you?"
Realism - and a profound desire to be
able to pay the rent - led Picoult to a
series of different jobs following her
graduation: as a technical writer for a
Wall Street brokerage firm, as a
copywriter at an ad agency, as an editor
at a textbook publisher, and as an 8th
grade English teacher - before entering
Harvard to pursue a master's in
education.
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Kirkus Reviews
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by Lauren Conrad
of 5
by Reader734
of 5
by Mika
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