The Tenth Circle

A Novel

By: Jodi Picoult

Narrated by: Carol Monda

Length: 13 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

New York Times best-selling author Jodi Picoult shares a powerful novel about the unbreakable bond between parent and child, the temptation to play God, and the dangerous repercussions.

Fourteen-year-old Trixie Stone is in love for the first time. She's also the light of her father Daniel's life - a straight-A student; a pretty, popular freshman in high school; a girl who's always seen her father as a hero. That is until her world is turned upside down with a single act of violence. Suddenly everything Trixie has believed about her family - and herself - seems to be a lie. Could the boyfriend who once made Trixie wild with happiness have been the one to end her childhood forever? She says that he is, and that is all it takes to make Daniel, a seemingly mild-mannered comic book artist with a secret tumultuous past he has hidden even from his family, venture to hell and back to protect his daughter.

With The Tenth Circle, Jodi Picoult offers her most powerful chronicle yet as she explores the unbreakable bond between parent and child and questions whether you can reinvent yourself in the course of a lifetime - or if your mistakes are carried forever.

©2006 Jodi Picoult. All rights reserved. "Magic Words" (c)1967, 1968 Educational Development Center, Inc. (www.edc.org) (P)2016 Simon & Schuster

Thought provoking

I loved the story from page one. I didn't want to put the book down. The story was compelling and believable. It could just as easily be my story, or my neighbors....I’ll be thrilled to read more!

Not my favorite

I love Jodi Picoult, she is, and always will be my favorite author. That being said; this is not her best work. The story has substance and is well written with obvious research into the subject matters, per usual for this author. But it still felt lacking somehow. Like I was always missing some detail, or not getting all the information. I also felt the ending was lacking. Wish it would have gone on a little further.

What a web we weave when we try to deceive

This is the story of a loving family. But each member of the family was living a lie. Maybe just a small one, or parts of a event we’re true....
The lines between truth and fiction began to be melt together so we are unable to unravel the real story.
The fathers dark secret from the pastry have been buried when he started a new life, but they were very much still dictating who he was and his actions. His wife crossed the line between teacher and students so innocently she failed to realize the danger. And a 14 year old girl finding true love that she thought would be forever.
One lie leads to another. Some people are able to escape the carnage, while others become collateral damage after the realization that their lives were forever changed, and the bright future they hoped for was gone.
Just like hanging from a bridge and loosing your grasp one finger at a time.......

Carol Monda
I enjoyed the book. What I didn’t like was the way it ended. This story that was so rich in detail, twisted this way and that ended with a thud. Almost as if the writer got tired of the story and just wrapped it up in the last few pages. The End.

Have been a long time Jodi Picoult fan. And will continue to be one. This was just not make it to my top 10 list.

Carol Monda... great job as always.

Love Jodi's books

This wasn't what I expected, but enjoyed it nevertheless. She never fails o capture my attention and hold it to the end.

Great

This book was tragic, beautiful, and kept me wondering what would happen next. Highly recommend.

Spoilers

Spoilers


I’m revisiting Jodi Picoult’s books on audiobook. I wish I had written a review when I first read THE TENTH CIRCLE a decade ago. A lot has changed in public opinion on consent with the #MeToo movement and mostly we’re moving in right direction, with occasional examples of over correction.

Nobody worried about high school freshmen and seniors dating when I was a teen, or teenagers dating college kids for that matter. In some states, it’s a crime. Trixie is an example of a freshman who should have never dated a senior. She was too emotionally immature, too easy to please him with sex. Their relationship would have been imbalanced even if they were the same age.

Trixie claims her ex Jason raped her, setting a series of catastrophic events. No means no. Every time. Even if you’ve said yes before. Even if you initially said yes, you can say stop. Unfortunately that doesn’t mean law enforcement, the legal system of public opinion will agree. Drugged women and girls can’t consent to sex, but men aren’t mind readers and if they think their partner is sober, she appears engaged and she never says no, is that rape? I don’t think it should be legally. The woman can call it what she wants to her therapist and do whatever she needs to heal. As a rape survivor, it’s hard for me to read a story about a girl who says she was raped when the guy had no idea, especially when they had consensual exes with benefits sex the week before. Jason is no hero. He’s careless with Trixie’s heart. He knows it and she knows it.

The most disturbing part of the story for me was Daniel’s EXTREME over interest in his daughter’s adolescence. He’s not exactly a helicopter parent, but he’s so enmeshed in her that felt emotionally incestuous to me (though his behavior isn’t sexually inappropriate). I didn’t like the parts of the story about eskimos and his cartoons.

The whole of THE TENTH CIRCLE was greater than the sum of its parts.

Not one of her newer books but a timely topic

I continue to admire Jodi Picoult for her excellent research. We learn about Alaska, and it’s people, the art of creating cartoons and also certain aspects of detective work as this tale unfolds. It is not the author’s best book, in my opinion, but is still a well written compelling story.

Never disappointed

This one started off slow and I wondered where it was going. But once it caught on, it kept my interest until the very end.
There were so many unexpected twists and turns that made it so worth it.

Not her best book

I love Jodi Picoult but I would have to say this book is only ok. I was not a fan of the main character.

Props to the narrator

I love Jodi Picoult books. I am starting to get into some of her older works. This one left me wanting more, and I can only imagine what comes next. Now, the narrator. I am uncertain whether I have other titles read by her, but I am definitely going to search for others. This story was such an easy listen, primarily because the narrator’s voice and shifts between characters were so seamless.