The End ~ In Cold Blood

Okay, so I have to admit the ending was just eh. The actual last four pages were good, but up until then I just couldn't do it. The last fifty pages of the book took me over an hour to read because they were just so boring. Because it was a nonfiction book, a lot of the story had background information in it. The book had a really slow start because Truman Capote had to fill us in on the lives of the Clutters and the killers and where they were from. There was always either imagery or characterization or just general background information in the book. I mean, if you think about it, it was necessary to have it, but at times it was just incredibly annoying.

The last fifty pages were about the murderers' time on death row before they were hanged. That was all fine and good, but those fifty pages could've (and possibly should have) been condensed into five to ten pages. It just went by very slowly, and I'm sorry, but it was excruciating. Okay, maybe it wasn't that bad, but it was painfully boring.

So as I predicted, there was nothing at the end of the story that I hadn't already expecting, nothing that caught me off guard. I guess I was okay with that considering it was a true story and it wasn't a story that Truman Capote could twist to make more interesting or surprising. It was a retelling and that was fine, it was what I expected.

For the most part, even though there were certainly slow parts, the book was good. Not great, but good. What came through for me was the very last page of the book. One of the lead detectives on the case runs into one of the victim's friends at the cemetary where the family is burried. The last paragraph reads, "'And nice to have seen you, Sue. Good luck,' he called after her as she disappeared down the path, a pretty girl in a hurry, her smooth hair swinging, shine––just such a young woman as Nancy might have been. Then, starting home, he walked toward the trees, and under them, leaving behind him the big sky, the whisper of wind voices in the wind-bent wheat." I found this ending to be perfectly effective. It helped to elaborate on the ways that people were finally moving on after the deaths of the Clutters. This being six years since the murder, a childhood friend of the family and a lead detective on their case are finally letting go. The weight that has been bearing down on them has finally lifted and they can move on with their life. The hangings of the murderers was the closure they needed after all that time, and even though thoughts of the Clutters are still in their minds, they're no longer at the forefront.

I think I would still recommend this book even though I wasn't completely happy with it. It truly is an interesting story of an interesting case, it was just slow at parts. If you can get past the slow points, the investigation is enthralling.

-Jenna

(A Little More Than) Half Way There! ~ In Cold Blood

So I'm a little more than halfway through In Cold Blood now, and too be honest, I'm not totally impressed. It's an extremely interesting story, don't get me wrong, but it's a very flat line. There's not a lot of things that are like, "Oh, I bet you didn't see that coming!", but I think that probably has a lot to do with the fact that it's a true story. I keep waiting for a point in the story where I'm totally astonished and caught off guard.

Okay, sorry, I forgot to fill you in on the story. So apparently, I was completely reading the back of the book wrong when writing my last post. For some reason, I had it in my head that the father killed the family, when really it was (*spoiler alert*) complete strangers and the dad one of the four that was murdered. The story is told in semi-chronological order starting a few days before the murder and leading up to the trial. What I've really been enjoying about the book is that it's told in several perspectives. It's not just like, "This is what happened, this is what happened next." The story goes back and forth between several perspectives of the story. For example, it starts off with what the family was during the day before they were murdered that night. It then turns over to what the murderers were doing that day and also a couple days and weeks back. As I've said in previous posts, I really enjoy when books are told from more than one point of view, and I do think that the way this story is being told helps to distract from the lack of surprises.

It's a pretty straightforward story. It's easy to infer from the beginning that Perry and Dick were the ones that killed the Clutter family, even though the author didn't directly disclose that until almost halfway through the book. You know that the family dies and that the murderers are on the run. It's easy to guess that they're going to get caught and sent to jail or given the death penalty. From very early in the book, it's not hard to guess how the book is going to end.

There's one quote in the story that I find to be very reflective upon the town right after the murder takes place. It goes as follows: "This hitherto peaceful congregation of neighbors and old friends had suddenly to endure the unique experience of distrusting each other; understandably, they believed that the murderer was among themselves." What I like about this quote is that it shows that even in the tightest knit communities, something like this breaks the most unbreakable people. Because the town at first believes that the murderers were people the family and community know, they immediately lose all sense of security they have with each other. They begin to lock doors that had never before become locked and lose trust in the people they'd known their whole lives. This one terrible event caused even the securist of people to become confused and distrusting about who the people around them really were, and hence, they lost all senses of safety and honesty.


At this point, I'm still hoping that there will be a point in the story where I'm caught off guard and something unexpected happens, though I find that to be very unlikely. Other than that, I'm enjoying the book very much and would definitely recommend it. I'll let you know soon how things turn out!

-Jenna

In Cold Blood ~ Truman Capote

I have returned to mention the start of my next book, which as you can guess by the title of this post, is called In Cold Blood. I was recommended this book by Mr.Perlman when in one of our talks about my last book, I mentioned that I enjoyed mystery books that had some court room drama in them. I was unsure for a while which book I was going to read for my non fiction. I had been going back and forth amongst several books, In Cold Blood, The Tipping Point, and Unbroken. I decided I didn't want to read The Tipping Point just yet, because I was nervous about reading a book that was more essay style and not plot driven, which is one of the major things I like in a book. I enjoy there to be a story, which is why (I think) I chose In Cold Blood. From the reviews I've read and the things I've heard about the book, it's written in a very storylike manner, which makes it a non fiction novel. I'm looking forward to the mystery in the story which is about a man who murders four members of his family in cold blood (get it). I think I might lose sight of the fact that it's a non fiction book due to the factor of it being written like a novel, and I'm not yet sure whether that will be a good thing or a bad thing. I'm hoping to enjoy the book and find a new genre of writing that I enjoy reading. I'll let you know!

~Jenna

PAGE COUNT – 343

The End ~ Plain Truth

Okay, so that was not the ending I had expected. Well, actually, let's start with what I did like. It was just such a good book!

There's not much more to say about what I liked about it other than what I said in the last post. It didn't change much since then other than completely shocking me towards the end. Without giving anything away, I'll just say that it doesn't end the way you think it will. It suddenly drops a bomb on you and you're just like "WOAH." The part that bother me was that right after this bomb was dropped, it just ended. It was so abrupt I turned the page expecting it to continue. For me, the end was a disappointment, but that doesn't mean it ruined the whole book. That's also not to say that the entire end of the book was a disappointment. The last page of the book was not a disappointment at all, the disappointment was that the book ended there. It was written as if it was supposed to continue, it seemed like Jodi Picoult just kind of gave up and didn't know what else to say so she decided to just end it.

The book as a whole was incredible, although it doesn't exactly top some of the other Jodi Picoult books I've read. I really appreciated the was Jodi Picoult was able to intertwine the two societies with such ease that it made the uncomfortable seem so natural. The story also had quite a few profound ideas. One of the quotes I found very powerful was, "You can be happy for someone else's good fortune, but that doesn't mean you forget your own bad luck." For me, this really meant that just because you act one way and pretend something doesn't bother you for the sake of another person, it's okay for it to bother you inside because that's a natural feeling. In this story, one woman lost a baby and as she was grieving for her own child a good friend of hers became pregnant. She said this quote to her friend to let her understand that she was happy for her, but that didn't mean it didn't hurt.

The story just had a lot of very powerful, very effective messages to it. It wasn't just about the plot of the story because throughout it, messages were made very clear due to the history of the characters. Because many of them were Amish, they were very open about the morals and ideals which made it very clear to see some of the messages that Jodi Picoult was trying to get across. I think this was one of Picoult's more powerful books due to the morals of the characters and the lessons taught throughout it. Apart from the end, this story was very impressive and enjoyable and as I said in my last post, I 100% recommend it.

~Jenna

Half Way There! ~ Plain Truth

Don't we all get to a point in an incredible book when we think to ourselves and realise, "Oh my gosh, it's almost over!"? From there, we begin to dread the end of story. I think I'm at that point.

Yes, I realise I'm behind, and yes, I regretting getting that far behind, but I'm really enjoying my book at the moment. It took me a while to get really into it because I had a lot going on and was a little stressed out, but now that I am into the story, I don't want to stop reading. It's a struggle for me to do this blogpost right now because I want more than anything to keep reading.

So far the story is basically about an Amish girl, Katie, who had a baby out of wedlock. The baby was killed by someone (we still don't know who) the same night of its birth. Katie has a distant cousin, Ellie, related to her through marriage, that is a defense attorney (Katie and Ellie had not met prior to the incident). Ellie stands up and takes the place of Katie's lawyer when fingers start pointing to Katie as the murderer. The story shifts between the past and present, explaining the ways Katie has escaped from her Amish culture at times to become someone she's not. As Ellie attempts to unravel the truth of the case, we are shown different sides of Katie, not knowing which of them to trust.

At this point, I'm so intrigued with the book I just want to skip to the end and find out who did it. But I won't. I have thoughts of Oh maybe he did! Or maybe it was her! And the way Jodi Picoult writes, you can tell she's trying to leave you with untied ends so you're trying to solve the puzzle, too. I love the way the story is written so that it's almost a whodunit and the reader is attempting to solve the crime and protect Katie just as Ellie is.

There's a very popular quote from this book that reads, "A world that was crowded with people could still be a very lonely place." It's written in a section of the story so that it's made to seem like it's directed towards Katie's life as an Amish woman who sometimes desperately wants to be understood as a  normal teenage girl. Although Katie does have time of doubt about her Amish culture, she is characterized as being someone who cares deeply about her religion and would never turn her back on the church. It makes her a very interesting character to learn about as you read because you're always thinking, "How could someone with such strong religious ties and morals ever think to do something as awful as murdering her own baby?"

The above quote ("A world that was crowded...") also applies very well to Ellie. She lives in the busy city of Philadelphia and works as a very powerful, very successful defense attorney. At the start of the story, before she met Katie, her life was all about her work. Living with Katie and learning about a life with family and passion, Ellie is brought back down to earth and is able to notice what's around her. Although she's still working on a case, Ellie realises she is surrounded by people that don't make her feel lonely like the people she worked with. Living with and helping Katie not only teaches Ellie about the Amish world, it also teaches Ellie about herself.

I really enjoy the way Jodi Picoult writes her books. She always writes between the past and the present and shifts back and forth from different narrators. This is still the case in Plain Truth. So far in the story, Ellie has been narrating in first person, and we've also seen the story told by an outside narrator through third person omniscient. I enjoy the different points of view becasue it helps to understand every character, but I especially like that at times the story is focused on Ellie.

Okay, sorry, that was really long, but I really just wanted to talk about the book for a while because I'm enjoying it so much and sometimes I just need to vent about how great it is. I would definitely recommend it at this point!
Be glad you didn't have to listen to me ramble on and on about this in person, because that would have been a lot more annoying. I'll be back soon to review the book when I finish it, which will be soon!!

~Jenna

Plain Truth ~ Jodi Picoult

Let's start with just how fabulous Jodi Picoult is. I've probably read around five of her books, and let's be honest, how could you not like her? I guess you could say her books are kind of safe for me. I know I'm going to like whatever book I read by her, so why choose another? I wanted to start off with something I would enjoy rather than getting right into the challenging books. Basically, I like Jodi Picoult's books because they have some mystery and court drama to them as well as some lighter stuff like romance and humor. But don't worry, I've already been cut off and this will be the only book I'm reading by her for this assignment. I'm expecting this story to be a little different from others of hers that I've read. This one has some religion and unfamiliar cultures in it that will interesting for me to read. It's a murder mystery with the setting of an Amish town in Lancaster. I'm looking forward to learn about the culture as well as get intwined into the mystery of the story and the secrets of the characters. I've heard nothing but positive opinions about Plain Truth, so I'm expecting to enjoy it. I'll be back soon to keep you posted!

~Jenna

PS ~ I just found out they made this a movie starring the one and only Mariska Hargitay, so I'm definitely going to have to see that after reading!!


PAGE COUNT – 402