Hi! I just wanted to say thank you for this wonderful post and your previous review. I just finished reading this book yesterday and have it sitting here waiting for me to review. You've done such a wonderful job that I'll have to point people over here.

When I read the part about the Mormon kid selling subscriptions for his church, I thought, WHAT? What subscriptions? I thought Picoult was all into research and she didn't seem to get that one right. I can't think of a single instance where anybody goes door-to-door raising funds for the LDS church.

As far as all your other statements, I completely agree. I thought this was such an odd book with some interesting issues. I took everything with a grain of salt and decided to try to not look to deep into it. I guess I wasn't it the mood for some deep thinking.

Oops, I hit enter to soon. You can delete above post. Sorry!

Hi! I just wanted to say thank you for this wonderful post and your previous review. I just finished reading this book yesterday and have it sitting here waiting for me to review. You've done such a wonderful job that I'll have to point people over here.

When I read the part about the Mormon kid selling subscriptions for his church, I thought, WHAT? What subscriptions? I thought Picoult was all into research and she didn't seem to get that one right. I can't think of a single instance where anybody goes door-to-door raising funds for the LDS church.

As far as all your other statements, I completely agree. I thought this was such an odd book with some interesting issues. She raises some interesting ideas concerning death penalty, organized religion, how do we receive salvation, the character of Jesus Christ, etc.

I took everything with a grain of salt and decided to try to not look to deep into it. I guess I wasn't it the mood for some deep thinking.

I have no interest in reading this book, but I think if I had that first passage you quoted would have made me quit. I was raised LDS and strongly dislike books that erroneously depict the church. What first sprang to my mind was door-to-door missionaries, but they aren't selling anything, much less subscriptions. How could she have gotten her facts so wrong?

I have never read a Jodi Picoult book, but had recently added her to my to-read list after a couple of friends recommended her. I think I will familiarize myself with her writing style with a less religously controversial book. If I like her style I will give this one a try too.

Thanks for your toughts! I am happy to have someone to discuss this book with! I am also a Christian and struggled with some of the ideas of this book. But I struggled with the Secret Gospel of Thomas and the Gnostic Gospels. Instead, I am trying to focus on some of the parts of the book that I liked. For example, “How could I not have known that you see God every time you look at the face of the person you love.” (384) When I read this quote I thought of my daughter who we thought would result in a miscarrage when I was pregnant...or my best friend's son who Drs told her that it would be unlikely that she would ever have a child. These are the miracles I see God perform.

I struggled a lot with this book. I have read a lot of Picoults books and typically enjoy them, but I didn't enjoy this one as much as some of the others. I like that she takes on prevelent issues in society, but I think this book could have taken on the death penalty without injecting all the questions of God.

****SPOILER ALERT*******
Also I am stil trying to figure out if I think Shay is creditable. The box he gave the priest at the end trying to discredit himself...what did you think of that? Did he have all the gum that he gave away or did he plant all those items to give the Priest back his Catholic faith? Shay was that type of person, but really in the end people find out the truth in the end like Jane did about Kevin. Is he a liar because he told people lies that they wanted to hear/know...does this make him less creditable. Did he lie to the people like Lucias who wanted to beleive?

Also, I don't even remember the LDS people selling subscriptions!

Oh thank you! I needed someone else to agree with me SO badly! I love Picoult's books, she's my favorite author, and I know to expect controversy when I open the cover of a new novel. This however, took me by complete surprise. Several times I found myself literally wanting to throw the book across the room! As a Christian, I have my own, specific, beliefs and though I certainly don't expect those beliefs to show up in everything I read, this particular work felt so personal. People really believing that Shay was Jesus just really hit me hard for some reason. I was dying to read someone else's thoughts! Thanks so much for your great writings!