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Home > Books > Fiction > Modern Fiction Books > S Modern Fiction Books > Salem Falls - Jodi Picoult

User Reviews

for Salem Falls - Jodi Picoult

Rating Summary based on 15 reviews

  • 5 Stars
    		9
  • 4 Stars
    		6
  • 3 Stars
    		0
  • 2 Stars
    		0
  • 1 Star
    		0

Detailed rating

  • Characters
  • How does it compare to other works by the same author?
  • How does it compare to similar books?
  • Readability
  • Story
  		• 4.5
  		• 4.1
  		• 4.3
  		• 4.8
  		• 4.7
Previous page Next page Page 1 of 2 | 1 to 10 out of 15 Review(s)
  • 70 of 70 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of wigglylittleworm

    Level 7 wigglylittleworm

    Member since 28/08/2008

    Reviews written: 309

    4 Stars A Modern Day Witch Hunt 07/03/2009
    User recommends the product

    Advantages Advantages gripping story

    Disadvantages Disadvantages I didnt like the way paganism was portrayed.

    When ex teacher Jack St Bride is released from prison after serving a sentence for raping a schoolgirl he is homeless and penniless. He ends up in the sleepy little town of Salem Falls and is offered a job in Addie's diner and tries to put his past behind him and build a new life. Addie Peabody has a few skeletons in her closet of her own. She lives a solitary life following the death of her only daughter; her life consists of running her diner and keeping tabs on her widowed alcoholic father. She is curious about this stranger who is obviously well educated, what has led him to washing dishes ... more
  • 31 of 31 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of cocoklo

    cocoklo

    5 Stars We all fall down.. 23/12/2005
    User recommends the product

    Advantages Advantages Wonderfully written, Engaging, Hard to put down

    Disadvantages Disadvantages Deals with some quite uncomfortable issues

    Salem Falls, the 2001 novel from celebrated author Jodi Picoult, is, by her own admission, a reworking of Arthur Millers "The Crucible", taking contemporary issues and fashioning them into a modern day witch hunt. It centres around a sleepy New Hampshire town of the same name. The town, like many, seems entirely innocent on the surface, but hoards a past of corruption, assaults, greed, violence and (intriguingly, but less dangerously) witchcraft. The protagonist, Jack St Bride, is an enigmatic, dark and handsome stranger who moves into the town to escape the demons of his past; 8 months in a ... more
  • 25 of 25 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of DoubleFantasy11

    DoubleFantasy11

    4 Stars One Man's Fall 13/08/2007
    User recommends the product

    Advantages Advantages Interesting issues to debate, superb characters

    Disadvantages Disadvantages Plot problems, doesn't realise full potential

    Salem Falls reminded me of another of Jodi Picoult’s books, Perfect Match; perhaps partly because it’s a novel that doesn’t realise its full potential, but also because it deals with the difficult topic of sexual abuse and false accusation, albeit in very different circumstances. This time, the main character is not the victim, but the accused. Jack St Bride arrives in the small New Hampshire town of Salem Falls in a taxi. He has ill-fitting clothes and little money, following an 8 month prison sentence and a reluctance to return to Loyal, his former home. He was convicted of sexual assault, a ... more
  • 26 of 26 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of angiebabyqueen

    angiebabyqueen

    5 Stars 'You can't make up for what you lost' 15/07/2009
    User recommends the product

    Advantages Advantages An amazing book to read absolutely page turning and unputdownable

    Disadvantages Disadvantages none I dont think

    Well having just finished this book I can safely say Jodi Picoult has still yet to disappoint me. I have been an avid fan since reading a review of my sister’s keeper back in 2005, and so far I haven’t looked back as her books are the best I have ever read. They are all about factious moral dilemmas, and she takes every characters viewpoint in the books to give all sides to the same story. This is a brilliant author who researches every point of the court, police procedures, jailhouses and any type of evidence collected to make her books seem real - she has friends on hand that help her ... more
  • 9 of 9 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of charlie-clough

    charlie-clough

    5 Stars Never judge a book by it's cover 19/12/2007
    User recommends the product

    Advantages Advantages Fast paced, page turner

    Disadvantages Disadvantages Sometimes wooden characters

    I had never read Jodi Picoult before I read this book. To be brutally honest, I really didn't think she was going to be my kind of author and I do believe that I deducted this purely from the style of the covers and to be fair, some of the blurbs. I had seen her as well and had put her down as a bit of a hippy and wishy-washy and I expected her books to be the same. So when I saw Salem Falls in a charity shop whilst perusing for books for my latest holiday, I decided to give it a go. Now, whether it was the sunny disposition I was in whilst in Greece, or the jugs of wine I was drinking whilst ... more
  • 32 of 32 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of lynh17

    lynh17

    5 Stars Wow what a read 2 11/01/2006
    User recommends the product

    Advantages Advantages A great read

    Disadvantages Disadvantages I've finished it

    Overall View: Wow! This is now the third Jodi Picoult book taht I have read. I reviewed the first one - The Pact, but have been unable to review the second - Perfect Match, as it is not on th esite and I cannot work out how to put it on? And now - Salem Falls, yet another great read. The Hook: As with all of the books that I have read by Jodi Picoult it is her style of writing that I find to be the hook. No matter whereabouts in the book I am I just do not want to put it down. I literally have to be falling asleep, (or recently glancing at the clock just knowing that there is no chance that I ... more
  • 29 of 29 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of newby2

    Level 8 newby2

    Member since 25/02/2007

    Reviews written: 1414

    5 Stars Salem Falls by Jodi Picoult 26/05/2007
    User recommends the product

    Advantages Advantages cant put it down

    Disadvantages Disadvantages none

    Salem Falls by Jodi Picoult Can a leopard change its spots? Can people really be given a second chance? Can you always believe what you hear? Are things EVER what they seem? All reasonable questions and ones to make you think. These are the sorts of questions you begin to ask yourself whist reading a Picoult novel and this one is no exception. Jack St. Bride the main character in this book, Salem Falls, was only a short time ago a respected teacher and well loved soccer coach at a price school for girls. The pupils loved him and he had a way of really getting through to them both academically ... more
  • 12 of 12 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of brokenangelkisses

    Level 6 brokenangelkisses

    Member since 24/11/2003

    Reviews written: 175

    4 Stars witches, motives and miscreants 04/08/2008
    User recommends the product

    Advantages Advantages interesting plot; relevant storylines; engaging structure

    Disadvantages Disadvantages some characters lack depth

    'Several miles into his journey, Jack St Bride decided to give up his former life.' In this way the first sentence of the book introduces you to a key character who is trying to distance himself from a false conviction that caused him to spend ten months in jail. By sharing Jack's first few moments of freedom with us, and his bewildered reaction to it, Picoult tries to create sympathy for this character early on. This is important since readers do not find out what actually happened between Jack and his accuser until much later in the book, leaving room for a margin of doubt. Unable to leave ... more
  • 14 of 14 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of skye_hoppus

    skye_hoppus

    5 Stars Salem, not just a bad place for witches... 23/01/2006
    User recommends the product

    Advantages Advantages Excellent plot, relatable characters, great author!

    Disadvantages Disadvantages Not enough of it!

    This story is outstanding.and I love Jodi Picoult... so much so that she's my new favourite author! In this book Jodi tells the tale of Jack McBride, an 'innocent' sex offender who has served jail time for sex offences to a minor. The story goes on to involve everything and anything you can imagine... witchcraft, teenage love, teenage hormones, adult love, death, jail, and small town people who like to gossip! One of her more developed books, this is one I could not put down and spent 12 hours straight reading this thing! It was well worth it, I was amazed, if a little tired, at the end that ... more
  • 20 of 20 Ciao users found the following review helpful
    Picture of sevyg18

    sevyg18

    4 Stars When magic meets the Crucibles 07/03/2006
    User recommends the product

    Advantages Advantages Enthralling

    Disadvantages Disadvantages Some unnecessary chapters

    This is the second Jodi Picould book I read after The Pact and I found it far more enjoyable to the first one. The one thing I really like about the way Jodi Picoult writes is her description of characters. They are so well described that they become real and you get a very good sense of how they would look. This story was very interesting mixing teenage discovery of life, love and magic with a poor soul (Jack) who happens to become their victim. Jack arrives in Salem Falls after having done time in prison for a sexual offence he did not commit. This becomes common knowledge in Salem Falls and ... more
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