Book Review: The Tenth Circle

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

The Tenth Circle     Amazon US HC Amazon Canada HC
Jodi Picoult
Class/Genre:   Fiction
Atria, March 2006, $26.00, 400 pp.

Daniel Stone was the only white child who lived in an Alaskan Eskimo village where because of his race, the boys picked on him until he finally acted out by stealing, vandalizing property, fighting and a host of other petty crimes. When he was eighteen, he left Alaska and reinvented himself and now is a mild mannered comic artist; a stay at home dad to his teenage daughter Trixie, who he will protect at any cost.

Trixie is in love with Jason who dumped her for another girl but she does everything in her power to get him back. At an unsupervised teen party, Trixie tries to make Jason but it backfires and she returns home telling her father he raped her. Jason is arrested and let out on bond but the lead detective on the case finds inconsistencies in Trixie’s story. Just when they are about to drop the case, a date rape drug is found in Trixie’s blood taken when she went to the hospital right after she claimed rape. Jason is now going to be tried as an adult but that is not the end of the story only the beginning.

Jodi Picoult always writes an exciting thriller wrapped around a social issue and in THE TENTH CIRCLE the concern is date rape and how it affects the victim, the family and the suspect. The plot takes so many unexpected twists that readers have no idea where the storyline will finally take them. The audience will empathize with Trixie, a young adult who is facing issues her parents never dealt with and she struggles to deal with them on his own. This book is going to make the New York Times bestseller list.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner