Keeping Faith by Jodi Picoult

I first published this review on March 27, 2010

Jodi Picoult. One of the best authors of our time.  She has won numerous awards. Very well known for The Plain Truth, My Sister's Keeper, Nineteen Minutes, and many more.  I've not read a Picoult book that didn't pull me in and have me hooked right away.  In a time of popular "series" books, Picoult begins, expounds and ends her character's stories very concisely in one volume.  She is able to take controversial subjects and make the reader look at them from every angle to be able to make a clear and concise judgment of ones own. I don't always agree with Picoult but I am always stretched to look at the subject from another viewpoint. That in itself makes an outstanding author. Then add  her gift of story telling and you have another bestseller.

My favorite Picoult book is Keeping Faith. Maybe because it is about a subject I didn't know much about.  But it is one Picoult (this and Nineteen Minutes) that stays in my mind. - And I last read it in 2004.

Keeping Faith is about Mariah and her daughter, Faith.  Faith is a troubled young girl going through the divorce of her parents, their infidelity, the struggles of life as a young girl. Very similar life to many young people you and I know. However, in the process, Faith, a girl that has never been to church, begins reciting Bible passages,  develops stigmata, then begins to perform miraculous healings.

I had never read anything about stigmata. It is a fascinating subject and Picoult again makes an unusual subject into a very interesting topic.

Also, remember my fondness for books that give a bit of twist in the end!! - Which often happens in a Picoult  book.

Very interesting book - Jodi Picoult at her best - controversial and compelling.

I highly recommend this book.