1. The novel is suspenseful because each chapter ends with a little bit of uncertainty. You get to look at the story through one characters point of view but you never learn what they are really thinking. Each chapter tells the story of one character, and tells what they believe is happening. The thing that keeps it suspenseful is the fact that every chapter ends right before a real conflict begins and it leaves you wondering what’ll happen next. As the story goes on you begin to be able to piece together what’s happening by putting all the characters accounts of it together, but Jodi Picoult never comes out and says what’s going on.

2. Sara seems a little too focused on Kate. It looks like she believes Kate is the only child that really matters. She sees Jesse high and drunk all the time, she sees how he drives and she knows the trouble he gets into but she doesn’t do anything about it. She acts like she only has one child. I don’t doubt that she loves her children but she doesn’t show that she really cares about them too much.