Perfect Match by Jodi Picoult (2002)

Whenever I am in the mood for an easy read that grabs me by the scruff of the neck and won't let me go til I get to the last page, but at the same time is sure to be topical, deal with tough moral dilemmas and peopled by characters I feel like I know, then I can't go wrong with a book by Jodi Picoult.

I was at the library and decided to pick up one of her books I hadn't read yet (still waiting for "House Rules" to be turned in) and sure enough, I started reading it last night and just couldn't put it down and finished it this afternoon.

"Perfect Match" is definitely topical - it deals with a young boy that has been sexually abused by a priest - and also includes a terrible moral dilemma - is it right for the mother of that boy to take the law into her own hands, when she herself is a District Attorney, and dish out her own version of justice? And what are the unforeseen consequences when she does?

I am still not sure what side of the fence I am on after reading this book. Being a mother myself it was easy to understand what drove the main character to do something so desperate but still, didn't we all learn in grade school that two wrongs don't make a right? And the thing that kept going through my mind, again as a mother, was what example was she setting for her son? Ultimately we want our kids to be good people. Wanting to protect them from every single bad thing is simply not possible even though we would like to think otherwise. In this way, I think the mother in this book, while very intelligent, was missing some basic insight.