Did this book 's ending annoy anyone else as much as me???????  I don't get Picoult.  The novel was engaging - I couldn't put it down.  Why did she "sell out" and have Josie shoot her boyfriend at the end????  What was the point of that?  It would have made more sense, if Picoult wanted a "shocker" ending, that Josie stand aside and basically give Peter permission to shoot Matt.  But to turn her into a killer???  I think Picoult knows she has a reputation for "surprise" endings...but come on, at least make them realistic.

I was also really annoyed with Joey's character.  Why in the world did he become a drug addict? I don't see where the author ever realistically developed the family to explain that.  Were we supposed to believe that the parents were so terrible they produced 2 bad kids?  If so, why weren't there more examples of their badness?  I found the dad to be distant, but a bad parent?

I think this is my last Picoult book.

I liked the book, but I agree, the ending was unrealistic. I would have thought it better if she stood aside and let him kill Matt. I think you are right; Jodi Picoult has the reputation for the ending with a "twist", and maybe she is feeling the pressure to crank the books out more quickly. I definitely find her books well researched and engrossing, but sometimes the endings have left something to be desired (example: Plain Truth)

I'm with both of you on this one..the last page I was like WTH?? I couldn't believe it....I do like how her books go into great detail, but then it seemed like she just got tired of writing the story, and it abrubtly ended...

I couldn't put the book down, yet felt disappointed by the ending.  I felt that, throughout the history we saw about the relationship between Josie and her boyfriend, that there wasn't a real reason why she would have killed him.

I can't stand Picoult.  Blech.  I felt the same way about the ending of My Sister's Keeper:  Just plain stupid!

Jenny,

I'm with you. I thought Josie finally got it in those brief moments how much torture Peter endured because of her boyfriend and took years to snap. IMO, I think she might have shot Peter instead if she hadn't been emotionally and physically abused by her boyfriend and finally acknowledged to herself how evil he was.

I've mulled over in my mind how I would have ended this story, and honestly, I can't come up with anything better than Picoult did.

I agree with you L;  I don't like Picoult either. I don't even read them anymore; I just post them if I come across one.

BTW: What's with the title of this thread You've Been Warned?  That's the new book I just read by James Patterson.  I didn't like that either!!

I used You've Been Warned to emphasize I was not responsible if the spoiler ticked you off.

I liked the ending of 19 Minutes. I have read a lot of Jodi Piccoult...I am still torn if I actually like them or not. I usually feel like I am reading the same book over and over and am not ever surprised by what comes about in the books. But, 19 Minutes was definitely one of her better books so far. The fact that she made Josie kill her boyfriend at the end just went along with the fact that she had been mentally and physically abused by him. If Josie hadn't retaliated in some way, what was the point of continually mentioning that throughout the book?  It also started to make methink about Josie's character...did she really feel sorry for the kids who got teased? For all the things done to Peter? Or was she a cold blooded killer like Peter? Did she act out because of the abuse or because she knew she could pass the blame onto Peter?  In any case, I really did like the ending....proving that not everything/everyone is as they appear on the surface.

I am so glad to find that others are coming to the same conclusions that I am about Jodi Picoult's work.  I started reading her books, almost back to back, and I thought perhaps I had read too much of it all together.  But overall, I think she writes the same story again and again, just in different settings.  She does wordcraft beautifully, and sets the up the suspense well.  But overall, instead of making one think as you are reading about the moral dilemmas people face (as in Sister's Keeper and the one about the Amish girl), now it's almost as if she is rushing us headlong into expected territories.  I, for one, can say, she is off my reading list now.  I wonder if there are only so many novels in a writer?