The author draws us into Katie Fisher's plight. Why do we care about her so much?

How does her specific situation come to touch upon such timeless and universal issues as community estrangement and forbiddon love?

(These are from the back of the book by the way, I had a little help this time )

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I've grown certain that the root of all fear is that we've been forced to deny who we are. ~ Frances Moore Lappe

I felt sorry for Katie from the very beginning of the book. I thought all along that she "probably" didn't kill her baby. I think of myself as a young girl who was sexually active before marriage (ooopsss....) I could identify with the fear of being pregnant and shaming one's family. My dad was a deacon in the Baptist church and we were raised very conservatively, and I can't begin to imagine how I would have felt having to tell my parents. And she seemed so incredibly sweet and compliant it was hard to imagine her doing any wrong. I was somewhat confused when she started getting her memory back and questioned if she had it all along. But even when I thought she was perhaps guilty of the crime...in some odd way I was rooting for her.

This is the thing I've loved about both of the Jodi Picoult books I've read....the no one is exactly right or wrong...there's a lot of gray, and it really made me think alot about what "I would have done" (The other I read is My Sister's Keeper) I even told my dh that I couldn't figure out why I was rooting for her, because normally if I thought a young girl has smothered her baby I'd be very angry and hoping she got punished.

I'll have to think on the second part of the question.

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Well, I had a hard time being drawn into Katie's plight. I didn't find the book as engaging as everybody else. It wasn't that I didn't care, but I never felt a part of it like other books I have read. So, I disagree with the first statement and I did not really care so much. Just me though.

It did remind me of "The Scarlet Letter" at times, for obvious reasons. Community is important to us all, but I think the book more than anything, pointed out how our society has lost a sense of community. As far as forbidden love, I never really felt love between her and Adam as much as curiousity. Again, JMO.

Almost afraid to say this since you all loved this book so much.

Good start! And don't be afraid. that is what these discussion are for.

I never thought that she "killed" her baby either. I changed my mind several times though, between all of the men. (Sad that I thought only a man could do that).

I was pulling for her too. I was 19 and pregnant, and had been on BC secretly for a year...I was more afraid to tell my parents about BC than I was to tell them I was pregnant. Go figure.

So, I could relate to her situation somewhat. I felt so bad that the one person she did trust, HER MOM, turned out to betray her. I took that pretty hard.

I actually think that her and Adam were in love, but I think Katie knew that her Mom would lose her last child because of it, and Katie was protecting her Mom to a degree.

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I've grown certain that the root of all fear is that we've been forced to deny who we are. ~ Frances Moore Lappe

I felt for her because she fell in love and she was torn between wanting that baby so she could hang onto that love,but also knew that having that baby could destroy her already broken family and she knew what that would do to her mother,losing yet another child.

I don't know how to answer the 2nd part of the question, only to say that in today's times i still don't understand why some teens(or even grown women) still hide pregnancies and leave the babies to die somewhere or kill the babies themselves.So many states have safe haven laws now that they could so easily leave a baby in a safe place, no questions asked.

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"Go on, get outside, get the stink blown off ya!!"