Many excellent books have turned into movies, entertaining us with the same story yet in utterly different ways. Jodi Picoult is a famous American author whose books have captivated the attention of many readers. She tackles severe real-life issues, exploring life’s happy and rugged sides.
In every Picoult book you pick up and start reading, you will immediately get hooked on the drama involving love, illness, and sad goodbyes. There is always a chance for you to relate with the portrayed characters, constantly inspired by real stories.
Jodi Picoult is also an expert in exploring the dimensions of rare diseases and how they impact the whole family of the affected person. Today, we examine a list of bestselling novels by Picoult that made it to the big screen. You will enjoy heartwarming love stories, lots of family drama, and captivating twists you never see coming.
1. The Pact (1998)
This book is one of the most robust plots Jodi Picoult has written, with many bends and turns that will blow your mind. The Pact is a story of a teenage couple living next to each other for years. They had a suicide pact, where the girl ended up dead. Chris describes the suicide pact to the police, yet they remain suspicious, putting the guy on trial for murder.
The book is full of fascinating twists that leave parents appalled and perplexed, wondering if they know their children as they believe they do. This book was published in 1998 as Picoult’s fifth book. Yet, the film was released four years later, in 2002, starring Megan Mullally, Bob Gunton, Eric Lively, and Juliet Stevenson.
It is an excellent story about grief that tears two families apart after being part of each other’s lives for so long. The story tackles the power of tragic events and how they can change life as we know it forever. It also raises awareness among parents that they may be oblivious to how their children think and act.
2. Salem Falls (2001)
Salem Falls is another novel representing Jodi Picoult’s uncanny talent in writing. It is an engaging story of perception, trust, and the challenges of turning a new leaf to erase a label. Salem Falls should be your next pick if you are searching for an excuse to treat yourself to a new book where you can lose yourself in the story.
If reading is your best suit, you are in luck today, for you can still catch up on this remarkable story by watching the 2011 movie. It stars Sarah Carter and James Van Der Beek as the protagonists, along with AJ Michalka, Rick Roberts, and James Thomas. This story is also great for feeding your passion for crime and mystery.
The novel narrates a story of a history teacher who had to start over in a new town after being accused of sexual assault in his former school. Trying to escape the ghosts of his past, Jack meets Addie Peabody, who has her haunting ghosts as well. Despite his attempts to start fresh, he gets convicted of the same accusation again. Time and judgement will either condemn or redeem the only guy Addie developed a deep love for. 999+
3. Plain Truth (2000)
Plain Truth is Jodi Picoult’s seventh novel, published in 2000 and among the successful ones adapted into movies. This story made it to the big screen in 2004, starring Alison Pill, Mariska Hargitay, Jan Niklas, Kate Trotter, and Alec McClure. It is another crime and mystery story with many events shrouded in mystery that will keep you sitting on the edge.
The plot of plain truth revolves around a teenage girl, Katie, who is accused of killing an infant, her child. It narrates the story of a defence attorney, Ellie Hathaway, who does her best to defend helpless Katie, who denies killing her child after a baby’s body was found. She proclaims of not remember seeing the baby at all.
But does her forgetfulness stem from the fact that she never really saw the baby, or is it a post-traumatic response of wishing it never happened? That’s what Ellie is determined to figure out. Another significant element that gives the story its spark is the concise history of the Amish. Picoult has a great way of presenting to her readers a whole group of people that barely got the attention they deserved.
4. The Tenth Circle (2006)
Jodi Picoult always handles family issues in her novel with great care. It is apparent that she firmly believes in the unbreakable bond between parents and their children. In her book, The Tenth Circle, she captivated her readers early on, especially the ones who are parents themselves. She paved the way for them to ask genuine questions and look deeper into their relationships with their children.
The book narrates the story of a teenage girl, Trixie, who perceives her father as a hero. She thinks so highly of him, but she gets involved in a relationship that may shatter this image forever. Trixie’s father is a comic artist with a secret buried deep into the dark and carried with him everywhere he goes. He goes to substantial lengths to protect his daughter from the ghosts of his past.
The secrets of the past were like hell that broke loose when Trixie accused her boyfriend of rape, and things started taking a dark turn. In 2008, the novel turned into a movie starring Britt Robertson, Ron Eldard, Kelly Preston, and Michael Riley.
5. My Sister’s Keeper (2004)
Picoult always made sure her portrayal of families was not perfect but genuine and authentic. She always depicted the relationships between parents and their children and siblings with one another as unbreakable bonds despite the mistakes. My Sister’s Keeper is a book that will leave you in tears. It is an excellent story about pain, love, and sacrifice in different forms.
This story has a lot of controversies. It’s about a young girl plagued by leukaemia since birth. They can only save her by finding a match for bone marrow. Her parents were no match, so to protect their little girl, they decided to conceive another one that would act as a match. It is amazing the great lengths parents would go to save their child, but should they do it by violating the rights of another?
The answer to this question is quite complicated, especially when the little sister learns the truth about her birth. This book will give you a lot of mixed feelings, but you won’t help but fall in love with it. The movie is another fascination, starring the lovely star Cameron Diaz with Abigail Breslin, Alec Baldwin, and Kate Fitzgerald.
6. Wish You Were Here (2021)
Wish You Were Here is a moving book that will have you admire the dynamic of human characteristics and mental development. It relates so much to our modern world, imitating the pandemic of 2020 and how people adapt to the new normal. Balancing between protecting yourself from a plaguing virus and keeping your sanity intact is not easy.
The book narrates a young lady’s story, where she had all her life sorted out and planned for years. She wants to get married by thirty, have kids by thirty-five, and climb the ladder of success in her career journey. It is Diana O’Toole, whose boyfriend hasn’t even proposed yet, but she was sure he will during their getaway to Galápagos.
However, life had a different plan for Diane. Her boyfriend, Finn, a surgical resident, has to stay in the hospital when a viral infection invades the city. She went on vacation alone instead of wasting the trip money. Unexpectedly, the island she went to goes into quarantine, so no one is allowed to go in or out.
Diane formed new relationships, learnt about a young girl’s secret, and spent a lot of time wondering if she would be the same person when she returned home. There isn’t an official movie for this book yet, but we added it here because Netflix has bought the book’s rights to turn it into a featured film, and we cannot wait until it is out.
There are great books in which you will get lost, and then there are Jodi Picoult’s books, ones which vicariously send you to a different realm. The best part is that even if you are not a fan of reading, you can just watch the movie and still get a glimpse into the wits and intelligence of Picoult’s mind.