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    Salem Falls
    Salem Falls
    Salem Falls
    Audiobook18 hours

    Salem Falls

    Written by Jodi Picoult

    Narrated by Julia Gibson

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    From #1 New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult comes a compelling and “multilayered tale of small-town intrigue” (Glamour) about a prep schoolteacher accused of rape by a group of young girls, the woman who stands by him, and the repercussions of the case in a New England town where the past is only a heartbeat away.

    Love can redeem a man...but secrets and lies can condemn him.

    A handsome stranger comes to the sleepy New England town of Salem Falls in hopes of burying his past. Once a teacher at a girls prep school, Jack St. Bride was destroyed when a student’s crush sparked a powder keg of accusation. Now, washing dishes for Addie Peabody at the Do-Or-Diner, he slips quietly into his new routine, and Addie finds this unassuming man fitting easily inside her heart.

    But amid the rustic calm of Salem Falls, a quartet of teenage girls harbor dark secrets—and they maliciously target Jack with a shattering allegation. Now, at the center of a modern-day witch hunt, Jack is forced once again to proclaim his innocence: to a town searching for answers, to a justice system where truth becomes a slippery concept written in shades of gray, and to the woman who has come to love him in this unputdownable novel that will keep you “constantly guessing” (The Dallas Morning News) until the very last page.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateMar 29, 2016
    ISBN9781508224433
    Author

    Jodi Picoult

    Jodi Picoult received an AB in creative writing from Princeton and a master’s degree in education from Harvard. The recipient of the 2003 New England Book Award for her entire body of work, she is the author of twenty-seven novels, including the #1 New York Times bestsellers House Rules, Handle With Care, Change of Heart, and My Sister’s Keeper, for which she received the American Library Association’s Margaret Alexander Edwards Award. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband and three children. Visit her website at JodiPicoult.com.

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    Reviews for Salem Falls

    4/5

    1,274 ratings49 reviews

    What did you think?

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    • 2/5
      So NOT a well developed story and characters! Very disappointing… I’m left with so many questions and loose ends. Not worth the time invested!
    • 4/5
      It was an interesting book, but way too long and drawn out.
    • 3/5
      This book really shines in the descriptions of the lives of it's characters, but the plot seems to lack a bit. Picoult seems to excell at creating wonderful, three dimentional characters, but seems at a loss at what to do with them once she has their lives figured out. This is more or less a Lifetime movie in book format. Neither good nor bad, but not really memorable.
    • 4/5
      I live Jodi Picoult- and I’ve read every book she has written…
    • 2/5
      I'd enjoy the story so much more if I didn't have to listen to the narrarator swallow every couple minutes. I'll be skipping any audiobooks with this narrator in the future.
    • 5/5
      Love this author and once again a great story. But…
      Surely the editing software would allow the editor to cut out the breathing, swallowing, and mouth sounds of the narrator as she ended each chapter. Seriously gross and off-putting.
    • 4/5
      This was a really good book kept me wanting more!
    • 3/5
      Not one of my favorites but s good story from Jodi nonetheless.
    • 5/5
      It just keep me in suspense the whole time wonderful
    • 5/5
      Jack is a teacher and soccer coach at a girls school. One of the girls accuses him of an imagined sexual relationship. Jack takes a plea deal to return to society. He moves to Salem Falls to start over. The small town gets wind of Jack's past and the nightmare starts over again when a teenager accuses him of rape.
    • 3/5
      Typical Jodi Picoult book; raises some questions and talking points but ends on a positive note.
    • 4/5
      Jack St Bride is freed from jail after serving 8 months for having a sexual relationship with a pupil and unable to go by to teaching ends up as a worker in a diner in Salem Falls. There he finds Addie the owner and gradually they both let down their guard and get closer.

      Meanwhile a group of girls want to be witches and cast spells and when the two worlds collide nothing can ever be taken for granted again.

      I really enjoyed this book with Jack's story told in flash-back helping us to see what kind of man he is and how far he goes.

      The characterisation is very good even of the more minor characters and although you know what you want the result to be it keeps you guessing as to what it will be right until the end. The twist at the end was a surprise although in hindsight the clues were there.

      I did get annoyed that so many words were hyphenated when it wasn't needed. It also showed clearly that messing with witchcraft is not a good idea.

      Look forward to reading more of her books.
    • 3/5
      This was an interesting read about a country town and a modern day witch hunt. However, it was rather far-fetched at times and I guessed the ending half-way through the book. Still, one of Picoult's better novels.
    • 1/5
      Mediocre writing about stock characters in a soap opera plot. After reading the other reviews here, I'm glad I only invested 100 pages worth of my time
    • 2/5
      Among the contemporary writers, I also read recently 'Salem falls' by Jodi Picoult. What I liked about her is: she does not expose only the evils of the society; she also shows our strengths right next to our frailties. To give you a few examples of the positives in her book:- In the opening scene, I'm touched by the compassion of the taxi driver, who picks up Jack for free, when he is walking down the highway, barely clothed on a very cold day, with no money- then you see the reciprocative acts of protection between him and the woman Addie, right at the beginning, when he shows up at her restaurant- later, you see the dignity of Jack on many occasions- the act of self-sacrifice that Jack does to protect Addie's drunk father- the extent to which Addie goes for helping Jack, in spite of her inner conflicts- the generosity of Wes for Jack, in spite of their rivalryAnd, in terms of craft, this is an author who keeps us uncertain till the end, forcing us to read every line, because you never know how the end will turn out. I find Picoult has done a great job here, portraying a realistic story, in a way that is a balanced mix of good and bad, where everything does NOT turn out predictably.Another great writer I’ve appreciated is Tony Morrison. Although sometimes I have difficulty following her use of dialects, I think in ‘Shula’ and ‘Beloved’ she has really created some great characters, with some vivid descriptions and interior monologues.
    • 4/5
      Salem Falls by Jodi PicoultJack St. Bride is back in a small town, teaching after having been released from prison, a crime he didn't commit.Addy runs the Do or Die restaurant and appliances are failing....and she has to bail her father out of jail and things get worse.Story also follows teen girls who have formed a magic circle and they make things happen. Lots of colorful characters in town keep this book moving along.Also goes back in time to previous years so you gain the knowledge of what has already happened to the characters.One policeman finds out about Jack's past and makes sure everybody else knows....love the trial and how they are able to find the clues to solve the mystery. so intense and so many little details.I received this book from National Library Service for my BARD (Braille Audio Reading Device).
    • 4/5
      Really enjoyed this book of Jodi Picoult's. It's one of her older ones and, in my opinion, better than some of the more recent ones of hers I have read. The story moves along at a good pace, the characters are interesting, and the way the story unfolds is genuinely intriguing and surprising. Occasionally, some of the events in the courtroom scenes don't come across as authentic, but overall, a good read.
    • 4/5
      Unlike many Jodi Picoult novels, this one is not as much of a tear-jerker. It has the defense attorney and his son and investigator from the Pact as key characters and it was nice to have their familiarity in this storyline. I enjoyed the way the story played out and the emotional depth of the characters.

      The one negative about this story, is that if you go by the main characters in this novel it seems 85% of the population is either a rapist, or a rape victim. Numbers that I believe are extensively higher than is realistic.
    • 4/5
      on Friday, April 21, 2006 I wrote:


      Read it in a day.
      Very good book. I did not know what to expect (try not to read descriptions) and was pleasantly surprised.
      Thanks for sharing.

    • 4/5
      Salem Falls by Jodi Picoult is an interesting book about a young man named Jack who is accused of raping one of his students. He didn't really do it but is sentenced to a few months in prison. He moves into the small town of Salem Falls where nothing bad every happens. He starts working at a diner run by a girl named Addie who he falls in love with. Eventually the town finds out about his past and things go all down hill for him and he is accused of rape again. There are other many twists and turns in this book like Gilly and her friends who practice witchcraft. The book kept my attention throughout the whole thing. Over all it was a very good book!
    • 3/5
      Picoult writes another drama filled story that makes you want more with each turn of the page. Jack St Bride moves to a new town after being convicted of rape (although he is innocent). Word gets around in this new town, and Jack is unwanted by a lot of the townspeople. Soon, he is accused of another rape, (which he again did not do) by another teenage girl who was rejected by Jack. As we go through all the evidence in the his second trail, things get interesting and the end is very surprising.
    • 4/5
      Synopsis: Jack St Bride is trying to start afresh in a town called Salem Falls after being convicted of rape when he worked as a teacher and serving prison time. However, when the small town discovers his colourful history its residents try to force him out and victimise him. When a young female in Salem Falls alleges that Jack has raped her, things turn even worse.My Opinion: The book started off well however the last half and result in court was a little too predictable. More telling of the after-math would have made for a better closure.
    • 3/5
      I've never read Picoult before because I am always wary of novels which seem to be About a Topic (capitals intentional there). As in, this novel is About Autism. This novel is About School Shootings. This novel is About Child Abduction. This wariness is a clear result of my thoughts on artful fiction, what it should do, and how it works. I think fiction should arise from discovery and exploration, and little red flags go up for me when I see that a novel is about something specific that we could just as easily be reading in a news magazine. A novel About Adultery seems to me like a very different thing than a novel with betrayal as a theme. I suspect the first of being forcibly made into a story about one particular thing because it is topical; I believe the second has a better chance of arising through writerly discovery. Either book could be terrible. And either book might be very good, I suppose, which is why I decided to give Picoult a try.I chose carefully, picking a novel I had heard nothing about and whose topic sounded interesting to me. And I tried to read with an open mind. What I found in Salem Falls was better than I expected it to be, but still left me pretty cold.The novel is the story of Jack St. Bride, who spent eight months in jail as part of plea bargain when an infatuated sixteen-year-old girl on the soccer team he coached claimed they were having a sexual affair. Jack is innocent, and we are never led to suspect otherwise. When he arrives in Salem Falls just after being released from jail, he finds a job at a diner and tentatively begins a relationship with the diner's owner. That Jack is a sexual offender makes its way around town, and a group of fathers in town make it their business to make it clear to Jack (through vandalism and personal violence) that Jack is not welcome. Eventually Jack is accused of rape by one of the town's teenage girls, a girl who readers already know is mad at Jack (for failing to show a sexual interest in her), craves attention, and was almost certainly high at the time of the alleged rape. The book then becomes a courtroom drama, with a lot of focus on gathering evidence and the presentation of the case in court.Picoult writes pretty well. Sentences are clear and coherent, the story pulls one along, there are few of the kinds of tics that suggest a writer is not taking care with the craft, and the aspects of the story which probably required research ring true enough. But there is a tendency to overwrite and to over-sentimentalize. Honest, every action doesn't require a simile describing it, especially not if those similes try to give the actions meaning they don't deserve. And scars don't form in the shape of hearts on girls whose hearts have been trampled. Come on.There were a lot of moments like those, those moments where I thought, "This is manipulation. I'm being told to feel something here, not being allowed to discover a truth along with the writer." I have little patience for that sort of thing, but other problems I had with the novel were probably even more important. These characters were cardboard; there was no complexity to them at all. Not one of them did a single thing that furthered the reader's understanding of the character or of the situation they found themselves in. Everyone behaved as expected; nothing ever asked the reader to stretch for meaning or growth. And that is almost disturbing in a novel whose main focus is a man being destroyed by people who can't seem to conceive of things being not the way they appear. At about the two-thirds mark, I started asking myself what the the point of this book might be. I'll admit to being fairly well engaged--I wanted to know what would happen, I wanted to see if the story would come out the way it should or if injustice would prevail. And if making me want to turn the pages to find out What next? is all the novel was trying to do, well, then, I'd say it succeeds. But the flap of Salem Falls claims that Picoult's novels demonstrate "'a firm grasp of the delicacy and complexity of human relationships.'" That being the case, I would expect to discover something by reading the book. The novel tells me (and even, maybe, in some instances, shows me) that teenage girls sometimes become infatuated with older men; that such infatuation can lead to trouble, not least because teenage girls often don't have the maturity to deal with their infatuation or understand the full ramifications of acting on them; that good people tend to believe the worst about people who have been labeled as "bad"; that fathers protect their daughters, sometimes to the point of blindness toward their daughters themselves. Okay. Agreed. But I'd have agreed before I read word one of the novel; the story doesn't help me see anything new about any of this, doesn't help me understand any of it better or more fully. And without an arrival at some better or fuller understanding, I sort of feel like Salem Falls is just rolling around in Statutory Rape and False Accusations and Witch Hunts in order to pick up the emotions already associated with those topics and pass them on without adding anything worthwhile to the mix.
    • 5/5
      I absolutely loved this book! You really do feel sorry for coach McBride after hearing his story. When he starts to fall in love you think people will start to change and forget his past but not so. My favorite part of the book was when the trial started and the most surprising was the end. Althought I suspected for a second, Jodi Picoult took you away from thinking that was the case. You'll know when you read it.
    • 4/5
      A typical thriller with all the necessary ingredients to make an entertaining reading.Jack is a young man who paid the unfair price of a defective legal system. Incarcerated eight months for a crime he didn't commit, he seeks refuge in a quiet place to start anew and arrives one morning in Salem Falls with nothing in his pockets.Addie has her own ghosts, but when she meets Jack, she accepts him without any questions and he starts working at her Cafeteria.It's not long until feelings start to arise between them and when they take definite steps towards a future together, tragedy strikes again and Jack is accused for the same crime as before: raping a minor.Here you are: you've got a love story, a classical thriller with a supernatural tilt (Salem and witches rings a bell, doesn't it??) all in one book.So, you've got a decent plot, and the pages of the story flow fast and easy, the style is direct and simple and the characters are well constructed, with glimpses of John Grisham's and Nora Robert's style.I'd say the novel is perfect for a summer reading or for a lazy stormy Sunday evening, but don't expect a deeper glance into the subjects the author deals with, it's only entertainment, and nothing else. As long as you know that, sit down and enjoy, don't search for enlightenment, because you won't find it in this novel.**SPOILER***As for the final surprise, I regret to tell you that it's quite foreseeable, at least it was crystal clear to me!Pretty well written though, so worth reading it all the same!
    • 4/5
      Salem Falls was a good read. I liked the way the writer implied a lot things but let the reader figure it or conclude on his own. The ending proves my point. It definitely explores how naive and dangerous a teenage girl can be. The ending couldn't have been any better.
    • 3/5
      not Jodi's best but still a good book to curl up to with a nice tale of redemption
    • 5/5
      Salem Falls by Jodi Picoult was a pleasure to read . Picoult talks about the rough times of a new comer to Salem who is accused of lying and rape . I would recommend this book to teens who have went through that stage where you know you haven't done something but no matter what you do everything in your power to prove your innocence just like our main character Jack St. Bride
    • 3/5
      Small town culture run amok. Convicted--but innocent-- of sexual abuse with a student, Jack Mcbride moves to a new community, where he falls in love with Addie, who has been grieving for her dead daughter for years. Meanwhile, a g roup of teenage girls has formed a coven, with a ringleader damaged by her own family tragedy who falls for the new guy in town. The outcome is predictable from the start, and is reminiscent of The Crucible and other tales of witchcraft and victimization. Some positive characters redeem the downward spiral, and Picoult has a way of making us care for her characters, but this novel isn't up to her others.
    • 4/5
      Like all of Picoult's books, this one explores some difficult subject matter. In this case, rape, and secondarily, a mild degree of teenage witchcraft. While some of this novel was somewhat predictable, and many readers of Picoult tend to feel she follows a pattern in her books, I continue to enjoy each and every one. This one was no exception. I love the subject matter she chooses to explore & admire her for tackling controversial subjects.