Reflection 9: Spot the great moment

Great moments of unexpectedness:

Perfect Match by Jodi Picoult is a book of unexpected moments. Picoult throws the reader off multiple times in just the first half of the book.

The first moment is kind of two moments put together. Nina Frost’s son has stopped talking because he has been sexually abused. He has resorted to signing everything to communicate. When they asked who the abuser was, he signed the word father. They immediately accused Caleb, Nathaniel’s father, of abusing him. This creates a giant uproar in the house and the reader never really believes it’s Caleb. Once Nathaniel starts speaking again, he explains that Father Glen is the man who abused him. These two scenes together create a lot of confusion in the family because Caleb is angry that his wife would think he did such a thing. And Nina is angry that Caleb was capable of doing it. In the end, Caleb forgives his wife for accusing him because they need to come together to help Nathaniel recover from the traumatic experience.

Once you think the book is going to settle down, there is another twist in the story. In court, they are in the process of arraigning the priest that abused Nathaniel. Out of nowhere, Nina Frost approaches Father Glen and shoots him in the head four times. It happened so quick, I had to read it again to make sure I got it right. This is a turning point in the book because suddenly, everything is out of control. Nina takes the whole “I would do anything for my child” to a new level of crazy. The murder seems justified and you want to feel sympathy for Nina, but sometimes, you have to let the court do its job.

The most recent unexpected moment comes while detectives investigate the murder of the priest. The lab work had finally come back that proves that the DNA found in the child was the same as the DNA of the priest. This shows that he really did rape Nathaniel. The twist comes at the end of the lab report that states Father Glen had leukemia and had a bone marrow transplant. That is a game changing statement, but it took a while for me to understand why. The catch is that when you receive a bone marrow transplant, your DNA becomes the DNA of your donor’s. Therefore, Father Glen’s DNA is the same as his donor.  The great moment in this scene is where Nina finds out she has killed the wrong man and the rapist is still out there.