The Pact Picoult, Jodi

Two families. Two teenagers in love since childhood. One gunshot in the dark. When Emily Gold dies from a bullet wound with her boyfriend Chris Harte beside her, their parents are shattered. Was it a suicide pact? A murder? Chris insists Emily wanted to die and he tried to help her — but did he pull the trigger, or did she? Picoult dissects the anatomy of a perfect relationship gone wrong, peeling back layers of secrets, parental pressure, and the kind of adolescent despair that hides behind straight-A smiles. The courtroom drama is gripping, but the real devastation is in the "before" chapters, watching two kids who loved each other drown in silence. This is Picoult doing what she does best: asking impossible moral questions with no clean answers. For anyone who's ever wondered how well we really know the people we love most.