Jodi Picoult did not start out as the amazing writer she is. How do I know this? Her first books. Somebody hand me a literary barf bag. She writes an unoriginal tale about an anthropologist married to hot movie star in Picture Perfect, where everything appears to be perfect. Surprise! It’s not. As it turns out “hot movie star” physically abuses this poor anthropologist who is only trying to help her husband. Although it has Picoult’s accuracy of Native American life and abusive relationships Picture Perfect lacks her skill at incorporating exciting plot twists. Naturally this causes the book to become bland and extremely predictable. Daisy Goodwin deals with the same topic of perfect on the outside, broken on the inside in her book The American Heiress. Goodwin writes a tale of the rich, spoiled American who is pushed into marrying a Duke in England and landing her straight in the midst of English aristocracy. This is during the Golden Age, where the more extravagant the better, and secret ambitions are as plentiful as their riches.

Picture Perfect has everything going for it, amazing author, serious issue, and that fairy book element we’re all drawn to: perfection.  However Picoult fails entirely on the delivery. The whole book is monotone, the protagonist’s love story is written in the same tone as the abuse is. The only time you feel the character’s pain is in the beginning of an insufferably long flashback when we learn about Cassie’s past. The structure of the book is also unusual. We start off with a girl wandering about town and a part-native who just moved to LA and got a job as a police officer. The not-yet officer finds said girl and takes her to work the next day. There the girl is claimed by the hottest movie star in town and taken home. Sounds fantastical? It did while reading too. Picoult doesn’t really sell this point until much further on in the book, when it’s too late. We spend a day or two in this state, the girl with amnesia, and the actor trying to help her regain her memory. When Cassie comes across a positive pregnancy test and suddenly all of her memory comes back and the book is put on hold as we get a full depth look into how Cassie got to being the wife of the hottest actor in Hollywood.  When we finally get back on track with the story we follow with more self-discovery as Cassie spends her pregnancy in the Indian Reserve the police officer who found her came from. By the time we get to the end with Alex Rivers, her husband, coming to get her the reader is thoroughly bored and waiting for something to sink their teeth into.  However not only is the climax belated, it’s also anticlimactic and is the final nail in this book’s coffin. Picture Perfect is a predictable book that serves as a good example of what not to do while writing fiction.

Although this book was something of a bore, there is much to be taken away from it. Cassie takes you on a journey that lacks excitement but is rich in lessons. You get an accurate portrayal of life on a reservation and the relationship of the abuser and abused. When Cassie reaches the end of the novel she is a much more mature person, capable of doing what’s best for her and not necessarily what is someone else’s best interests.

The idea of trouble behind glitz is not uncommon and the road has already been paved and well ridden as Picture Perfect found out. Whereas Picoult rides the road without appearing to, Goodwin does the opposite in An American Heiress. Daisy starts out the opposite of Picoult with something that seems overdone instead of new. You are introduced to Cora Cash the beautiful, young, rich heiress who is the opposite of Cassie. Instead of being pulled over the “police” (aka her husband) like Cassie, Cora plots against her own officer, her mother, and is constantly acting like spoiled teenager of today’s time. Cora is the perfect relatable feminist character; who you see grow throughout the novel. When Cora marries a Duke you know there’s going to be plots against her and you know it’s going to deal with an old affair of the Duke’s. However the details of this plot show Goodwin making new roads that lead the reader off the trodden path and down into the book. All in all, An American Heiress is a book that contains many secrets under a clichéd yet ornate packaging.

Although neither book was perfect, they both were worth the read. Picture Perfect dealt with topics that are important and relevant, while An American Heiress took me on a tour I would have hated to miss.  I would rate Picoult’s a three out of five stars for lack of originality and intrigue, and Goodwin’s a four out of five for lack of sophistication in style. These two books, if they were combined, would create the perfection combination of talent and twists.