Plot Summary – Katie Fisher is Amish. For 18 years, she has grown up in a community set apart from the modern world by lifestyle and belief. It is a community fiercely protective of its way of life. To turn your back on it is to lose everything – your church, your home, and your family. So in the middle of the night when the baby comes, Katie does the only thing she knows how to do in times of stress: she prays. Exhausted, she falls asleep. When she wakes, the child is gone. Her prayer has been answered. But faith alone cannot help when the baby’s body is found.

★★★★ 

Plain Truth is a really enjoyable and compelling book. While it definitely has some flaws, the overall experience is very engaging. I found it especially relevant in today’s landscape and gained a lot of insight. Jodi Picoult masterfully unravels the plot and makes sure that you’re always guessing. The constant perspective changes keep you on your feet and allow for the story to remain fresh as you’re not getting only one or two perspectives the whole time. I’m a sucker for courtroom stories so I definitely loved that whole bit. I feel like it was written realistically and the timeline was depicted well. My favourite aspect of the book was the exploration and deep dive into the Amish community and the show of restraint not to show them as alien but to humanize them and show that they are neither saints nor evil. Some of the politics don’t age well in the book (I recall a reference to “countries like the Far East”??) but it mostly holds up to this day despite being written 22 years ago. Another thing that I loved in the book is the moral grey areas. Nothing in the book is black and white or spelled out to the reader as right or wrong. Everything is argued in a nuanced way from both sides, which I really appreciated. While I did like most aspects of the book, there were some things that I disliked. The subject of the book, ‘Katie’ was a character that I found to be absolutely unbearable. She keeps lying, showing snarkiness or acting dumber than she actually is but the book and the other characters keep telling you that she’s an angel or that she’s perfect but it never shows. I rarely felt sympathy for her. On the other hand, the other protagonist of the book, Ellie, has a brilliant character arc and although I was skeptical of her storyline at first, I really liked how it ended. Other highlights for me were the characters of Coop (Ellie’s love interest) and George Callahan (the opposition lawyer). They were written so well and fit their roles perfectly. My friend who recommended this book to me told me that I might not like the ending and while I predicted some aspects of it, the overall conclusion left me stunned and thinking about the book for hours after I finished. I really want to give it a re-read or watch the movie to see all the clues I missed and that’s definitely the sign of a great twist ending. All-in-all, I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to any fans of mystery or courtroom books!