Jodi Picoult is one of the great storytellers of the last decade–she’s written 18 novels, the last last four of which were acclaimed as New York Times Bestsellers. For those looking for an introduction to Picoult’s popular books, these three stories will grip readers from beginning to end.

“The Pact”

Meet Emily Gold and Christopher Hart. For 18 years, the Hart’s and the Gold’s have lived next door to each other. The only thing Emily has ever known is Christopher, from sharing cribs as infants, chicken pox as toddlers, family vacations in middle school and each other’s love in high school.

Growing up together ensures you don’t have to hide anything, your boyfriend already knows everything there is to know about you and is still crazy in love, but in reality, this is what scares Emily the most, it’s a future expected and admired by everyone, except herself.

When a midnight call from the hospital comes in, no one expects to hear that Emily was found dead, killed by a gunshot to the head. As Chris finds himself on trial for murder, the burden and worry brought upon both families is endless.

As Emily’s parents struggle in denial that their daughter could have been suicidal, it breaks apart the Gold’s and Hart’s relationship.

The courtroom drama keeps you anxiously reading as you feel the pain and the split between whose side to take, who to believe and who to have compassion for.

“House Rules”

The Hunts live by five house rules: Clean up your messes. Tell the truth. Brush your teeth twice a day. Don’t be late for school. Take care of Jacob; he’s the only one you got. 

Jacob Hunt is a teenage boy with Asperger’s Syndrome, where his special focus is forensic analysis, and Jess Ogilvy is Jacob’s social skills counselor.  Jess is very important to Jacob, as he sees her as his best friend and the only person who can relate to him.

When Jacob finds himself accused of the murder of Jess, his hallmark behaviors of Asperger’s, such as not looking someone in the eye and stimulating tics and twitches, look a lot like guilt to law enforcement. Jacob struggles with a lot of things in life from simply reading social clues to being fairly tried in court. Jacob lives by his mother’s house rules, and he will do all he humanly can to make sure to meet his mother’s expectations of these guidelines.

The murder case takes a toll on Jacob’s mother’s job as a writer for their local paper and the family slowly falls apart as the case goes on, all because good intentions went bad.

“Handle with Care”

When Willow is born with severe Osteogenesis Imperfecto, it leaves her parents Charlotte and Sean O’Keefe devastated as they learn that their daughter will suffer hundreds of broken bones as she grows.

A lifetime of pain.

It’s easy to fall in love with Willow and her positive outlook on life in this Picoult novel. As a five-year-old never longing for self pity, she watches her sister and classmates living a normal lifestyle while she is very restricted to what she can do.

When Charlotte gets the idea to file a wrongful birth lawsuit against her OBGYN, who happens to be her best friend, for not telling her in advance that her child would be born severely disabled, the payouts from the suit might ensure a lifetime of care for Willow. It’s care that otherwise she would not be able to receive, but filing this lawsuit means Charlotte would stand up in court and publicly announce she would have terminated the pregnancy if she’d known about the disability in advance–words her husband won’t agree with and Willow will hear.

This story is told through multiple points of view, letting readers in on every character’s view of the uncomfortable situation.