Swoonworthy Sunday #22

For this week’s Swoonworthy Sunday, I have decided to focus on a character from one of my favourite Jodi Picoult books, it was the second one of hers that I read and the character I decided to focus on is Chris Harte. It’s kind of difficult to do this without giving too much away about the book, but I am going to try! The basic premise of the book is the story of Chris and Emily, whose families have lived next door to each other for years and are basically childhood sweethearts (though they actually start dating in high school but it’s a foregone conclusion to everyone that they will date, as they have grown up together and their families are very entwined). Emily winds up dead early on in the book, Chris says it was because of a suicide pact that they had but the detectives think he murdered her and basically the story goes on from there, flashing back and forward in time, to show what really happened to Emily and what lead to those events.

The Gist of Chris:

1. He is the son of Augusta (Gus) and James Harte.
2. He is eighteen years old (by the end of the book).
3. He has a younger sister called Kate.
4. He is tall, with dark hair and eyes.
5. He was a high school swimming star, specialising in the butterfly.
6. He deeply loves Emily Gold, having grown up with her and been very close as children, they started to date in High School.
7. He is accused of her murder, though he denies it and claims Emily died as part of an unfinished suicide pact (no way am I going to tell you how everything works out though, you will have to read for yourself!).

Best Chris Quotes:

1. “I love you,” he whispered, and that was the moment he knew what he was going to do. When you loved someone, you put their needs before your own. No matter how inconceivable those needs were; no matter how fucked up; no matter how much it made you feel like you were ripping yourself into pieces.”
2. “Do you know what it’s like to love someone so much, that you can’t see yourself without picturing her? Or what it’s like to touch someone, and feel like you’ve come home? What we had wasn’t about sex, or about being with someone just to show off what you’ve got, the way it was for other kids our age. We were, well, meant to be together. Some people spend their whole lives looking for that one person. I was lucky enough to have her all along.”
3. “She was all the things I wasn’t. And i was all the things she wasn’t. she could paint circles around anyone; I couldn’t even draw a straight line. She was never into sports; I’ve always been. Her hand, it fit mine.”
4. “That’s what love is, when your hindsight is 20/20, and you still wouldn’t change a thing.”

These quotes show exactly why I love Chris, he is so completely and utterly devoted to Em (even when she doesn’t deserve it) so it seems inconceivable that he could have killed her and yet, there is always this little seed of doubt, he’s a complex character, it’s difficult to figure out whether he’s lying or telling the truth throughout the book, but the one thing you can never doubt is how devoted he was to Em and I found that really beautiful.

I will be back with another Swoonworthy Sunday post next week, but tomorrow I will have a new Monday Recommendations post for you all, so make sure to check that out.