In the book Jude, Kate Morgenroth had an engaging way of taking the reader through a series of situations in which characters used various forms of deception while involved in social issues such as illegal drugs, broken families, and juvenile incarceration. The author used believable characters involved in realistic situations which made it easy to relate to the difficulties they created for themselves.
After fifteen year old Jude witnesses the murder of his drug dealing father, he goes to live with his mother, the local District Attorney, who he thought had abandoned him at birth. She willingly takes Jude in and enrolls him in an exclusive prep school where Jude is falsely accused of being involved with illegal drugs. His mother’s boyfriend, Harry, the deputy police commissioner, convinces Jude to take part in an elaborate plan to help his mother get elected to public office on an anti–drug platform. However things go terribly wrong and Jude is tricked into pleading guilty to a crime that he never committed and is sentenced to serve five years in the state penitentiary. After being released from prison, Jude sets out to clear his name and settle up with the ones who tricked him into spending five years in prison.
In many ways Jude is the true victim in the story. He is subject to the deception of several adults in his life. His father deceived him by telling him that his mother left the family when he was an infant. Jude is further victimized when a school classmate overdoses on heroin and Jude is unjustly accused of providing the drugs. Finally, Jude is tricked by Harry into pretending to be a drug dealer as part of a scheme to get his mother elected mayor. Harry promises, “Then we’ll get you a new trial, and with the real evidence you’ll be acquitted.” Jude agrees and goes to prison but Harry never follows through on his promise.
The book’s plot was complex in that there were a series of situations and circumstances that all involved deception. Jude’s father led a secret life as a drug dealer and lied to Jude about his mother. Harry deceived Jude by tricking him into participating in a dishonest scheme to get his mother elected mayor.
Each part of the plot conveyed the same message. The message was that those who try to get what they want through the use of deception are usually disappointed with the results. The different situations that Jude had to cope with were believable which made for an engaging story. Kate Morgenroth’s writing style, which used ordinary characters involved in relevant social issues, allowed me to relate to the characters’ emotions and made the book's complex plot easy to follow.
I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to read a realistic story with a valuable lesson. I give Jude, by Kate Morgenroth a five star rating.
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