I had to admit I had a hard time finishing the book, primarily because it deals with one’s faith and spirituality and religion cannot be helped but be mixed into it. Being a Catholic with strong beliefs, I am quite wary of stories that depict God as something Else other than He really is.

What more when a child claims she sees God, experiences the stigmata, miraculously heals people with a touch even if she really has no intention to do it, and furthermore, calls her (yes a female) her “Guard”. Faith, the child in the story, does not have any religious background, her parents being non practicing Jews. What she has is a traumatic experience catching her father with another woman right in their house and a mother who had psychiatric problems and have experiences with depression.

Jodi Picoult doesn’t confirm nor negate whether Faith can heal or if she is making this all up or worse, her mom, Mariah, is behind all of this. She does make you see hard facts and make you go into your conclusion. I personally believe the story lets you take a look on YOUR OWN personal views and beliefs on faith, and it really is subjective. I have pored over the book instead of studying the  no exam life insurance quotes being offered to me because I really want to MAKE the story HAVE an ENDING. But there is none. And just as you were about to believe Faith is real, something in the ending makes you think otherwise.

To which Jodi answers in her web site:

What the heck did you mean by the end of Keeping Faith?

At the end of Keeping Faith, I wanted you to feel like Mariah and Millie and Ian and everyone else who comes into contact with Faith – like you’ve had to rethink what you believe. Whether you think she’s a prophet or a messiah or a fake, she is ultimately a little girl who hasn’t had her mom’s attention before. And AT THAT MOMENT she does fake speaking to God, because she isn’t willing to lose that attention. That said, I don’t personally believe that Faith is faking all along…I think that God moves onto someone more needy in that last scene. But I did want you to remember that above all else, she’s a kid – lest you fall into the same mistake that some of the media did during the course of the book.