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3.91 AVERAGE
3.91 AVERAGE
House Rules is about as mainstream as novels get; easy to read and not too intellectually demanding. A suburban story with suburban characters that will be delightfully safe read for middle-class mums. None of this is very enthusing to me, but the novel earns four stars for its meticulous and vivid depiction of a teenager with Asperger's syndrome and the way his disorder impacts his family. There's no doubt the book is genuinely insightful, and although the plot is overly pedestrian along with its supporting characters there's just enough here to keep it engaging.
Pretty awesome....although I did throw my nook after I read the ending.
She has a way of writing that captivates me from page 1 to end.
Please find yourself a better book- if you want to read about autism this isn’t it, if you want crime, this isn’t it.
I’m gonna break this up into three sections of the problems: 1) the autism research 2) the characters 3) the dragging on of this
1) the author researched autism clearly but came up with anti-vaxxing and autism speaks agenda. I can tell she has little to no experience with or understanding of autism because the narratives she extrapolates on through her characters conflict often. The mothers narrative is that of autism speaks- autism has a cure, Jacobs Aspergers was caused by vaccines that “stole” her “normal” precious baby from her, she has to give up her life to take care of him. And conflictingly is the statement that Jacob is high functioning when he in fact melts down constantly and this would more truly align with low functioning. Then in Jacobs rare moments of self reflection the narrative shifts to the idea that he is just different and that’s not a bad thing. There’s a brief mention of more modern language and thinking of neurodivergence but it’s been written off as almost a joke. The rules that Jacob follows aren’t insane but the way his autism is handled is pretty accurate to what I’ve observed in autistic males, they are often diagnosed more and earlier and have some form of treatment and attempts to help them. Jacob is truly spoiled. He’s able to understand rules but isn’t given enough and is allowed to be an asshole because his mom thinks that she should allow him to behave like a toddler and have tantrums. He experiences no consequences for his actions and she shields him from dealing with anything he dislikes. People often do this and in low functioning autism it sometimes cannot be helped but someone who is high functioning is able to learn to cope with things that make us uncomfortable like sensory overload, changes in routine, etc.
As someone who has Aspergers and is high functioning, this book is badly written, derivative, demeaning and it’s clearly written by someone shooting for a demographic of readers that consists of middle aged straight white neurotypical mothers, probably not educated further than high-school if anything. That’s fine too but the book and writing doesn’t work for anyone outside this demographic truly. You have to almost be the mother character to even like this kind of a book because in a way that’s the point, to live through the “mama bear” self righteous and eternally suffering character.
2) the characters are shallow and have no growth throughout the novel, which makes them fall flat. They can’t change or learn or communicate so you as a reader are stuck in perpetual frustration.
The mother Emma- self martyring and constantly whining about how she sacrificed everything to take care of Jacob. Which seems unnecessary given that he should be high functioning, she is constantly going on about how nobody cares about her or understands her and it gives the same vibes as when your mom does chores loudly and huffs about it and says “I guess nobody here wants to help me”. She coddles Jacob, loses her temper and hits both of her children I believe just once each but still, and has created her entire existence around taking care of Jacob. Her other child, a 16 year old child is neglected and she has spoiled Jacob so that he is more socially handicapped by her behavior than his own autism. This character is badly written likely because the autism is badly researched and the author clearly just puts her own feelings into the character. I found the sex scene vomitous because it was such a cliche “nobody has touched me in years” and “I haven’t enjoyed anything in life in years” thing of her still thinking about how hard her life is even in a good moment. The self pity is so overwhelming from this character I truly can’t like her even in her best moments. Jacobs character is just dumb and badly written overall, the author probably watched Big Bang Theory and just wrote down a forensic Sheldon but made it impossible for him to say the words “hey mom I found a dead body” for 12 hours of an audiobook.
Oliver- terrible lawyer, sweet guy but swings wildly between being understanding and empathetic to Jacob to being ignorant and judge mental without reason.
The detective Rich- I really wanted to like him until the scene where he’s talking about how hot a high school girl is, he walks into a room to question a girl Jacob assaulted and he goes on and on about how “if he knew her back when he was in highschool” and it’s just gross. Other than this scene I liked his narratives but the detective work was shitty and badly researched by the writer.
3) just read the first few chapters and skip to the end, I am not kidding it is about 6 hours of dragging on a story with little to no plot development. This writer is not good at her job and I only finished this because my book club chose it.
SPOILER: want to not read this but need the answer to why the hell it took so long? Jacob keeps saying “I did the right thing” and “I don’t regret killing Jess” but never says “I didn’t kill Jess I found her dead body” it takes until the last two or three chapters for this to finally come up at Theos birthday when he gives him the iPod Theo tried to steal from Jess. The mom sleeps with the lawyer and neither of them let Jacob talk about Jess dying so that makes it harder for it to come out. It’s just badly written and frustrating don’t waste time or money on it. Jess accidentally hits her head and dies after Theo peeps in on her in the shower and Jacob finds her but wants to protect his brother so he stages the scene to look like Mark, jess’ boyfriend, did it but when nobody finds Jess he drags her body to the woods and she’s finally found. If anyone deserves jail time it’s the antivaxxing author who can’t write a character or plot line.
I’m gonna break this up into three sections of the problems: 1) the autism research 2) the characters 3) the dragging on of this
1) the author researched autism clearly but came up with anti-vaxxing and autism speaks agenda. I can tell she has little to no experience with or understanding of autism because the narratives she extrapolates on through her characters conflict often. The mothers narrative is that of autism speaks- autism has a cure, Jacobs Aspergers was caused by vaccines that “stole” her “normal” precious baby from her, she has to give up her life to take care of him. And conflictingly is the statement that Jacob is high functioning when he in fact melts down constantly and this would more truly align with low functioning. Then in Jacobs rare moments of self reflection the narrative shifts to the idea that he is just different and that’s not a bad thing. There’s a brief mention of more modern language and thinking of neurodivergence but it’s been written off as almost a joke. The rules that Jacob follows aren’t insane but the way his autism is handled is pretty accurate to what I’ve observed in autistic males, they are often diagnosed more and earlier and have some form of treatment and attempts to help them. Jacob is truly spoiled. He’s able to understand rules but isn’t given enough and is allowed to be an asshole because his mom thinks that she should allow him to behave like a toddler and have tantrums. He experiences no consequences for his actions and she shields him from dealing with anything he dislikes. People often do this and in low functioning autism it sometimes cannot be helped but someone who is high functioning is able to learn to cope with things that make us uncomfortable like sensory overload, changes in routine, etc.
As someone who has Aspergers and is high functioning, this book is badly written, derivative, demeaning and it’s clearly written by someone shooting for a demographic of readers that consists of middle aged straight white neurotypical mothers, probably not educated further than high-school if anything. That’s fine too but the book and writing doesn’t work for anyone outside this demographic truly. You have to almost be the mother character to even like this kind of a book because in a way that’s the point, to live through the “mama bear” self righteous and eternally suffering character.
2) the characters are shallow and have no growth throughout the novel, which makes them fall flat. They can’t change or learn or communicate so you as a reader are stuck in perpetual frustration.
The mother Emma- self martyring and constantly whining about how she sacrificed everything to take care of Jacob. Which seems unnecessary given that he should be high functioning, she is constantly going on about how nobody cares about her or understands her and it gives the same vibes as when your mom does chores loudly and huffs about it and says “I guess nobody here wants to help me”. She coddles Jacob, loses her temper and hits both of her children I believe just once each but still, and has created her entire existence around taking care of Jacob. Her other child, a 16 year old child is neglected and she has spoiled Jacob so that he is more socially handicapped by her behavior than his own autism. This character is badly written likely because the autism is badly researched and the author clearly just puts her own feelings into the character. I found the sex scene vomitous because it was such a cliche “nobody has touched me in years” and “I haven’t enjoyed anything in life in years” thing of her still thinking about how hard her life is even in a good moment. The self pity is so overwhelming from this character I truly can’t like her even in her best moments. Jacobs character is just dumb and badly written overall, the author probably watched Big Bang Theory and just wrote down a forensic Sheldon but made it impossible for him to say the words “hey mom I found a dead body” for 12 hours of an audiobook.
Oliver- terrible lawyer, sweet guy but swings wildly between being understanding and empathetic to Jacob to being ignorant and judge mental without reason.
The detective Rich- I really wanted to like him until the scene where he’s talking about how hot a high school girl is, he walks into a room to question a girl Jacob assaulted and he goes on and on about how “if he knew her back when he was in highschool” and it’s just gross. Other than this scene I liked his narratives but the detective work was shitty and badly researched by the writer.
3) just read the first few chapters and skip to the end, I am not kidding it is about 6 hours of dragging on a story with little to no plot development. This writer is not good at her job and I only finished this because my book club chose it.
SPOILER: want to not read this but need the answer to why the hell it took so long? Jacob keeps saying “I did the right thing” and “I don’t regret killing Jess” but never says “I didn’t kill Jess I found her dead body” it takes until the last two or three chapters for this to finally come up at Theos birthday when he gives him the iPod Theo tried to steal from Jess. The mom sleeps with the lawyer and neither of them let Jacob talk about Jess dying so that makes it harder for it to come out. It’s just badly written and frustrating don’t waste time or money on it. Jess accidentally hits her head and dies after Theo peeps in on her in the shower and Jacob finds her but wants to protect his brother so he stages the scene to look like Mark, jess’ boyfriend, did it but when nobody finds Jess he drags her body to the woods and she’s finally found. If anyone deserves jail time it’s the antivaxxing author who can’t write a character or plot line.
Picoult resorts to a familiar formula - two siblings, one with a health problem, and a legal battle. This time the problem is Asperger's which Picoult explores ad nauseum, the legal battle is lackluster, and the conclusion is neither shocking nor satisfying.
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I love that the author took us to an in depth view of a character with autism.
I don't usually read mainstream "formulaic" writers, but I always make an exception for Jodi Picoult. She does a great job of picking a sensitive subject, getting the reader to identify with the characters and then throwing a little twist in at the end. While I usually only read a book of hers every year or so, this one did not disappoint.
Fast and easy read. The characters are well developed. I would have given it 5 stars, but much like my opinion of Handle with Care, I did not like the ending. The second half of the book seemed to be an attempt to cram too much information and activity in within a short period of time. Still, it kept my attention and left me wanting more of the story.
I liked the idea of this book because of Jodi Picoult's attempt to raise awareness of Autism, but I don't think it was done very well. My son's social skills teacher warned me that the main character had EVERY symptom, and she wasn't kidding. Every symptom, quirk, obsession, tic and aspect of being social awkward is portrayed in one character and that is simply not the case in real life. They say if you've met one person with Autism, you've met one person with Autism, because each person displays Autism differently.
My big beef was the fact that Picoult's autism research is flawed and based on studies that have been debunked as completely fraudulent and have been that way for years. So now the casual reader who doesn't know anything about Autism thinks these crazy things because they read about it in a fiction book.
What's with everyone not asking Jacob what really happened? Seriously. He explains that he set up the crime scene, but no one thinks to ask WHY he did that? No one asks him what happened when he got to Jess's house. No one. It would have made a much shorter book, true, but this book did not have to be 600 pages long..
Yet despite the fact that Picoult goes on for 600 pages, the book just ends. What a crummy ending, with still a lot left unanswered. Reading books like these reminds me why I generally steer clear of adult fiction.
My big beef was the fact that Picoult's autism research is flawed and based on studies that have been debunked as completely fraudulent and have been that way for years. So now the casual reader who doesn't know anything about Autism thinks these crazy things because they read about it in a fiction book.
What's with everyone not asking Jacob what really happened? Seriously. He explains that he set up the crime scene, but no one thinks to ask WHY he did that? No one asks him what happened when he got to Jess's house. No one. It would have made a much shorter book, true, but this book did not have to be 600 pages long..
Yet despite the fact that Picoult goes on for 600 pages, the book just ends. What a crummy ending, with still a lot left unanswered. Reading books like these reminds me why I generally steer clear of adult fiction.
Picoult clearly did extensive research into Asperger's, with the result that Jacob became a "caricature" of the disorder, displaying nearly every symptom/stereotype, which I have found to not be the case with Aspie's that I have interacted with. I find this to be the case with many recent media portrayals (ie- Max in the television show Parenthood, etc...).
With that being said, the story itself was definitely more predictable than some of Picoult's earlier stories. However, even though I had "figured out" the mystery, the characters piqued my interest enough that I wanted to keep reading, if only to see how they would handle the eventual reveal and it's outcome. Not the greatest of her novels, but definitely not a disappointment either. I particularly enjoyed her portrayal of Emma and Theo, both thrust into the world of living with an Aspie, and their positive and negative feelings of Jacob's effect on their lives.
With that being said, the story itself was definitely more predictable than some of Picoult's earlier stories. However, even though I had "figured out" the mystery, the characters piqued my interest enough that I wanted to keep reading, if only to see how they would handle the eventual reveal and it's outcome. Not the greatest of her novels, but definitely not a disappointment either. I particularly enjoyed her portrayal of Emma and Theo, both thrust into the world of living with an Aspie, and their positive and negative feelings of Jacob's effect on their lives.