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catherineisa 's review for:
House Rules
by Jodi Picoult
Some reviews say that this is a good little window into what it is like living with someone with Autism, but it is not. Autism is a spectrum and not one size fits all. The representation of Autism in this book is bad (I would go as far to say harmful)
The Mother jokes about vaccines causing her son to have Autism and another character recommends diets and tricks to "cure" Autism and none of this behavior is challenged by any of the characters in the book. At one point there's a joking reference to Josef Mengele that is so ick. When the absent Father is brought up the reason given for him not being a great guy/dad is because he probably had undiagnosed Autism. A character who supposedly wants nothing more than to be a special needs educator allows her boyfriend to constantly call her clients the R slur, allowing him to say it in one particular instance saying it multiple times directly to her Autistic mentees face!
(Autism is referred to in the book as Aspergers which was admittedly accepted at the time, but is not great)
Could've made a good point about how neurodivergent people are treated in the justice system but the representation is so questionable that it all falls flat. Also the ending itself was just kind of Meh to me.Finding out it was an accident the whole time but, oops miscommunication I thought my brother did it so I covered it up and I watch a lot of crime shows so I framed someone else. It feels like someone saying they could get away with murder because they watch Investigation Discovery
The Mother jokes about vaccines causing her son to have Autism and another character recommends diets and tricks to "cure" Autism and none of this behavior is challenged by any of the characters in the book. At one point there's a joking reference to Josef Mengele that is so ick. When the absent Father is brought up the reason given for him not being a great guy/dad is because he probably had undiagnosed Autism. A character who supposedly wants nothing more than to be a special needs educator allows her boyfriend to constantly call her clients the R slur, allowing him to say it in one particular instance saying it multiple times directly to her Autistic mentees face!
(Autism is referred to in the book as Aspergers which was admittedly accepted at the time, but is not great)
Could've made a good point about how neurodivergent people are treated in the justice system but the representation is so questionable that it all falls flat. Also the ending itself was just kind of Meh to me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism