BOOK REVIEW: House Rules

For several years I eagerly awaited each new Jodi Picoult novel. The first one that I read was Keeping Faith and I was hooked. The last was My Sister’s Keeper.  If you have read it - and seeing the movie does not count - you understand why I did not pick her up for awhile. It is a very intense book. HOUSE RULES is Ms. Picoult’s latest and for personal reasons I felt that I had to read it.

HOUSE RULES tells the story of Jacob Hunt, his family, his lawyer, and the police detective involved in the disappearance of a young woman who had been Jacob’s social skills instructor. Told in alternating first person chapters we see the same scene through various eyes, giving us an inside look at the different emotions involved.

Jacob is a teenage boy with Asperger’s Syndrome. Typically with AS, though very intelligent, a person has great difficulty with making any type of social connection, but becomes very obsessed with one subject. In Jacob’s case, this focus is forensic analysis. He sometimes shows up at a death scene offering valuable help for the police.

Now Jacob is being questioned about the murder of someone close to him. This time though, it is not for his expert ability to analyze the crime scene, but for his involvement. He admits that he was there and what is normal behavior for someone with Asperger’s can look like guilt to the police.

Because the story is told from different points of view, we see how Jacob’s condition affects the people around him. While other people interpret Jacob’s actions, we see how his thought process works. As a result, our sympathies are engaged by many of the characters.

Emma, his mother, has spent years devoted to finding ways to make life a little easier for him and to prevent emotional meltdowns. His younger brother, Theo, is torn between love and resentment. Oliver, the inexperienced lawyer is way over his head with a losing case and Rich, the detective, feels sympathy for Jacob and Emma, but sees the signs of a guilty young murderer.

The story moves well. I found myself really caring what happened to each member of this family. Knowing that the author is famous for her unexpected endings, I could not wait to see what her twist would be. The ending was not a big surprise. You can see it coming but in this case that was not a really bad thing.

HOUSE RULES left me with the felling that I had read an entertaining book that also taught me about a little known subject. Jodi Picoult stays on my list of favorite authors.