Book Review: House Rules: A Novel

I started reading Jodi Picoult with My Sister's Keeper. It took some very difficult topics (what obligation do you have to your family, is it ethical to have another child to save your first child, etc) and made them compelling and easy to read. It was an emotional roller-coaster. I quickly read pretty much every other book she ever wrote. I came to the realization that My Sister's Keeper - while still a great book - follows a strict Picoult formula and House Rules is no exception.

Rule 1: Emotionally charged topic with lots of grey area (things can't be black and white - that would make it too easy).

Rule 2: The story told from multiple viewpoints.

Rule 3: Surprise endings.

Rule 4: Make you think but not too hard.

Rule 5: Stressed but very attractive women who will usually sleep with someone that is at least mildly inappropriate.

Those would be the basics. Rule 5 may or may not happen but I've noticed it in a few of her books and if the woman doesn't sleep with said person she will be described by multiple people as being strikingly pretty. And really this has not much to do with the plot except for the fact there are few books (or movies, or TV shows) about incredibly not-good looking people.

How do I feel about House Rules? Let's start with 3 out of 5 stars. If you've never read Picoult before then you'd probably go with 4. I think it was average. I don't hate it but it followed a formula and pretty quickly you could guess where it was going. I'm glad I didn't buy it - I wouldn't read it again (Shout-out Library!).

The story follows Jacob, a teen diagnosed with Asperger's, his family and others that are dragged into the murder case of Jacob's social skills tutor. Jacob is a strange character - on one hand you feel bad for him because he is so socially awkward but on the other (and I'll admit I don't know much about Asperger's) he's cold, awkward and surprisingly functioning for someone who has panic attacks when paper gets crumpled. His brother Theo - another character - doesn't have Asperger's but he's living with the affects it has on his family because of Jacob. Theo is breaking into houses, stealing minor things, he doesn't fit in, etc. The thing is I felt bad for Theo but I didn't feel like he was developed quite enough for me to care too much about him. Emma - is the mom, she's gorgeous, stressed, poor. Then the other two narrators are Oliver (Jacob's lawyer) and Rich (a police officer who arrests Jacob). For me, the characters in this book weren't as well developed as some of the others. I wasn't drawn to them in the same way as I have been with her other books and like Jacob with his Asperger's - socially the characters all seem awkward (the point perhaps?).

I always read the reviews on Amazon when I decide to get a book. Yeah, sometimes the people are dead wrong but a lot of times they are pretty accurate. A lot of the people were complaining the story just ended without any resolution to the case. Well, one I think it's pretty easy to figure out early on what happened to the social skills tutor. And the case, I felt like it was all just background for the family to all come together. And honestly, I cared about Jacob but at the same time he didn't think through his actions, didn't explain what happened to anyone, and so you can't feel that bad (ok maybe because of his Asperger's because no one asked him to explain, he didn't... I don't know if I buy that). And the non-ending is pretty typical Picoult. It's basically what do you think happened? Was Theo arrested? Did Jacob get convicted? Etc...

Have you read it? What do you think? My next book is Sweet Little Lies by Lauren Conrad - I'll let you know if I like it, the first one didn't blow me away so I'm not having high hopes.