House Rules

by Jodi Picoult

[Leah]

Jacob Hunt is good at many things, he is able to remember a film word for word after the first watch, he’s able to memorize a book after one simple glance and he’s probably the most organised teenager in the world. However Jacob is unable to look anybody in the eye and the colour orange sends him into tantrums rarely seen outside of young children which are all hallmarks of Jacob’s condition; Jacob Hunt has Aspergers. When Jacob’s social studies teacher Jess is found dead, all of the signs point to Jacob and the fact his Aspergers means he can’t look anybody in the eye and the police begin to believe Jacob had something to do with it. Jacob’s mother, Emma, then has to ask herself: is her son capable of murder?

I’ve become a huge fan of Jodi Picoult after first reading My Sister’s Keeper a couple of years ago which I really enjoyed. I then managed to pick up Nineteen Minutes and I loved that, too. A few weeks ago I finally plucked up the courage to read my third Jodi Picoult, Handle With Care, book wondering if I’d love it just as much as the previous two. Turns out I did and was thrilled I’d already pre-ordered her newest book House Rules. I was looking forward to it arriving so I could read my fourth Picoult book. It came last week so I decided to wait until after the weekend to read it so I could have the time to actually sit down and get stuck in.

House Rules, like most of Jodi’s books, is a bit controversial. If there’s a plot to be written that might offend a lot of people then Jodi Picoult is probably the person you’d want to write it because she manages to pull off her plots with great aplomb. Here we have a kid with Asperger’s, Jacob, being charged with the murder of his social skills teacher, Jess. Because of his condition and the fact it makes him unable to lie and the fact he takes every question he’s asked literally he manages to implicate himself to the police and he ends up on trial for the murder of Jess.

Before we get to the murder of Jess and Jacob’s trial, though, we learn what it’s like to live with Asperger’s and, by association, to live with a child who has such a difficult condition. Here, I must applaud Jodi Picoult. I have no idea whatsoever what having a kid with Asperger’s means and have never met a person with the condition but Jodi explained it very satisfactorily and I could really get a feel of the struggle it is to live with such a condition. Having Asperger’s didn’t just affect Jacob, as we learn. Yes, he has it the hardest because of how he has to live his life due to the natures of his condition – he lives, essentially, by house rules set down by his mother Emma and he has lots of little quirks that can set him off into a meltdown/tantrum should his day be disrupted in anyway. But the way Jacob has to live his life in order to have it as peacefully as possible also affects his mother Emma and brother Theo. Emma has to work from home in order to be around for Jacob whenever he needs it and Theo always feels left out due to how much time Emma obviously has to spend with Jacob.

House Rules is quite a complex book and the murder of Jess doesn’t even come into the book until maybe half way through. Before that, as I said, we deal with how Jacob, Emma and Theo live their lives. It was an interesting read and because Jodi uses multiple narratives it was easy to see how Asperger’s had affected each member of the family. It also meant we got to know the characters that much more. I actually really loved Jacob. By default, because of his condition, he is a social outcast and has to live his life by a set of rules otherwise there’s a good chance he’ll have a meltdown and I couldn’t help feeling sympathy for how he’s treated in the modern world. I thought his interest in forensic science was hugely interesting, too, as I quite like shows like CSI that deal with crime scenes and what not. I also liked Emma, Jacob’s mum, and I could also easily feel sympathy for her too. Her life had whittled down to barely nothing due to the fact she had to be around for Jacob at all times and it also meant that at times Theo, her youngest son, got left out a lot of the time. When Jacob was arrested and charged with Jess’s murder I could also see the struggle Emma had with wondering whether he son had actually managed to kill someone. The only character I struggle to like was Theo. He isn’t exactly an angel throughout the book and although I could understand what he had to live with, I could also see that what he was doing was hardly helping the family in any way.

Now, I’ve come to learn two other things with Jodi Picoult novels. 1) If the main female lead is single she’ll have a love interest or two and 2) the end of the book will have a killer twist leaving me completely shocked. Emma did have a romantic storyline. I originally thought it was going to be with the local detective, Matsen, but then when Oliver, Jacob’s lawyer, came on the scene I wasn’t too sure. Both men lend their voices to the multiple narrative and I found myself liking Oliver more than Detective Matsen. So that was the romance dealt with, now I just had to see what Jodi had in store for the end of the book. For me, this is where the book falls completely flat on its face. Because the fact is there is no twist, not really, and if what is supposed to pass as a twist is the actual twist then I’m hugely disappointed because I already knew that. I had already guessed who killed Jess far before it was even revealed, so to have my suspicions confirmed irritated me because I was expecting some big revelation and it never materialised. I also thought the ending was a bit twee. I wanted to know what had happened after the ‘revelation’ and I closed the book feeling hugely disappointed. Up until the ending I adored the book, I thought it was fantastic and I loved every page. Jodi is an outstanding writer and she easily manages to pull me into her books and House Rules was no different. Until the ending. That changed everything for me and turned it from a five star read into a four star read.

Overall, bar the ending, House Rules was a fantastic read. It’s a long book – almost 600 pages in it’s hardback format – but I thought it was incredibly readable and I did struggle to put it down. Jodi Picoult really excels with her courtroom dramas and House Rules was no different. House Rules is definitely worth picking up because everything that comes before the disappointing ending is excellent. The book will also teach you about what it’s like living with a child with Asperger’s and I thought that was quite an eye-opening experience. The research that went into that must have been long and tortuous but well worth it as Picoult does an outstanding job of translating that to the page. Do pick up House Rules, but be warned, the ending isn’t up to Picoult’s usual standards.