"House Rules" by Jodi Picoult

Post Reply New Topic

I've read it, and I enjoyed it.

I agree with what others have said about jacob being 'low functioning' and about the mother treating jacob like a baby, although since throughout the book there seemed to be hints that she has un-diagnosed asperger's herself, maybe that explains it?

Something that bothered me right through the book though, is that nobody seemed to check the shape on the indentation in the girls skull, or surely they would have realised that it was most likely caused by falling against the sink baisin. There was no weapon found and no other sign of struggle.
I'm wonder if jacob should have picked up on that possibility too.
The other thing that bothered me was that the mother recognised the quilt from the news clip, but not the house where she had dropped off the brother at his "friends" house as being the same house the girl was house sitting at.

I have enjoyed some of her other books too,
My sister's keeper,
Vanishing acts,
Perfect match,
Plain truth,
and Tenth circle.

No point in reading it now as we know the ending!

Thanks!

Methinks he is more of an aspie autie cross. He sounds extremely normal at times but very severe in other occasions. It confuses me. The part about his sensory issues take up too much of the space, and so does his literalness. Otherwise it is quite a good book.

Jodi=twisting plot+ medicine+law

It was a good book but only coverd the lower (much lower) life of Aspies. There were so many things we are past at this point (I have told off teachers but for me not for someone else) These books never show the good parts, just the bad sides.

I read partway through, but had to stop because it terrified me. Jacob coped far better in those circumstances than I would've, not having my specific issues with authority figures. And I could easily see police treating an autistic suspect that way in real life. So it made me very scared that something like that would happen to me.

Jacob was portrayed well from every perspective but his own. It was remarkable how the quality of her writing dropped dramsatically whenever she switched to his perspective. She seemed to have no idea whatsoever how autistic people thought - I would be surprised if she's read anything written by an autistic person about their own experience. If she was going to write from his perspective, she really should've read Temple Grandin and Donna Williams at the very least.

I keep analyzing it I don't know why but I'm comparing Jacob and me all the time,

If you haven't realized, I think you just knocked a problem on the head that Mrs. Picoult is picking out with amazing accuracy, that people baby Aspie children all the time. Now we can't simply assume that she thinks this is right, but we do know that she is aware with it, and if I know anything about our standard Human, it's that they tend to strongly highlight things when they realize there is a problem.

Yes I have now read it (I found it on the second row of shelves in my local library). Overall I did like it, but I thought the ending was a little odd because you don't get a verdict or find out what happens to Jacob... This seems to be quite common to modern fiction in general though. On a personal level, having a more severe level of AS, I believe that yes, the character of Jacob was portrayed accurately. I will agree that it was quite negative, but I think people need to see both sides of AS, because I am more like Jacob than the characters who have savant skills or who are super intelligent. I neither have savant skills or super intelligence. The only thing I did find a bit irritating were the constant generalisations that we have NO theory of mind, empathy etc. I, and other people with AS that I know, do lie (albeit badly!).

So I did think it was a good book but too open ended for my liking.