"House Rules" A novel about a guy with AS

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I thought about putting this in the arts and writing forum but I thought here would be a better place. As I said in one thread in that forum, I've been into reading books by Jodi Picoult. One that I'm just starting by her is "House Rules". It's about a teenager with AS who is a suspect in a murder case according to the summary on the jacket.

I'll let you know how it is, and what I think about the character. Has anybody else read this or heard of this book? It came out in 2010 so it's not that old.

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Sounds interesting. I'm waiting for a novel to come out called Commoner the Vagabond. It's basically the biography and trials & tribulations of a man who is an undiagnosed aspie that gets in trouble routinely with the law.

I've read House Rules. It was interesting, and deviated somewhat from the norm of 'crime' novels (probably because it was written by Jodi Picoult, but still). Hope you enjoy it.

I'm about halfway through with it and I really have some issues with how she's portraying Jacob (the AS guy). She writes this book as a first person narrative in several of the characters voices, Jacobs, his brother, mother, the detective and the lawyer are characters who narrate chapters so far. Everyone else describes Jacob as coming across much lower functioning than I was expecting, even to the point where he sounds like he has classic autism in many places rather than AS. The way people describe him he could have stepped out of a textbook because he has every single symptom related to AS. He also has each symptom pretty bad. He's on a gluten free, caisen free diet, takes all sorts of suppliments and shots which supposedly keep him up to the functioning level that he is in the story, which isn't described as very high functioning although the characters say he's high functioning.

Here's something though, he is described as completely unable to understand sarcasm, similes, metaphors, figures of speech, multiple meanings for words, etc yet he uses them when he talks and his chapter narratives are not written like they are written by someone who is the way he's described. It's almost like she's come here and read the forum so she knows that people with AS can communicate well by writing but she seems to think we all act like a medium to high functioning classic autistic who occasionally has a moment of clarity and throws in a witty or wry comment into the conversation, which he isn't supposed to be able to understand.

I can't wait to read her interview in the back where she talks about the research she did for each book, how she created the characters, etc. I'm willing to be she didn't do very much. I'm very dissapointed in this character, but the books is as usual, interesting and well written. The problems I've found with it aren't something that would be noticed by someone who doesn't have AS.

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I'm giving it another shot. We will see.
My forum is still there and everyone is welcome to come join as well. There is a private women only subforum there if anyone is interested. Also, there is no CAPTCHA.

The link to the forum is http://www.rightplanet.proboards.com

I read parts of the book and it upset me deeply so I decided to not read it word by word. I didn't like how she made us sound like psychopaths. I thought the character was too autistic to be AS and he did have general autism and then his diagnoses was changed to AS when he was 11. General autism? Now that was something new. I have never heard of the term. it seems like they keep making up autistic terms. I heard of residual AS not too long ago and "touch of Asperger's" and that was also mentioned in the book about Jacob's father when Emma said he may have had a touch of that. What does that mean? That he has a mild form of it or just has characteristics of it but not enough to have the diagnoses?

But I also gave the author the benefit of the doubt. Trying to use his AS as a defense in court for his actions, same thing has happened in real life. An aspie commits a murder, it gets blamed on their condition and even their lawyers will try and use it as a defense. It's happened before. So it was pretty accurate what was going on in the book. Also the fact it showed how misunderstood AS really is because lot of people kept thinking it was a fake condition and saying what Jacob does is normal like all teens get angry. Someone also mentioning a seven year old has to have a milk and cookie before bed and is obsessed with Power Rangers, does that mean he has AS and the answer was no. There is more to that than that. I would just say he had severe AS. It just made me feel I didn't have it after all because I am not like him and maybe I am just socially awkward or just have strong interests and I wouldn't freak out in the store like that if there was a change in my routine. I would just be disappointed and move on with my day. I am sure that is how it is for everyone else when their routine changes. I also don't say lines from movies when I don't know what to say so I learned what it really means to say lines from movies in situations. Not when you are talking about them because it's your obsession or because you have been fixated on a certain TV show or movie. Mmm would that mean "no" now if I answer "Do you repeat lines and phrases our of movies in social situations?"


The ending turned out okay and if no one wants to hear the spoiler, don't read down.



































His teacher slipped and bumper her head and died and his brother was there at the time it happened. Jacob didn't want him to get blamed for it so he made it look like it was a murder rather than an accident and one of the rules in his house is "help your brother" so he helped his brother. That was why he couldn't tell the truth in court but yet he also refused to lie. I could also see why he wasn't sorry for what he did. He didn't kill her so of course he wouldn't be sorry for it.

I read it, too. The story was interesting, but I agree with OliveOilMom about Jacob´s character.

I've finished the book and I really enjoyed the book itself, like I have enjoyed all of hers that I've read so far, it's just that the AS character seemed to me like he had classic autism rather than AS. I haven't ever heard of anyone with AS who insists on only eating and wearing certain colors on different days of the week, or someone who melts down or gets extremely agitated if they don't watch a rerun of the same show at the same time every single day and who also takes notes on the show and keeps the notebook like Rain Man etc. I have heard of people who have classic autism who do those kind of things though.

Maybe it's because I haven't been around as many people with AS as the author did while doing the research, or maybe it's because mine is milder than the characters, or even that I never knew I had it for such a long time and had to learn to manage my issues in a different way. It also could be that the character is someone whose mother thought that the diagnosis meant that she had to accommodate everything he wanted like only eating blue food on Fridays or always taking his shower first etc, when it would be much better for him to learn that some things are not going to be possible. My belief (and it could be wrong) is that with AS you can learn to manage most things like that even though they are uncomfortable or very stressful without a meltdown or a shutdown, but that with classic autism you usually cannot.

I still enjoyed the book, but I think I would have enjoyed it more if he had classic autism rather than AS, because that's how he seemed to me to be.

_________________
I'm giving it another shot. We will see.
My forum is still there and everyone is welcome to come join as well. There is a private women only subforum there if anyone is interested. Also, there is no CAPTCHA.

The link to the forum is http://www.rightplanet.proboards.com

If I remember correctly, I believe the author has decided he had high functioning autism rather than AS.

I could understand Jacob about missing his TV show. I have hated missing mine too as kid and young adult. A DVR solved that problem but I had a feeling if Jacob were given that option (or if his parents or brother decided to start taping the TV show for him) so he would be more flexible, he still wouldn't budge because he compared it to a person having to take their insulin when they are diabetic.

I used to get upset at work for not being able to watch The Simpsons on my break so I would cry and feel very anxious so I got so sick of having this happening to me I started having my husband tape the show for me and they were all new episodes on Sunday. That got rid of the feelings because I knew I wasn't missing it and I can watch it later. This was before we got cable. I had a routine at work where I always watched it during my break and sometimes a co worker would have the TV.

I have kept notes before in a notebook couple times in my life. I am not even close to being classically autistic but I seemed to have some traits of it in my childhood. But I improved.