House Rules

by Jodi Picoult

House Rules is a novel about an eighteen year old boy named Jacob with Asperger's syndrome (on the autism spectrum). While Jacob may not grasp facial expressions or understand social skills, he is very intelligent when it comes to topics that interest him. His most current concentration is forensic analysis. Jacob is constantly learning new forensic methods and watching his favorite show CrimeBusters to see if he can solve the crime before the detectives on TV can. His mother, Emma, is his biggest advocate. She is a single mom in charge of Jacob and his younger brother Theo's care. Emma is desperate to teach and help Jacob to function in the world. She loves him despite the constant challenges. Theo is a quiet and secretly rebellious teenager tired of being put second to his brother's symptoms and embarrassing issues. This family is struggling to stay out of the public eye and have some normalcy, but when Jacob becomes the focus of a police investigation, their world becomes shattered and slowly starts to fall apart.  


Nineteen Minutes and Perfect Match were my first introductions to Picoult's novels. I enjoyed her writing, the twists and turns of her characters/plots, and I thought her ideas flowed easily from page to page. I often think of Picoult's books as beach reads - easy to get through. The author tends to have a formula she uses for her books (Introduction to characters + problem + twist = The End). Picoult's formula seems to be consistent through her books and House Rules is no exception. So if you are familiar with this plot formula, you will not be disappointed. I was looking for something different from her other novels and was hoping this book might be it. If you have any suggestions of other Picoult novels that might be better, please comment on this post to share them!

I am interested in special education, especially understanding autism, which is what pulled me towards this novel. While Picoult seems to have done some research on autism, I do not feel she really portrays a teenager with autism correctly. She takes every severe behavior a child with autism has ever had and bottles them all into Jacobs character. It makes it almost unbelievable. Picoult spends a lot of the book reiterating these behaviors multiple times-to an annoying extent. Due to my background in working with children with autism, I found these paragraphs repetitive. It might be different for someone just learning about autism or Asperger's. My last criticism is that the ending was predictable in the very beginning of the book. I still enjoyed reading it, but it made for a disappointing ending. In an effort to not give anything away, I will not go into more detail.

Overall I still liked the book. It was not one of my favorites, but it had an interesting plot and as always, Picoult really makes you sympathize with her characters. I will try another book by Picoult to see if her formula might be different, but if it continues on the same path as the others, I might be forced to find another author for my "beach reads".

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

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