House Rules: A Novel

I really appreciated how Jodi told the story from several different perspectives.

It is a very good book but it took a while to hold my interest then all of a sudden sped up like she had a word count she couldn’t exceed so had to wrap it up quickly

Adding to favorites. This story will grab you and not let go until the very end. SO good. Gives people a glimpse into the heartbreak that is autism and IEP's....must read!

This book caught me off guard at first with the Asperger’s content since I have dealt with this with one of my children. It was a bit overdone but it brought the issue out in a way that makes you understand that. The story was amazing though and I couldn’t put it down. The ending was not expected.

Came quickly & the price was right.

As the mother of an adult son with Asperger Syndrome / High Functioning Autism, complicated w/ borderline IQ and many multiple components of AS I can't praise Ms. Picoult enough for what she has accomplished with this book.Minus the criminal element ( which was needed to mold this into a novel) she has pretty much written my and my son's life. I truthfully had tears while reading wondering how did she manage to write about details of my and my son's challenges so clearly!From the difficulties of diagnosis, early failures of medications, our success with a GFCF Diet, Supplement and Metabolic treatment along w/ traditional medications she covered it. The financial destruction of our family finances, family stability are there. The isolation, criticism, difficulties w/ society, school ( complicated I.E.P.'s ) and family not understanding - I live it, as does my son.One large point that the average reader may miss is the need ( in some / not all) situations for guardianship protection of our young adults w/ A.S. I took guardianship of my son as he turned 18. I prepared for it three years in advance. Not to take away from him, but to protect him.For anyone to feel she covered too much ground, I shake my head. My son's complications are all over the place and touch so many areas that there is not one way to explain what he copes with.We have an added tragedy in that my A.S. Son lost his future caretaker. His brother was KIA in Afghanistan in 2006. He doesn't have the one most suited, and the one most intent to provide for his future needs. My heart carries a heavy burden.Our local Law Enforcement ( Sheriff and Police Chief) have been educated and know about A.S. and the complicated nature of my Son. I took it upon myself to approach them early. And, thankfully so as there have been some incidents of explosive behavior when I needed their back up. They know how to handle my Son without arrest or over reaction. Providing the "stop sign" sometimes needed so to speak.It is difficult to explain to family, teachers, people in general the complicated nature of my son's behaviors. He can often be percieved as more capable than he is. And then misunderstood when the worst happens.Technical medical texts are more than most are willing to look at to understand. For so many years I've tried to explain to family, to the point that I give up and stay isolated. I did share this book with my Mother who said she learned so much and now understood so much more.I suggest HOUSE RULES as a resource tool for Family, Teachers.If my son could be cured of A.S. I would seek the cure in a heart beat. For those who profess they don't need one, then I suggest you are not as affected as my son and others are.The novel ends w/ what seems to be a happy ending for this mother. I will never have that. Those outside this environment will not understand my isolation and sorrow, fear of the life for my son when I am not here to provide and supervise his needs and care.Thank you Ms. Picolut. Thank you ever so much.  House Rules: A Novel

There probably isn’t a better literary example of Asperger’s. This book helped explain so many different aspects of Asperger’s. I really appreciated the authors attention to detail in mixing it in with an actual story.

Picoult does it once again for me, by taking another controversial subject to view from different perspectives. Jacob Hunt is the young man with Aspberger's Syndrome in the story and we get a glimpse as to how this disease has affected his family as different chapters are narrated by various characters within the novel.I loved the chapters that were narrated by Jacob. All that I really know about Aspberger's is what I have learned on television, so it was fascinating to see things from Jacob's logical viewpoint. I think because of the disease I found myself looking at Jacob as if he were a child, but at eighteen years old he is more of a young man. Jacob's lack of social skills obviously keep him in a childlike state and although he will be able to minimally function in society, he will more than likely need care for the rest of his life.Currently, the care provider role falls upon his mother Emma's shoulders. When Jacob was diagnosed with Aspberger's at an early age, his father admitted defeat and walked out on his family, leaving Emma with all the responsibilities of raising two young boys, one needing exceptional care. After much research about the disease, Emma hones her schedules and menus to keep things as smoothly flowing for Jacob as possible. Being a single parent, you can only imagine how difficult it would be under these circumstances to be sure that you are offering adequate parental love and guidance to the child that does not have any medical issues.Theo is Jacob's younger brother who longs to live a normal family life. He doesn't want to worry about eating certain colored foods on specific days, or making sure that Jacob is home at 4:30 to watch his favorite television show. While Theo acts out in his own way in search of the perfect family life, he also worries about when the day will come when he will be expected to be his brothers care provider.Everything within this novel spins out of control when Jacob's social skills tutor is found dead. When suspicion is turned towards Jacob, the organized world that he knows comes to an end. While Emma knows how these changes will negatively affect Jacob, she finds herself having to think of ways to keep some order and logic to his world.I truly enjoyed this novel that had us take a close look at how the legal system would deal with a similar situation under such unfortunate circumstances. With themes of honesty, justice, Aspberger's, and family this book made a great book club selection and I'm sure it would be a great novel to pick up for leisure reading also.

Although the ending came as no surprise to me, I still enjoyed watching the plot unfold. Really enlightening and loved the style in which it was written.

George R.R. Martin says “A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies, the man who never reads lives only one.”. And every reader believe this. This is where all book lovers start their journey.🌻📖And we start living others life, we start to feel what going inside others heart. This is a fascinating thing, isn't it ? Then we really feel the freedom of choice to living another life, to feel the feelings we may never get to know. 🌻📖Then we start to choose the life we want to live. Sometimes we choose to live romanticism, romantic life, filled with love and care, we all want to feel being important, being precious that's why choose romantic books to live that life. Sometimes we choose thriller to live thrilling, energetic, life that sense of youthful exuberance, most of the time we fall for it. But did we ever choose a life that could not be told ? Do we ever want to know how's the life of the man who can't express feelings ? How's night , how he dreamt who cannot see ? What's going inside the girl who can not talk ? What pain is hurting those blank unexpressive eyes ??📖✍️Bearing the burden but never been able to yell, living with all the emotions but never been able to express it, not just because of shyness but phisical boundaries, is another life, an untold life. Writing that untold story, unexpressed feeling, and most importantly what is the feeling of being unexpressed ? Writing a story from the perspective of an Asperger's patient or popuraly known as autistic, is most difficult thing i would say. 📖✍️Being an autistic child with Asperger's , could not ever been able to express true feelings and then caught and accused for a friend's murder is main story of this book. Of course it's a thriller but a great informative book too. Author Jodi Picoult didn't tell us what was the end of that case, how the boy came out of it or ... The book didn't end but i have enjoyed the untold story of a person who can't express feelings but feel everything inside the heart. I would rate it 5.5 🌟its a great book of knowledge about aspergers blend with thrill. Beautifully mixed. Well written, unputdownable, great suspense, you will feel the urge to complete the book without stopping. A gret insight about life of the people who have any kind of disability, a whole view of family and the detail of the disable person's feeling and view from every aspects makes me speachless. And the thrill was awsome. A must read book for every reader, I must say. Just read it you won't feel regret.

I normally love Jodi’s books but honestly this wasn’t a favourite. As a parent of 2 children on the spectrum I feel that for the most part Jodi did an amazing job of explaining ASD, from both the boys perspective, as well as the family members. I wish I could recommend this book to my own family and friends in the hope that it might help them to understand my children, but the multiples references to vaccines causing autism have made sure that I definitely won’t be recommending this as an educational resource to anyone.Overall, I did enjoy the book however I agree with others who have said that the ending was predictable (the first time I have found this to be the case in one of Jodi’s books), and I was also disappointed that there was nothing explaining what the families lives looked like after the events, as is normally the case in books by Jodi.

In den allermeisten von Jodi Picoults Romanen gibt es 3 feste Bestandteile:1. Ein großes Problem, das ein oder mehrere der Romanfiguren in ein moralisches Dilemma stürzt. (Abtreibung, Euthanasie, Organspenden, Suizid, Todesstrafe...)2. Mehrere Ich-Erzähler erzählen die Geschichte jeweils aus ihrer Perspektive.3. Spätestens gegen Ende kommt eine Gerichtsszene mit einer dramatischen Enthüllung.Sie schreibt ihre Bücher also (fast) immer nach diesem bewährten Rezept. So auch "House Rules". Im Mittelpunkt steht der 18-jährige Jacob, der am Asperger-Syndrom leidet und des Mordes verdächtigt wird. Neben ihm selbst erzählen seine Mutter, sein Bruder, sein Anwalt und ein Polizist die Geschichte jeweils aus ihrer Sicht. Und ja, es gibt mehrere Gerichtsszenen, und am Ende kommt eine dramatische (aber m.E. nicht wirklich überraschende) Enthüllung.Dass ihre Bücher immer einer bestimmten Struktur folgen, ist etwas ärgerlich, denn das hat etwas Formelhaftes. Trotzdem gelingt es ihr in den meisten Fällen, selbst diejenigen Leser zu fesseln, die ihr System schon aus verschiedenen anderen Büchern kennen. Auch ich habe "House Rules" gern gelesen. Es gehört zwar meiner Meinung nach nicht zu ihren besten Werken, aber auch nicht zu ihren schlechteren.Ms Picoult hat offenbar ausgiebig über verschiedene Formen von Autismus recherchiert. Zumindest für mich als Laien hat sie mit Jacob eine durchaus glaubwürdige Figur geschaffen, und man gewinnt einen Einblick in die Verhaltens- und Denkweise eines Asperger-Patienten und deren Auswirkungen auf sein Umfeld. Durch die verschiedenen Ich-Erzähler lernt man die einzelnen Figuren gut kennen und kann sich in sie hineinversetzen. Die Gerichtsszenen sind einigermaßen spannend, wenn auch vorhersehbar (ich habe eben schon einige ihrer Romane gelesen).Fazit: Kein Meisterwerk, aber ein unterhaltsames Buch mit interessanter Thematik.

I love Jodi’s writing the way she creates the story, with intent, humour, sensitivity and knowledge of very different t subjects. This was brilliant right to the last page.