House Rules

I have read Jodi Picoult before and I have never really enjoyed her writing. Unfortunately the same can be said about House Rules. While I was immediately drawn into the story and motivated to keep reading, I have not found the book satisfying. I think this is partially because I finished the book already and was not satisfied with the ending. I feel as though there are a lot of details Picoult throws into the novel for no particular reason and then proceeds to ignore. I think she puts in the details such as Emma writing the advice column and Rich enjoying it to try and temper the serious and largely sad subject matter of the book. However, I just felt as though they were very out of place and disconnected from the story.

I also feel that while Picoult does an amazing job of developing Jacob and his issues with Aspergers for the reader, she doesn't sufficiently address or develop all the issues or characters in the book. At the beginning, I thought that Rich would have a larger role in the story since he is initially focused on quite a bit. However, by the end he seems to serve no real role and his narration is just thrown in as an afterthought. Also, Theo's obsession with breaking into houses is never really addressed although it is central to solving the mystery.

While I may have issues with Picoult's writing, I cannot deny that she does an amazing job with creating the character of Jacob. She obviously has some sort of insight into the world of a person with Aspergers and she does a very effective job of bringing and incorporating the reader into that world. I think that Theo's and Emma's narration that Picoult includes does a lot to enrich the story. They are the characters that the reader can relate to. While we may empathize with Jacob and relate to him on a more superficial level, in the sense of feeling like in outside on occasion, we cannot truly understand him or his disease. Therefore, by including his family's perspectives, the people who besides Jacob are most affected by his condition, Picoult is doing a masterful job of making the reader care about the story and characters.