House Rules

Well another book by Jodi Picoult, this one was House Rules.  The story is of yet another dysfunctional family; she certainly does find them, huh?  While it wasn’t “every social issue and the kitchen sink” compared to the last story, Picoult does continue her theme of bullying, this time with young 18 year-old senior in high school, Jacob Hunt.  Jacob has Asperger’s Syndrome and lives with his brother and mother (Dad left many years ago when the going got tough in the household).  Jacob is being tutored for social skills by a young college (UVM) student, Jess Ogilvy, who ends up dead in a culvert behind her apartment.  Jacob, who is a fan of the crime scene genre, is implicated in the crime after his mother sees fabric from his room wrapped around the body at the crime scene.  Who are the suspects?  Well, Jess’ boyfriend, the aggressive young man - Mark Maguire, and Jacob, after he implicates himself.  There are a number of fast forward and back, a love tryst between Jacob’s mom, Emma Hunt, and Jacob’s lawyer, and the twist in the story, that Jacob’s younger brother, Theo Hunt, may have actually caused the death.  The story evolves as Emma is convinced her son Jacob may have caused the death but will do whatever it takes to clear him from the charges.  It appears that Jacob believes he is actually covering up for his brother because he found evidence to believe his brother murdered her.  Theo is a “peeping Tom” and he would go over to her apartment and look at her nude while she was changing – REALLY?  Hummm, that’s where you lost me!  Theo leaves the drama to find his Dad, whom he hasn’t seen since a brief visit a number of years ago (he steals his mom’s credit card to purchase on-line tickets).  So you have an older brother with Asperger’s trying to cover a crime scene up to save his younger brother.  The mother relationship seemed identical to the mom/son relationship in the last Picoult book, and the mother falling in love with the lawyer was very similar to mom falling in love with cop in last book, heck even referenced the killing spree in Nineteen Minutes… you get the point.  I felt like same drama, different town, same characters, and same weird anti-climactic ending.  Don’t get me wrong, I wish I could be pumping out these books annually too.  If you read her last book, you read this one.  Though I do think this one read quicker.  Your call….not my favorite.