House rules

I could not put this book down and shorted myself a few hours of sleep as a result. I don't honestly know why. Perhaps I just wanted to know how they were going to get themselves out of the predicament.

The next morning, though, some inconsistencies about the plot woke me up by staring me in the face and muttering at me.

- Why does the father suddenly show up? He's drawn as a character with slight Asperger's himself, which should preclude him from feeling particularly responsible for being there - at least in Picoult's book. (I'll make a note here to mention that I am not up on current knowledge of AS disorders and cannot verify most of the symptoms that Picoult has written about. However, she has written a father who might or might not have Aspergers Syndrome, but failed to choose one way or another.) It seems to me that his entire purpose in arriving for the trial is to conveniently make the mother feel guilty for sleeping with her son's lawyer.

- That said - what kind of worried and stressed parent hops into bed with the lawyer representing her ASD child in court for murder? During the case? Did someone think that women wouldn't read this book if there wasn't a romance of some sort in it?

- How come no-one bothered listening to the younger kid? Again, he tried to say something several times, but got overlooked or ignored, and again, like the above two points, it feels more like something that the author needed in order to drive the plot, not something that the characters needed.

- And finally, when a 15 year old runs away from home, why does he run to the father he's seen only a couple of times in his life? Would he even have recognized his father in the airport if his mother hadn't arrived on an earlier flight? And hey, for someone so tense about money, why didn't she just call California and ask her ex to put the boy on the next flight home instead of flying out there herself?

Jacob is a teen with Asperger's Syndrome (now known as an autism spectrum disorder, I believe. It's no longer a separate diagnosis.) Like many people with this disorder, he doesn't meet people's eyes in conversation and doesn't understand social cues. But his obsession is true crime, specifically forensic science. He watches reruns of the equivalent of Forensic Files every day, and often shows up at local crime scenes to try to “help” solve the case. But when a murder happens close to home, Jacob ends up as a suspect.

I believe this is meant to be a mystery but I'm not putting on my mystery shelf because it's not. It was extremely clear from the beginning what really happened, which made the 500 pages a little exhausting, just waiting for it to be “revealed.” But it is a story of family. As always, Jodi Picoult went above and beyond with her research. I may not always love the storyline, but I am ALWAYS impressed by the research she does. In this case, not only living with Asperger's, but also forensic science. It's so obvious that a ton of work and research went into this book, as usual with her books.

Something else I really loved was Jacob's brother Theo's point of view. This is written in alternating POVs, including Jacob, Theo, Jacob's mother Emma, his lawyer, Oliver, and a police detective. I enjoyed seeing the story from everyone's point of view, but especially Theo's. Theo was so realistic. He was resentful at times. He felt cheated out of his childhood and being the little brother. If you've ever taken care of a family member with a disability or even a debilitating disease, it's very relatable. I appreciated that it wasn't just rainbows and sunshine. The only thing that was a little annoying was how repetitive it was. I feel like the book could have been a couple hundred pages shorter had we not had to listen to Emma talking about his symptoms over and over and over. Like, we got it in the first hundred pages. But overall, I only discounted one star for this because I adored the realism of Theo and the research was over the top good.

Would I recommend?
Sure, why not?