House Rules

Locations
Call Number: Fiction / Picoult, Jodi
On Shelf At: Downtown Library

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Fiction / Picoult, Jodi	4-week checkout	In transit
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Fiction / Picoult, Jodi	4-week checkout	On Shelf

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

My First (and certainly not last) Picoult submitted by eringogreen on June 27, 2011, 7:09pm My first Jodi Picoult novel. I wanted to read a couple others instead, but this was the only one at the library. I wasn't disappointed! I love her writing style and it certainly does suck you in and keep you interested in the characters.

If I had to nitpick, there were a few things I would change. This had to potential to have a great air of mystery and keep you hanging on even harder if it had either left out a choice sentence or chapter - I had the "mystery" figured out way too early on.

It also could have cut out a little material. As someone else here pointed out, you get tired of the same explanation about Aspberger's and what it is and how it effects people and how this relates to the legal system.

But these are very tiny nitpicks. I only felt it dragged for a total of 2 pages (of 500+) and having different narrators (though the idea made me nervous at first) kept it interesting the whole time. Loved it!

Well done! submitted by LVDS on August 30, 2018, 2:58pm Interesting story, told by different characters, different chapters.
Helps you understand what the person with Aspberg's may feel as well as what the family members go through living with this.

Amazing!!!! submitted by caherne on June 30, 2019, 7:03pm This was my first Jodi Picoult novel and I absolutely loved it. I loved being able to read other characters perspectives during the story. Jodi Picoult obviously did a lot of research before writing this book considering how down to the detail everything was. The only thing I would change would be the ending. It was too vague so I don't real;y know how it ended.

House Rules submitted by KatyaS on July 13, 2019, 5:44am Interesting story, told by different characters.

good, not my favorite Jodi P novel submitted by leah karr on August 19, 2022, 1:11pm A very good read, especially as a parent or anyone who works with children

House Rules submitted by czadams on August 28, 2022, 9:15am I am an Occupational Therapist (OT)and I think this is a great depiction of family dynamics within households with kids with autism. I think she gave voice to so many people's experiences.
I think all OTs, Speech language pathologists, Social workers, Applied behavior analysis and Physical therapists - and any other professionals who work with families like this should read this book.

Terrible, Misinformation-laden Book. submitted by MacaroniPenguin on January 31, 2023, 1:03am If the author had any shred of insight or decency, they would recant this book and the statements and portrayals contained within it. It should not still be available in print.

Most troubling is that the book openly advocates for the wildly-debunked notion that vaccines cause or contribute to autism. This has been affirmatively disproven and the original source of the claim openly stated that he had falsified his research.

Highly troubling, too, are the number of stereotypes and misconceptions about autism, so-called asperger's syndrome, and individuals on the autism spectrum. It's obvious that the author has no practical clue what they're talking about and has gotten their information from dubious sources. It's just offensive. The ending of the book and its plot generally are more or less irrelevant; the overall theme and portrayal still verge upon the despicable.

These issues wildly detract from any semblance of writing ability the author may or may not possess, and devalue and discredit the book as a whole.

I highly discourage anyone from reading or recommending this book, especially in any context surrounding autism whatsoever. (Go find another book. You'd be hard pressed to find a worse one.) And if they're dead-set on doing so, they ought to bring the book to me first so I can cross out and annotate every error, misconception, and falsehood about autism first (hint: it's in the hundreds).