Book 13- House Rules

House Rules is another amazing novel by Jodi Picoult. This was superbly written and the story is personal to me, which I think added to my fascination.

Jacob is an 18 year old boy (man?) who is mainstreamed into his high school and is in his senior year. Jacob has Aspergers, a form of Autism. He lives with his mother Emma, and his younger brother, Theo, age 15. Jacob is obsessed in an Aspergers way about forensic medicine and crime scenes. This leads to trouble for him when he is accused of murdering his social skills tutor, Jess.

This story is told through the voice of five narrators: Emma, Jacob, Theo, Rich (the cop who arrests Jacob), and Oliver, the lawyer retained to defended him.

This story is an depth look at people with Aspergers and how society can view them or view and treat anyone who is slightly different that what is expected as "normal".

As a person who works with special ed. middle schoolers and who was "thrown" into the job, I read this almost like a text book since I have regular contact with 4 Autistic boys who are all over the Spectrum.

This story was great and I was impressed at the almost realistic peek into the mind of someone with Aspergers. Well written and well told, I love Picoult's writing style, and the blending of "hot button" topics with a court room drama. Strong and powerful story- a great read!