House Rules, by Jodi Picoult
This was in the category: A book on your shelf that you haven't read yet
Honestly, I don't know how I missed this one on my shelf- I usually read all of Picoult's books.
It was an okay book. It was an easy read, like most of her books are - all 532 pages.
The book was about a boy who has Asperger's syndrome and his family. The boy is on trial for murder because he is accused of killing his social skills teacher. The reader is not left in the dark, so I don't have any trouble telling you that he didn't. The story is about how it is to deal with a child with Aspergers (he is 18 at the time of the story) and what it is like to understand all of his quirks to figure out what he did.
The boy is a forensic sciences nut, and this is how he gets linked to the murder. He tried to fool the police into thinking there had been a robbery - he wanted to try and stump them. But what it did is get him accused.
The real problem is how severe his Aspergers seems to be. I know several children on the autism spectrum, and he seems to have the symptoms of everything possible, yet they call him "high functioning autistic". The character Picoult has in the book is not high functioning by any means.
And what was worse - there was no ending to this book at all. Which, I should know by now because she always has trouble ending her books.
I am not sure I recommend this book. If you know anyone with Aspergers or Autism (which I am guessing most people do) - you will probably dislike this book. And if you can get around Picoult's subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) hints that Autism and Aspergers are caused by vaccines, you might also enjoy it. But if not - steer clear.
2 1/2 stars
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