Thursday, October 3, 2013

House Rules Written by: Jodi Picoult

Hi Readers, hope you’re all just peachy keen, I’m amazed how quick time is flying! I simply don’t know how I’ll be able to read 10 books every month for the next three months and fit in everything else! I need to just give up sleeping… okay here goes my, what a book this was… though I’m not really sure what to think. I’m seeing a pattern in the way Jodi Picoult writes, she’ll take a topic of debate and turn it into a narrative a story that will just draw you in even if it is a work of fiction there’s a lot of facts in her tales, and she covers a lot of topics that are full of controversy both in past and present time. I listened to the Audio Book of this Novel and it was narrated by the talented voice actors Mark Turetsky, Nicole Poole Andy Paris, Christopher Evan Welch, and Rich Orlow…similar to a recent book I read by Jodi Picoult every main character was given their own voice actor and would demonstrate how they interpreted the other characters, it’s just genius how this is done now as it really does give you all sides and perspectives each character is feeling. What grabbed me to read this book was “When your son can’t look you in the eye.. does that mean he’s guilty?” Well, I don’t know usually yes, but then we take Jacob Hunt he is a teenager 18 an adult in the eyes of America and he has Asperger’s syndrome. What does this mean?
 Well, you will get quite the education while reading, but let’s go with a definition in this case… also known as Asperger disorder (AD), is an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) that is characterized by significant difficulties in social interaction and nonverbal communication, alongside restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior and interests. It differs from other autism spectrum disorders by its relative preservation of linguistic and cognitive development. Although not required for diagnosis, physical clumsiness and atypical (peculiar, odd) use of language are frequently reported. The syndrome is named after the Austrian pediatrician Hans Asperger who, in 1944, studied and described children in his practice who lacked nonverbal communication skills, demonstrated limited empathy with their peers, and were physically clumsy. The modern conception of Asperger syndrome came into existence in 1981 and went through a period of popularization, becoming standardized as a diagnosis in the early 1990s. Many questions remain about aspects of the disorder.
In Jacob’s case he’s hopeless at reading social cues or expressing himself well to others, though he is brilliant in many ways. And, his special focus at the moment is not winning him any expectance he loves forensic analysis. He’s obsessed with this show he loves and I must admit I have a show I like very much like the one Jacob loves too so nothing too crazy there right? Well, Jacob also has a police scanner and we find him going to crime scenes and will even tell the cops what to do, but then Jacob is the focus of the police because of a murder that has occurred. And, due to Jacob’s inability to meet the officers’ eyes or speak coherently his guilt looks pretty obvious. Now the Hunt family are in the spotlight and Emma, Jacob’s mother who has been trying for years to prove her son is just like everyone else has to now prove that no, he really isn’t….And, if that doesn’t hurt her enough her younger son Theo is becoming even more withdrawn and both of them are forced to question… did Jacob commit murder? I was very drawn into this book and its characters. The setting is VT so it was very easy for me to picture all of the locations, schools, etc, but what really drew me in what how detailed Emma and her Son were with their lifestyle so you knew exactly what this house would look like and how their life would be. I was a little disappointed to see several story lines dropped throughout the book though certain relationships just fizzled and looked like they were originally part of the tale, but changed at the last moment. Also, one question is never asked, which I can get had this question been asked there would have been no drama. Another problem I had with this book is the fact the author kept bringing up Vaccines for babies and children as the “potential” cause of Aspergers she skirts a very fine line between saying she doesn’t believe they cause this syndrome and that they do, I cannot stand people who insist vaccinations are causing issues with babies and children,… I’m not medically sound to prove they don’t but I know the medical community has debunked this myth quite a few times and to try and stop vaccination is just insane to me, but that’s going off topic I only gnashed my teeth a few times during this book because of this, but I really gnashed my teeth at how our current legal system and police were unwilling to try and understand Jacob… it’s a very question causing book, and is suspenseful to the very end, which is sadly a tad too abrupt but that’s how this author writes and it leaves you spinning and thinking… well…damn.  

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