I just finished reading "House Rules" by Jodi Picoult. I have to say that this is one of my favorite books of hers. This book in mainly about an autistic boy named Jacob who gets convicted for murder. It's told from the perspective of his mother, his lawyer, and his younger brother. This book is filled with emotion and hardship. It's really powerful and what makes it even more great is getting to hear it from all the different perspectives and how they play off of each other. It's really cool to see how two different people interpret the same situation.
Jacob the main character has a mild form of autism. He is extremely smart and capable of many things. When his routine gets messed up he freaks out. If he sees or touches the color orange he freaks out. He has trouble making eye contact and gets obsessed with certain things for long amounts of time. Finally he is extremely organized and there is a certain color of food he must eat everyday otherwise he also freaks out. When Jacob gets convicted for murder (as it turns out later that he didn't actually kill her he just set it up to look that way) his world is turned upside down. His lawyer is trying his best to find a way that Jacob could win this case but it's really hard to do so. There is evidence and he looks guilty. The only way for his lawyer Oliver to make the jury see that Jacob actually has some problems is to play the insanity card. I was thinking about this a lot. Half of me feels like it's wrong to use someone's disability and turn it into insanity. The other half of me feels like I do believe that Jacob is innocent and if showing the Jury there is something wrong with him besides his autism is going to help him, maybe it is the best thing to do. There is a fine line in this world with people who are different. If I were on the Jury it would be a really hard decision to make as to if this boy is innocent or guilty. I feel like murder is murder despite the fact if you have a disability or not, on the other hand as it turns out Jacob didn't actually kill the girl Jess he just set it up to look like he did because he is obsessed with forensic science and crime scenes. It's a tough call to make. I couldn't imagine being on that Jury. Obviously the jurors don't know Jacob like I the reader do, but they can still see that he does have some issues. In the real world today there are tons of shootings and killings and lots of them are blamed on the person being mentally ill or so called crazy. In this case Jacob really isn't crazy or mentally ill and he knows that killing someone is not okay, after all he knows tons of things about forensic science. Jacob is autistic though and he does have some weird ticks and problems. Jacob isn't a murderer but he is strange. Who sees that someone is dying/dead and decides to set up their body to look like a whole crime scene instead of calling for help. The thing about autism is they don't realize what they're doing isn't good until after the fact, after it's too late. I think that's what happened to Jacob in this situation.
Another thing is that I feel so terrible for Jacob's mother Emma. I was talking about her in my first post about this book and how hard it must be for her to have to go through this all. Now not only has her husband left her and she has to take care of 2 boys one of them being autistic, but the autistic one is on trial for murder. I don't know how Emma keeps it together. Maybe in a way she doesn't because she is holding all those feelings inside but she doesn't have anyone to explode to about them. I would feel like a trapped animal if I were her. She loves Jacob more than life but I wonder if she ever thought about what life without him would be like? Is that like a sin of motherhood? I don't know but I do know it was extremely hard for Emma to deal with all this.
This was a really intense and powerful book that I highly recommend to people. It's scary and interesting and really thought provoking. This book delves into tons of emotion and you really feel like you know the characters after the book is over
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