''House Rules'' (2010) is the eighteenth novel by the American author,

Jodi Picoult Jodi Lynn Picoult () is an American writer. Picoult has published 28 novels, accompanying short stories, and has also written several issues of Wonder Woman. Approximately 40 million copies of her books are in print worldwide, translated into 34 ...

. The novel focuses on a young adult male, Jacob Hunt, with

Asperger's syndrome Asperger syndrome (AS), also known as Asperger's, is a former neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by significant difficulties in social interaction and nonverbal communication, along with restricted and repetitive patterns of behav ...

living in

Townsend Townsend (pronounced tounʹ-zənd) or Townshend may refer to: Places United States *Camp Townsend, National Guard training base in Peekskill, New York *Townsend, Delaware *Townsend, Georgia *Townsend, Massachusetts, a New England town ** Townsend ...

Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...

, who is accused of

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...

. The novel follows the struggle between Jacob and his family (consisting of his mother, Emma, and his younger brother, Theo), the law, and his

disability Disability is the experience of any condition that makes it more difficult for a person to do certain activities or have equitable access within a given society. Disabilities may be Cognitive disability, cognitive, Developmental disability, dev ...

.Picoult, Jodi. (2010). ''House Rules''. NYC, NY: Atria.

Plot

Eighteen-year-old Jacob Hunt lives with his mother Emma and his younger brother, Theo. Jacob has

, then considered a form of high-functioning

autism The autism spectrum, often referred to as just autism or in the context of a professional diagnosis autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or autism spectrum condition (ASC), is a neurodevelopmental condition (or conditions) characterized by difficulti ...

. Jacob lives by a highly structured schedule and feels comfortable when all of his daily activities are pre-planned. Jacob thrives when he is able to engage in structured, focused activities, and he particularly enjoys things that are incredibly intellectual and academic. Emma is able to ensure that Jacob's anxiety and outbursts are infrequent by creating her and Theo's schedules around Jacob's needs. However, this often displeases Theo. Jacob is deeply interested with

forensic analysis Forensic science, also known as criminalistics, is the application of science to criminal and civil laws, mainly—on the criminal side—during criminal investigation, as governed by the legal standards of admissible evidence and criminal p ...

to the point of obsession. The novel begins with Jacob setting up a

crime scene A crime scene is any location that may be associated with a committed crime. Crime scenes contain physical evidence that is pertinent to a criminal investigation. This evidence is collected by crime scene investigators (CSI) and law enforcement ...

(in which he plays the victim) for his mother to solve. Jacob is later accused of murdering his tutor, Jess Ogilvy. It is eventually revealed that Theo snuck into a house that Jess was

house sitting House sitting is the practice whereby a person leaving their house for a period of time entrusts it to one or more "house sitters", who by a mutual Contract, agreement are permitted to live or stay in the property temporarily, in exchange for assum ...

at and startled her, causing her to accidentally hit her head on the sink and subsequently die. When Jacob arrived at the home for his tutoring sessions, he staged a crime scene to make it appear as if Jess's boyfriend, Mark Maguire, had committed the murder, and then tried to make it appear as if it was a

kidnapping In criminal law, kidnapping is the unlawful confinement of a person against their will, often including transportation/asportation. The asportation and abduction element is typically but not necessarily conducted by means of force or fear: the p ...

. Eventually, Jacob is arrested for Jess's

. During the trial, Jacob states that he staged the crime scene to take care of his brother, in accordance with a "house rule" set by Emma to take care of one another. Jacob asserts that if, by chance, the circumstances arose again, he would do it again for his brother.

Characters

*Jacob Hunt – The eldest son of Emma, and Theo's brother. He has

and because of the way Jacob behaves and interacts with others, he is deemed suspicious by the police, and subsequently accused of murdering Jess Ogilvy, his social skills tutor. *Emma Hunt – The single mother of Jacob and Theo Hunt. She works as an advice columnist for their town's local newspaper. Emma has devoted herself to her eldest son, Jacob, as a consequence of his disability. She creates a list of "House Rules" which stipulates the following: "''Clean up your messes, tell the truth, brush your teeth twice a day, don't be late for school, and take care of your brother; he's the only one you've got.''" *Theo Hunt – The 15-year-old younger brother of Jacob, who claims to be independent and rebellious. *Rich Matson – The lead detective investigating the death of Jess. *Oliver Bond – Jacob Hunt's attorney. * Jess Ogilvy – Jacob's

social skills A social skill is any competence facilitating interaction and communication with others where social rules and relations are created, communicated, and changed in verbal and nonverbal ways. The process of learning these skills is called social ...

tutor and the murder victim. * Mark Maguire – Jess's abusive boyfriend and first suspect in her murder, who is later dismissed when Jacob is arrested. * Judge Cuttings – The judge presiding over Jacob's murder trial. * Helen Sharp – The

prosecutor A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the common law adversarial system or the Civil law (legal system), civil law inquisitorial system. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the ...

for Jacob Hunt's murder trial.

Narrative style

''House Rules'' is told through the perspective of five character voices, including, Emma, Theo, Jacob, Rich, and Oliver. Each chapter is a character's perspective of a particular event unfolding in their lives. Additionally, each character's narrative is assigned a different

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a typeface. Each font is a matched set of type, with a piece (a "sort") for each glyph. A typeface consists of a range of such fonts that shared an overall design. In mod ...

. Picoult frequently uses this narrative technique in her novels, including in, ''My Sister's Keeper'', ''Songs of the Humpback Whale'', ''Change of Heart'', ''

Sing You Home ''Sing You Home'' (2011) is the nineteenth novel by the American author, Jodi Picoult. The novel was released on March 1, 2011, and follows the story of a bisexual woman fighting for the right to use the frozen embryos created by her and her ex-h ...

'', and ''Handle with Care''.

Murders discussed

The novel contains short discussions of murder(s) committed by real murderers, including:

Ted Bundy Theodore Robert Bundy ( born Cowell; November 24, 1946 – January 24, 1989) was an American serial killer who kidnapped, raped and murdered numerous young women and girls during the 1970s and possibly earlier. After more than a decade ...

Richard Crafts Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'stron ...

, Christopher Hightower, Darryl Littlejohn, Jeffrey MacDonald, Stella Nickell,

Dorothea Puente Dorothea Helen Puente (; January 9, 1929 – March 27, 2011) was an American convicted serial killer. In the 1980s, she ran a boarding house in Sacramento, California, and murdered various elderly and mentally disabled boarders before cashing th ...

Dennis Rader Dennis Lynn Rader (born March 9, 1945) is an American serial killer known as BTK (an abbreviation he gave himself, for "bind, torture, kill"), the BTK Strangler or the BTK Killer. Between 1974 and 1991, he killed ten people in Wichita and Par ...

Gary Ridgway Gary Leon Ridgway (born February 18, 1949), also known as the Green River Killer, is an American serial killer and sex offender. He was initially convicted of 48 separate murders. As part of his plea bargain, another conviction was added, brin ...

, and Bill Sybers.

References

{{Authority control 2010 American novels Novels by Jodi Picoult Books about autism Novels set in Vermont Townshend, Vermont Atria Publishing Group books