Skip to main content

Book Review: The House We Grew Up In by Lisa Jewell


Easter is a special time for the Bird family. Every year, Lorelei goes all out to make the day special for her family, with an egg hunt in the garden and a special meal with family and friends. But then tragedy strikes, and the family breaks apart. Easter is no longer a happy time for the entire family. Years later, Meg returns to clean out her mother's home after her death, and the story of how this family fell apart is finally revealed.

The House We Grew Up In by Lisa Jewell is a family saga told from several different times and perspectives. We get to know Lorelei and Colin, and their children Meg, Beth, Rory and Rhys when they were young and happy. And we get to see them as they are now. Lorelei is an eccentric woman whose perpetual collecting eventually evolves into a severe hoarding problem. The impact this ~ and the tragedy that happens on that one Easter ~ has on each of her family members is what the story is all about.

I had mixed feelings about The House We Grew Up In. The novel was engaging and held my interest, but it started to feel like a soap opera by the time it was done. Every single character has some serious issue, and it felt like the author added in every unusual relationship she could think of: adultery, parent and child with the same lover, sleeping around, bisexual, incest and more. Any of these would have been fine, but to throw them all into one novel with a small number of characters was too much for me.

Overall, it was a unique look into hoarding and the impact it has on different people. If you enjoy family sagas, and don't mind a bit of over-the-top relationship drama, check out The House We Grew Up In. It's gotten some much higher reviews from others, so it's definitely worth a look.

My Rating: 3/5

This review was written based on a copy of The House We Grew Up In that I received from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This review includes Amazon Affiliate links.
Labels:

Comments

  1. ElizabethAugust 26, 2014 at 9:03 AM

    Nice review. I don't recall all those relationship things. I guess I read too much on the surface.

    Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

    ENJOY your week.

    Elizabeth
    Silver's Reviews
    My It's Monday, What Are You Reading

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. JulieAugust 26, 2014 at 12:50 PM

      And I think I got too caught up in them! Thanks for stopping by!

      Delete

Post a Comment

Thanks for stopping by! I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Popular posts from this blog

Getting back to blogging

It seems that blogging has dropped to the bottom of my list for the past year, and was pretty low for the year or two prior to that. I love to read, and am continuing to do so, but as my regular readers know I haven't been around much. My last blog post was almost a year ago!!

There are many things that have taken me away from blogging. Work has been much more challenging and interesting these past few years, but that means I really don't want to get back on the computer when I get home at night - or on the weekends.

Family life has been more busy with kids having multiple activities in the evenings, leaving little time to just hang out and write about the books that I read.

I will admit to a bit of a Facebook addiction, which means way too much time spent scrolling through my newsfeed instead of doing something more productive. This is one of the things I'm working on and hoping that this will free up some time for getting back to the blog.

Overall, life is good. Work is …
Post a Comment
Read more

Book Review: The Bookman's Tale by Charlie Lovett

Peter Byerly is distraught over the loss of his wife nine months ago. He has retreated to their cottage in the English countryside, hoping to return to his love of collecting and restoring rare books. But when he opens a book about Shakespeare forgeries and finds a Victorian watercolor of a woman who looks just like his wife, Peter is soon on a search for the origin of the painting and the truth about Shakespeare's real identity.

The Bookman's Tale: A Novel of Obsession by Charlie Lovett is a wonderful journey for anyone who loves books. It follows Peter's search in 1995, which turns into a bit of a thriller at times. But Lovett also takes the reader back in time a bit so we can learn the story of his relationship with his wife and how he came to be a bookseller. He does a beautiful job of expressing Peter's feelings about the rare books he encounters, and his feelings are contagious.

And then he takes us back even further to the history of one particular volume, whos…
3 comments
Read more

Book Review: The Secret Lake by Karen Inglis

When Stella and Tom move to a new home in London, they are sad to have left their friends behind. But soon they have a mystery to solve. Their neighbor's dog, Harry, keeps disappearing. Where is he going and why is he always wet when he comes home? As they investigate the area in the garden where Harry seems to come and go, they discover a hidden tunnel that takes them back to their garden ... almost 100 years ago.

The Secret Lake by Karen Inglis is a wonderful children's book that reminds me of the adventurous stories I read as a child. I saw other reviewers say something similar. I'm not sure what it is about the way the story is told, but it is reminiscent of children's books from many years ago, yet it will definitely appeal to the kids of today.

Stella and Tom have an adventure in the past that leads to new friends and discoveries. While it's a time travel story, it doesn't have a lot of fantasy elements (although there are some moles that act a bit unusua…
1 comment
Read more