Review - House Rules by Jodi Picoult

House Rules by Jodi Picoult
Publisher: Atria Books 2010
Hardcover 532 pages

I'm a little tired of Jodi Picoult. When I first started reading her 10 years ago she seemed so promising. A strong female writer who was able to make drama both suspensful and emotional. Yet lately I feel like her novels are more of a soapbox to tout her own political or social beliefs and House Rules seems like it does just that. If I wanted to read about the dangers of vaccinations then I would be reading Jenny McCarthy's books. If I wanted to read about how kids with autism are brilliant and wonderful people, I would read Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of a Dog in the Nighttime. Instead I'm reading this slow, irritating book that lost my interest after 100 pages. To say that Picoult's writing has become formulatic is putting it midly. I will not say that her novels are not well written and suspenseful, because they are, but just like reading a John Grisham novel, if you have read one then you have read them all.

One interesting side note is Jodi Picoult's criticism of book reviewers and their disregard for popular female authors, or in other words, authors of "chick lit". The criticism came from the recent excultation of the author Jonathan Franzen and the unprecidented print that was given to his latest epic Freedom. I'm not a fan of Franzen by any means, yet even I can tell the difference between "serious" fiction and a book entitled Good In Bed. So please save us the whining Jodi Picoult, and even if Franzen did get way too much publicity for him mediocre novel, the people who should be whining are the truly under appreciated writers. So I'm here to say: I appreciate you Keith Miller and Evan Mandery. You are brilliant, please keep writing.