What do readers think of The House We Grew Up In by Lisa Jewell? Write your own review.

I really don't know what to say about this book...it's about a family of 4 kids, with an OCD and possibly agoraphobic/bipolar mother, and tolerant but feckless father and children with all kinds of problems. It was very hard to like any of the people in this book. The mom was very narcissistic to the detriment of her marriage, her hoarder-to-the-max home, her children and her own health. I follows the family from young children to adulthood with their own children. There's a lesbian affair, a suicide, a father who hooks up with the mother of his grandchild, philandering husband, drug-dealing brother. You name it, it's in there. The writing was good, I just couldn't feel to much about any of the people in the book. It ended on a good note, but you had to slog through immense drama to get to it.

A great story about family dynamics, secrets that tear us apart and the ties that bring us back full circle.

I enjoyed getting to know the characters of this book; they were well described and easy to relate to. The plot is engaging and I really cared about the characters that grow as the story develops.

I believe any reader that likes books about family with a touch of dysfunction will find this book appealing. Book groups will have many themes to discuss as well.

While the family in this very readable novel would be considered dysfunctional, there are characters to like, even as they struggle. No one really addresses the mental health issues of the hippie hoarding mother and her infantile, selfish ways; the fascinating parts are each family member's decision about to how to live his or her own life as a reaction. What characters do or not do is frustrating, but it was a compelling read. Makes me want to read her other novels.

I think everyone fears living in a delicate situation. Lisa Jewell did an excellent job developing the characters in such a way that the reader really cares about them. I also enjoyed the addition of the Internet "dating/friend" of the Mother...it added an interesting insight to the Mother that we would not have had otherwise. In the end, keeping all of the stuff makes perfect sense.

The House We Grew Up In is a story about one family's dis-function. It brings up the question do we create our dis-function or are circumstances the cause. whatever, it was a depressing book. How one family could have so many issues, was hard for me to understand.

This novel has so many different themes--family tragedy, hoarding, "late-blooming lesbianism," incest, quasi-incest, drug-dealing, extra-marital affairs-- to say nothing of the three different time frames and multiple physical settings interwoven,that if I were just reading about the book, rather than having read it, I might wonder how it can hang together as a cohesive narrative.

But Jewell makes it work and keeps the reader caring about the characters and story lines. It would be hard to summarize without "spoilers," but I would note that ultimately, there is a redemptive quality to this novel. A family torn apart by a singular tragedy comes to rebuild itself with new structures and new interrelationships over the course of twenty years. Late in the novel, one of the daughters (Meg) says:"This is the real world. We are real people. This is real life. And things sometimes happen that don't fit in with how we think the story should go, but we just have to take a deep breath and get on with it, not sit in the corner sulking because it's not what we were hoping for." That about sums up what the reader will find in "The House We Grew Up In."

This was an intriguing book that kept me turning the pages. Although the time changes were difficult to adjust to at first, I found them to ultimately be an effective way to tell this story. For the most part, the author developed characters I cared about despite their flaws. The dysfunction of the hoarding habit and its effect on the whole family was very well addressed by the author. Great read! It will make a great book club book!

The House We Grew Up In is the story of a family rooted to a house through Lorelei, the mother. Lorelei is a spirit that delights in finding beauty in every little thing, and can't let go of the memories that "things" hold for her. When a devastating event occurs, the happy family fragments and falls apart. All but Lorelei leave the house. Lorelei can't leave. Each family member is broken and takes off in a different direction looking for a way to heal. In the end, it is again the house that calls them all home and helps them heal. I really enjoyed this book, I found the family very human. The author gives this family life and shows how family love can prevail.