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

Four children then three, traditional chocolate-Easter-egg hunts ?where you had to save the foil wrappings, a tidy house and then a very cluttered one.

The Bird family was loving but very eccentric with Lorelei, the mother, being the oddest of all and who kept a secret that made her hold onto things.

Colin her husband re-installed the wall in their once duplex house and lived next door to his wife, Megan turned out to be a neat freak, Beth never left home until she was 30 because she thought her mother needed her, and the twins were total opposites as well as having a tragic incident happen to them.

There were a lot of strange things about the Birds, but they all loved each other. As the years went on and the children grew into adults?, Lorelei still held onto their childhood toys, clothes, blankets, ?and even drawings as she herself remained an adult? child and a compulsive shopper and hoarder. The children couldn't believe what was in their childhood home when they visited and how they had to navigate through a small path surrounded with things Lorelei just had to have and couldn't part with.

If you want to read a book that will have you shaking your head but also not wanting to put the book down because of total enjoyment, you will want to read THE HOUSE WE GREW UP IN. The storyline and writing were marvelous.

I enjoyed THE HOUSE WE GREW UP IN because of the unique, creative storyline with characters that kept you wanting to know how each of their lives would turn out. They all were quite unconventional, but you couldn’t help but love them.

THE HOUSE WE GREW UP IN will have you thinking back to your childhood and wonder if what happened in the home you grew up in has actually shaped you into the person you are today.

We definitely can't forget the cover. It is absolutely gorgeous with the egg being the basis of the Bird family's many memories of their Easter egg hunts which kept them all connected.

Along with being a beautifully told story, THE HOUSE WE GREW UP IN has a happy ending along with characters you will remember long after you turn the last page.

I don't think there will be any reader no matter what their preferred genre is who won't get caught up in this splendid story.

My rating is going to be a 4/5 simply because I was lost in the beginning pages, but the rest of the book definitely made up for my being lost.

Make THE HOUSE WE GREW UP IN a must read for yourself.

From the cover of the book, I anticipated a light, "chick lit" type of story, but the author delivered so much more than that. All the characters were well developed and the story was gripping. I finished in just two days (and then forgot to post my review - oops!) Grab this one to take along with you on a relaxing trip or to read over a long weekend.

A story about a highly dysfunctional family. Their issues are so extreme and every member of the family payers for the mother's mental illness with their own problems. At times the families' issues are so far reaching it becomes like a soap opera. Even so, the book is an entertaining read, a good summer beach book.

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!

Wow, what a train wreck! But I couldn't stop reading; had to find out how these poor characters lives intertwined back together. A little slow at first, this book was reminiscent of Liane Moriaty's "The Husband's Secret" (which I only kept reading as a friend said it was wonderful and I did end up enjoying immensely!)
I picked this book based on it's cover, and would recommend it to my friends.

I don't think I have ever read a book that had so many dysfunctional situations going on in one family. It was so unbelievable and yet Lisa Jewell pulled it off. I honestly felt like I knew the characters and cared about them. I think she really got to the core of the hoarder's motivations which I found fascinating. It was for me quite a delightful book, and in the end left me with warm feeling for the Bird family. Recommended for book discussion groups.

A heartbreaking event in Lisa Jewell's book The House We Grew Up In tears a family apart. The story is about how each member of the family reacts and how, in the end, they are able to forgive and accept each other's weaknesses and realize that they need and love one another. It is a dark and thought provoking novel and even though I knew that everything would work out I wanted to know how each of the characters would go forward.

I selected this book because I liked the cover art and the title intrigued me. I didn't even notice who wrote it. The only other book I have read by Lisa Jewell was one that was picked by my book club, The Making Of Us. I was not impressed with that one so when I received the book to review I was not looking forward to reading it. Happily for me this book had much more to offer in regards to character development and story line. I enjoyed it.