The House We Grew Up In
by Lisa Jewell
Meet the Bird family. They live in a honey-colored house in a picture-perfect Cotswolds village, with rambling, unkempt gardens stretching beyond. Pragmatic Meg, dreamy Beth, and tow-headed twins Rory and Rhys all attend the village school and eat home-cooked meals together every night. Their father is a sweet gangly man named Colin, who still looks like a teenager with floppy hair and owlish, round-framed glasses. Their mother is a beautiful hippy named Lorelei, who exists entirely in the moment. And she makes every moment sparkle in her children's lives.
Then one Easter weekend, tragedy comes to call. The event is so devastating that, almost imperceptibly, it begins to tear the family apart. Years pass as the children become adults, find new relationships, and develop their own separate lives. Soon it seems as though they've never been a family at all. But then something happens that calls them back to the house they grew up in -- and to what really happened that Easter weekend so many years ago.
Told in gorgeous, insightful prose that delves deeply into the hearts and minds of its characters, The House We Grew Up In is the captivating story of one family's desire to restore long-forgotten peace and to unearth the many secrets hidden within the nooks and crannies of home.
My review..............5 stars
What a great read!! I was first intrigued by this book when I read that one of the central issues was hoarding. I have to admit a fascination with that tv show about hoarders, so I went into the book to fuel that. What I got was SO much more! From watching the television show, it's always very clear that something happens in the people's lives to trigger the hoarding of stuff. It's also true in this case, although Lorelei always had the tendency to collect things well before the extenuating circumstances. All of the characters in this book have issues to deal with, it's without a doubt a dysfunctional family. And yet, they all fit together, and you can see throughout the book why each is the way that they are. This book is written by an English writer who I have not read before, but I'm certain to check out some of her previous works. Her writing style was great, and I got a kick out of some of the names for commonplace items, my favorite being people carrier (ie car). There wasn't really anything I would change about this book, I loved it from beginning to end!Definitely worth the read, and you'll thank me when it makes you want to clean up all your clutter after you're done 🙂
I recently read and reviewed this one as well. I liked it so much. 😀 I think we all have someone like Lorelei in our lives...or at least I definitely do!