Review: The House We Grew Up In by Lisa Jewell (audio)

Title: The House We Grew Up In    

Author: Lisa Jewell      

Narrator: Karina Fernandez

Published: September 2013, Whole Story Audiobooks (audio)/August 2014, Atria Books (print)

Length: 13 hours, 25 minutes

Source: Audio copy via Audible / Netgalley via She Reads

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 thoughts: This is one of the four books that the She Reads gals selected to be part of the “Books of Fall” book club selections and I was thrilled with this particular choice. I had read Lisa Jewell’s last book and really enjoyed it, so I was looking forward to this one.

What I’ve found with Lisa’s books is that they are great character sketches. She really explores the dynamics of relationships, in this case the relationships between a family that has had to deal with an unexpected tragedy. But it’s not just the tragedy that’s highlighted here. She also looks at the dysfunction that exists within this family. 

The story alternates between the present and the past, filling in bits and pieces of the overall story much like memories that come back to us when we see a certain object. It is through these memories that we really get to know the Bird family. The emotions that Lisa is able to elicit in her writing are so raw that I felt as if I was celebrating the happy occasions with the family as well as feeling their sorrow during the sad times. 

And then there was Lorelei…right from the beginning you pick up that she is a hoarder. She keeps everything and it only gets worse as time goes on. This is what has stayed with me the most since finishing the book. What makes someone become this way? But what I find most fascinating is that Lisa presents the topic of hoarding from both sides. At times, I found myself relating to Lorelei and her thought processes and believe me, I am most definitely not a hoarder!

This is a great read, one that I found myself thinking about when I wasn’t listening to and completely engaged in while I was listening to it. The characters all seemed relatable and the story really made me think about the relationships I have with my own family. Another winner by Lisa Jewell and now I can’t wait to read her other books!

Audio thoughts: This is the first time I’ve listened to Karina Fernandez narrate a book and I thought she did a great job with all the voices and different accents. She was delightful to listen to and I will certainly be looking to see what else she has narrated.

The House We Grew Up In by Lisa Jewell is one of the She Reads “Books of Fall” reading selection picks.

 

Head over to the She Reads website to read reviews and related posts of this book, as well as to see what the other “Books of Fall” are.