BY RHONDA NIVEN

 

A REVEALING story telling the tale of a seemingly ordinary family, the Bird’s, who live in a small Cotswold village.

When Megan’s mother dies, Oldest daughter to Lorelei, she returns to her childhood home with her own daughter to begin the process of sorting through the leftover possessions - a task made even more difficult by the fact that Lorelei has been a chronic hoarder for many, many years.

The complex history of the family is slowly unravelled from the point of view of each family member revealing a complicated web of secrets, family affairs, including an online relationship of Lorelei’s, and disappointments that have led to the family's current state of disarray. Each perspective is cleverly interwoven across a lifetime despite the book representing just one day in the life of the real-time characters.

Faced with everything from teenage anxiety to suicide, skirting the edges of incestuous relationships, ‘late flowering lesbians’ and with a prison term for drug dealing thrown in, it’s hard to imagine a family with more skeletons in its closets, even if it is the house of a hoarder. Towards the end of the book, we begin to see the reconciliations and aftermath of a lifetime of emotional and physical hoarding. For me, this was presented a bit too neatly after the turmoil of the characters’ previous lives, but they deserve their ‘happy ever after’.

The House We Grew Up In is another in a long-line of highly acclaimed books for author Lisa Jewell, including four Sunday Times Bestsellers and the Melissa Nathan Award for Comedy Romance.

Although it deals with some rather difficult issues, the novel moves at quite an enjoyable pace, with generally likeable characters, despite their problems. As one character remarks: “I love other people’s families. They always make me feel better about my own.”

 

This book was published by Century and is available to buy for £12.99. It can also be borrowed from The Hive as well as other Worcestershire libraries. Click here to check availability and check it out.