The House We Grew Up In
A psychological thriller from the bestselling author of The Family Upstairs
-
-
4.0 • 260 Ratings
-
-
- £3.99
-
- £3.99
Publisher Description
An unforgettable story about a family with a terrible secret. From the #1 bestselling author of Then She Was Gone, The Night She Disappeared and The Family Upstairs.
____________
When a tragedy breaks a family apart, what can bring it back together?
The Birds seem to be the perfect family: mother, father, four children, a picture-book cottage in the country.
But one Easter weekend, something happens - something so unexpected, so devastating, that no one can bring themselves to talk about it.
The family shatters, seemingly for good.
Until, years later, they are forced to return to the house they grew up in, and to confront what really broke the family apart . . .
____________
Readers can't get enough of The House We Grew Up In . . .
***** 'I could NOT put it down!'
***** 'What a fabulous, fabulous read. I honestly LOVED this book and I could not put it down.'
***** 'This book is so smooth and natural that I felt like I almost knew the characters.'
***** 'Incredibly moving, delightfully funny, painfully tragic.'
***** 'It's one of the very best books I've read this year.'
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Jewell's most recent novel (after Before I Met You) is a melodrama starring the Bird clan: happy-go-lucky mother Lorelai, patient father Colin, headstrong eldest child Meg, meek Beth, and dissimilar twins Rory and Rhys. "They lived in a honey-colored house that sat hard up against the pavement of a picture-perfect Cotswolds village and stretched out beyond into three-quarters of an acre of rambling half-kempt gardens." The narrative alternates between 2011 and flashbacks to the kids' childhoods, and the reader sees Lorelai's eccentricities (including her propensity for hoarding) gradually begin to weigh her family down. Easter is Lorelai's favorite holiday, replete with massive egg hunts and festivities, but when a catastrophe occurs, it forever alters the course of the Birds' lives. Each member of the family begins to drift away from the others, and the subsequent years find them dealing with affairs, abandonment, and death. Years later, following another loss, the family once again gathers and is forced to confront its troubled past. Jewell keeps the reader engrossed with her characters' winding, divergent paths.
Customer Reviews
So So
I had high expectations for this book after reading Lisa’s ‘The Family Upstairs’ but really can’t say this had anywhere near as good a plot and wasn’t gripping unfortunately. Got through it in about a week but it wasn’t a page turner for me!
Brought me to tears.
Fantastic observation and description of family dynamics. I’m sure all families can relate to this one in some way.
I loved it, and couldn’t wait to find out the tragic secret. It brought me to tears, sad and happy ones a few times.