This book disturbed me and I wasn't sure I would finish it. It is a depressing story about a dysfunctional family and I disliked all but one of the characters. However, the writer pulled me in and I kept reading since I had to finish to see what happens to them.

What bothered me the most is the way the time frame jumped all over the place; from present, back to many different years in the past, That was confusing as I had to backtrack to see what ages the four children were at that particular time.

After I finished the book, I kept thinking about the mentally ill mother and it turned my stomach! She never wanted her family's help and only cared about her "things", as she became a real hoarder. I just couldn't relate.

I gave this book 4 stars because the writer kept me involved enough to finish in two evenings.

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I am about 100 pages in. And that is that. I just don't care or like the characters all that much. Things just float along without much emotion, actually with no emotion, including a teenage suicide. And usually I enjoy the style of flipping back and forth between years or centuries, but it's done in quite a disjointed way in this book. Flat. It is just flat.

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You start out thinking you're going to read about this big happy fun family. Things take a turn. A BIG turn. Makes me want to rent a dumpster and clear the place out. None the less, it is a good read, family dynamics are a funny thing.

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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.
This is a family drama about the Bird family's loss and love. It covers a span of 30 years between the present and past days. There is Mom, 65 years old Lorelei, and dad, Colin, and the 4 children, Meg, Beth, Rory and Rhys. They all seem to leave home after the suicide of Rhys. They finally return home to all the family secrets there. If you love books about family drama, you will really enjoy this book. Can't wait to read another Lisa Jewell book.

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