The House We Grew Up In

Lisa Jewell

Average Rating 7/10 (1 Review)

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...

The House We Grew Up In is 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.

'Clever, intelligent and believable on a subject few of us really understand. Lorrie is one of the most vivid - and complex - characters I've read in years. Wonderful.'

'Poignant, heart-wrenching & beautifully told, the author's best tale yet.'

Review by Ben Macnair (200525) Rating (7/10)

Review by Ben Macnair
Book Source: Not Known
Rating 7/10

Spoiler Alert

When they were growing up, the Bird family seemed to have it all. Mother Lorelai was beautiful and vivacious, husband Colin was dependable, but a bit boring, sisters Meg and Bethan and twins Rory and Rhys were lively teenagers, but then it all went wrong.

When Rhys commits suicide, hanging himself in the family home, and the family fractures. Meg and Bethan drift apart, with Meg striking out by herself, and Bethan staying at home, whilst Rory tries to find himself in different parts of the country, Lorelai loses herself in hoarding, and a new, forbidden relationship with Vicky, her newest neighbour, whilst Colin continues to do what Colin does.

The book follows the family through affairs, vicious falling outs, and a number of deaths, from cancer, whilst following the death of Lorelai the problem of her hoarding becomes all too apparent.

The family never talk about Rhys, or the events that led to his death, finding solace with other people or other things rather than finding support amongst themselves.

Rory serves eight years in prison for working for a drug dealer and seems to hold no animosity toward the boss who put him there. Vicky’s husband shows no signs of being put out when he is replaced in his wife’s affection, and neither does Colin. These are all life-changing, traumatic events, and no one seems to be at all put out by them happening. These are people who don’t seem affected by life, and as such they don’t seem to be believable characters.

Rory has a relationship with Kayleigh, leading to the birth of their daughter, but then Colin and Kayleigh form a bond later on, the odd couple that no one ever talks about. As the book ends it becomes apparent that the rifts of the family can be forgotten about, and they can all move on with their lives, and a closer familial bond.

At more than 400 pages this is not a lightweight novel, and many of the themes it tackles are of a heavyweight nature, mental health, depression, suicide, affairs and betrayal are just some of them, and the ending, when it comes feels too soft. A family that has been through this much, for so long needs closure, of sorts, but like many of the characters, it just seems to be something that happens to them, rather than something that is properly earned.
Ben Macnair (20th May 2025)