The House We Grew Up In

By: Lisa Jewell

Narrated by: Karina Fernandez

Length: 13 hrs and 25 mins

Publisher's summary

Meet the picture-perfect Bird family: pragmatic Meg, dreamy Beth, and towheaded twins Rory and Rhys, one an adventurous troublemaker, the other his slighter, more sensitive counterpart. Their father is a sweet, gangly man, but it’s their beautiful, free-spirited mother Lorelei who spins at the center. In those early years, Lorelei tries to freeze time by filling their simple brick house with precious mementos. Easter egg foils are her favorite. Craft supplies, too. She hangs all of the children’s art, to her husband’s chagrin.

Then one Easter weekend, a tragedy so devastating occurs that, almost imperceptibly, it begins to tear the family apart. Years pass and the children have become adults, while Lorelei has become the county’s worst hoarder. She has alienated her husband and children and has been living as a recluse. But then something happens that beckons the Bird family back to the house they grew up in - to finally understand the events of that long-ago Easter weekend and to unearth the many secrets hidden within the nooks and crannies of home.

©2013 Lisa Jewell (P)2019 Dreamscape Media, LLC

MS Jewell never lets me dow

This family is so loving yet disfunctunnal., as aremost! Each character makes you feel their. pain. Mom, the hoarder evokes sympathy revulsion and fatigue for for your sanity.

Not sure why this was recommended to me

I typically listen to murder mystery, procedural, detective series books, and some psychological thrillers (but not many)... This book was none of those, and I'm not sure how it got in my algorithm, but I'm okay with having read it. I would've also been okay not having read it. I'm neutral. I don't think I want to be neutral about a book. And probably neither do you. It was a long droning book about how someone's mental instability had manifested into physical and how that affected everyone around them. And ended in a 'happy ending'. So, long, slow, nothing really mysterious or exciting. If that's what you're looking for, then give it a try, but skip if no.

Superb performance!

I really enjoyed this story! Most of us can relate to the combination of love and messy dysfunction that make up our families. The performance enriched this story like few other audio performances have! I definitely want to download more books narrated by Karina Fernandez.

Great Story with Narration to Match

This is one of those, did the story make the narration, or did the narration make the story? Lisa Jewell’s character development is delicious, down to every last detail. Karina Fernandez’ convincing and flawless narration wraps it up nicely into a precious package I couldn’t wait to open every time I used the app. As the characters embarked on their various life journeys, I hoped the ending would not be a quick, lame wrap-up. It wasn’t. Wonderful!

Beautiful story and superb narration

Enjoyed this story so much! And the narration was the best I’ve heard so far.

Family - never simple

At times, the interconnectivity of these family members seems beyond reason. What looks on the surface like functional, can easily careen into destruction once a tipping point is reached. Fascinating to see how each member responds.

Great read!

I truly enjoyed this from the beginning to the end. So many twists and eerily has some similarities to the birth order in our fam. Great read!

Slow but ended well

It took me a really long time to get into this book and I almost never have that problem. Half way through it got better but it didn’t really get good until the last quarter of the book. This author has so many other books but this one makes me nervous to read any more of her work. Emotional ending.

Wow! Shocking and sad

This book was very sad and shocking to me. Hoarding is an illness and it was portrayed well. It was interesting how the kids turned out and I loved the end.
Really a great read

what just happened?

this book had so many characters and twists. I liked the plot and the "mystery" of what happened. but to a certain point, it just got to be too much and then it just sort of ended. the chapters are also RIDICULOUSLY long. I would not recommend.