HOUSE RULES (Jodi Picoult) - March 22/10

This long but incredibly breezy book follows Picoult's My Sister's Keeper formula to an almost absurd extent - with the shifting perspectives, the sibling who is involved in illicit activities, and the big court case (followed by a twist ending). It's all so well done and well written that I was able to overlook the familiarity of the story, and Picoult certainly does a nice job of establishing several extremely vivid characters. But once the trial rolls around, I found myself losing interest - primarily because it just became really repetitive and I was ready for her to get to the point already. But this is only 100 pages in an otherwise captivating novel. (Oh, and I figured out what actually happened well before the halfway mark. I'm curious if other readers found it equally predictable.) *** out of ****