An excellent debut novel - plotting and pacing are perfect, the writing is crisp and clean, and the story draws you in and won't let you go until the last word. A tale of family and secrets that anyone can relate to with a twist you won't see coming until it's too late and it's got you caught in it's grasp. Anxiously awaiting the release of Sonja Yoerg's next book, "Middle of Somewhere"! ( )

House Broken is an absolutely spectacular debut novel by Sonja Yoerg. This beautifully written story is a touching, insightful and thought-provoking exploration of the strained relationship between an alcoholic mother and her children. It is a complex tale of family dysfunction that is quite riveting but it is the cast of characters that makes it a truly unforgettable read.

The youngest of four siblings, Geneva Novak is a married mother of two teenagers who reluctantly lets her alcoholic mother Helen temporarily move in while she recuperates from a car accident. Geneva has never been close to Helen and she decides to use this opportunity to bridge the gap between them. Her attempt to understand why her mother drinks leads to the discovery of a shocking family secret that explains Helen's behavior but will this knowledge allow them to repair their fractured relationship?

Geneva is very regimented and logical thinking so at first, she appears rather strict and unbending. She is quite intuitive and she lets her instincts guide her most of the time. Her relationships with husband Tom and her kids, Ella and Charlie, are troubled as they begin to rebel against her unyielding standards. Her relationship with her brother Dublin is rock solid and the two have no secrets from one another. But to get answers for the questions that are troubling her, Geneva turns to her older sisters, Florence and Paris, but neither of them is eager to rehash the past with her.

Helen is flippant, conniving and self-absorbed and this makes her very difficult to like. Her reflections on her past make some of her actions understandable but for the most part, she remains an unsympathetic character. Helen's memories provide an explanation for her alcoholism and the reasons for her distance from Geneva, but these revelations do little to redeem her character.

Ella is dealing with the typical teenage insecurities and angst. She has a sardonic and snarky sense of humor that is absolutely hilarious. Her relationship with her brother Charlie is often adversarial but Ella keeps quiet about his increasingly alarming activities.

House Broken is an intriguing and sometimes heartrending novel that does not shy away from difficult subject matter. Sonja Yoerg brilliantly weaves past and present into a compelling and realistic story that is healing but always stays true to the characters. A sensitive portrayal of a family's darkest secrets that I will not soon forget and highly recommend. ( )

Geneva Novak is happy in her career as a veterinarian, and reasonably happy in her marriage, too. There are some stresses, as in any life: her kids are teenagers now, and she and husband Tom have different and sometimes conflicting views on discipline and rules. But that's life, and they work at it.

Then her brother Dublin calls to say their mother, Helen, has crashed her car while driving drunk and is in the hospital in Los Angeles. With a busted knee and a busted shoulder, even after she can be released from the hospital, it's going to be weeks before Helen is able to return to her own apartment. Dublin's house is too small, and Helen doesn't cope well with his autistic son. Their sister Florence lives in New York, and their sister Paris is somewhere in Africa--and has been for almost thirty years.

So the only real option is Geneva and Tom's house near San Francisco. Geneva will be forced to confront her issues with her mother.

I had my reservations about this book when I started it, and Yoerg quite successfully swept them away. We see the unfolding of this family drama through the eyes of three generations of women--Geneva, her mother Helen, and her daughter Ella. As Geneva struggles with her conflicted feelings about her mother and her fears that she may become estranged from Ella as Helen did from oldest daughter Paris, she recalls her childhood and some of the more confusing events of those years. Helen is drinking to forget, and for a while Geneva succeeds in cutting off her supply of vodka. She, too, finds herself recalling events she'd prefer to forget--including events and details that Geneva was never aware of.

As for Ella, she's struggling with both her own conflicts in school and with her mother, and her knowledge of exactly what trouble younger brother Charlie is involved in--which she would like to stop, but which she is reluctant to reveal to their parents.

Yoerg very convincingly builds this slowly to an explosion of dangerous family secrets.

Highly recommended.

I received a free electronic galley from the Penguin First to Read program. ( )

House Broken There a family mystery that Geneva does not understand. Thing go from bad to worse once her mother has an accident and need to recuperate. Geneva is relaxant to do so. Her husband convenience her to bring her mother in to stay.

Geneva start to investigate about the relationship between her older sister Paris and their mother. Geneva mother Helen has dealt with since her eldest daughter turned sixteen. There mother had to do something about it to stop what was going on. That thing see had to do is something Paris and her mother could not forgive her for it.

Ella and Charlies get themselves in trouble as well. Things gets worse after their grandmother comes to stay for a little while. Things start to startle Geneva while her mother starts to put some things together. It a fun read but not for children. It deals with teenage things and adult things. My rating is a 5/5 stars. ( )

Started out slow but ended up not being able to put this one down. The ending didn't seem finished. What happens to Paris? A little disappointed with how it ended. ( )