House Arrest

by Ellen Meeropol

Home-care nurse Emily Klein can’t get out of her new assignment – weekly prenatal visits to Pippa Glenning, a young Isis cult member under house arrest for the death of her daughter during a Solstice ceremony. But she takes her work seriously and plays by the rules, so Emily is determined to take good care of her high-profile and unconventional patient.

With two other cult members in prison, Pippa Glenning struggles to keep the household intact. If she follows the rules of her house arrest, she may be allowed to keep her baby; but as the pregnant woman in the family it’s her duty to dance for Isis at the upcoming winter Solstice ceremony. To escape the house arrest without being caught, Pippa needs Emily’s help.

Despite their differences, Emily and Pippa’s friendship grows. Returning to Maine for her grandfather’s funeral, Emily begins to grapple with her parents’ activism a generation earlier and her father’s death in prison. Back home, as the Solstice and the trial approach, anti-cult and racist sentiment in the city escalates. Emily and Pippa must each make decisions about their conflicting responsibilities to their families and to each other – decisions that put their lives, and Pippa’s unborn baby – in jeopardy.

Genres: Fiction, Adult Fiction

216 pages, Paperback

First published January 31, 2011

About the author

Ellen Meeropol is the author of six novels: Sometimes an Island (2026), The Lost Women of Azalea Court, (2022), Her Sister's Tattoo (2020), Kinship of Clover (2017), On Hurricane Island (2015), and House Arrest (2011). A former pediatric nurse practitioner, Ellen began seriously writing fiction in her fifties. She holds an MFA from the Stonecoast program at the University of Southern Maine. Her stories and essays have appeared in Guernica, Bridges, Ms Magazine, Lilith, Writers Chronicle, The Writer, and Necessary Fiction.

Drawing material from her twin passions of medicine and social justice activism, Ellen’s fiction explores characters at the intersection of political turmoil, ethical dilemmas, and family life.

Reviews

[Randy · Rating 5 out of 5]

HOUSE ARREST engaged me with complicated well drawn characters and page-turning plot, and impressed and hooked me with the compassion and depth of understanding the author showed towards extremely complicated circumstances. She amazed me with her ability to present a 'cult' with fairness, shaded in ways that avoid all the usual stereotypes.

I avoid reviews which give away plot points, so suffice it to say that this book will hold you, make you think, and take away any ability you have to think of people as flat types. Meeropol takes the reader way behind the headlines.

Highly recommend.

[Julie M · Rating 1 out of 5]

I might have liked this book if it were a short story. Might.

The story seemed interesting to start, but the characters grew more annoying as the book went on .. all the SELF talk!! ("Be careful, he told himself," . . Sam wondered what actually happened . . how could you get over something like that?" "Would they have been able to save her? Would Tian ..? Would they have waited together, sitting for hours on these molded plastic chairs . . ? And what about this new baby? Who would wait with Pippa if something was wrong . . ?"

And the scintillating dialog like "How's she doing?" "Fine." And "Now you can pee." I gritted my teeth through many other trivial exhchanges that told rather than showed and did not move the plot forward. Each chapter is titled with a character's name and is written in third person, except for Emily's--the wishy-washy nurse in the middle of this soap opera--in first person.

I didn't really feel for Emily's predicament, or sympathize with her ambivalence about helping Pippa. Except for some flashback cues to her own childhood and regret about not speaking to her father who died in prison, Emily acts like a cardboard cutout of a real person. Perhaps there was some need for redemption? Breaking the law yet doing the "right" thing to make her life whole again?? The side stories seemed distracting (Zoe's spina bifida and the resulting semi-divorce of her parents gets a lot of play from nurse-author Meeropol) and the minor characters (cousin Anna & ex, Sam, their child, Emily's uber-bitchy boss, and sympathetic- yet-firm friend Gina) all seemed cardboard. And annoyingly self analytical.

How I kept reading through to page 200 is a sign of the hope I had for this self described "literary late bloomer" & former nurse-turned-author. Sadly, I just lost a good five hours.

[Colleen Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

A spare but intense story. Emily is a visiting nurse and Pippa, a young pregnant woman, is under house arrest. Emily is assigned to monitor Pippa's pregnancy and accompany her to medical appointments. In brief chapters Emily tells her story in first person. The other characters - Emily's cousin Anna, Anna's ex-husband Sam, and Gina, another nurse - have their stories told in the 3rd person.

Emily's father went to prison when Emily was 10 because of a 1960's anti-war arson and Emily went to live with her aunt's family on an island in Maine. Pippa is a lost soul young person from the south who came north to escape her own family's traumas. She ends up living in a cult group house - in the 60's we'd have called it a commune. Her first baby died under circumstances that have put a couple of other members of the "family" in prison hence her house arrest. Emily is a sympathetic nurse but conflicted about her own family history. In the space of a couple of months the stories become more complex and the characters learn about themselves.

Meeropol tells these tales with great economy and sensitivity informed, as she says, by her own experience as a pediatric nurse in Springfield MA, where the novel is set.

At a book reading in Cambridge MA, where I live, Meeropol said she has two other novels finished. I look forward to them.

(It's not giving anything away to say that Meeropol's husband is one of the two sons of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were executed for treason in 1953. So her husband and brother-in-law suffered a severe trauma in losing their parents before they were 10. So one assumes that these experiences informed Ellen Meeropol's framing of Emily's story.)

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is more like 3 1/2, not quite 4.

Any book that distracts me from life and its surroundings I think is terrific, and this book did that for me. Hurrying to work one morning because I read longer than I had planned, I stayed up later than usual, and dinner had to wait while I finished reading the last 30 pages. I was sitting on pins and needles to find out what was going to happen next. Meeropol delicately wove this story together in four voices: The nurse who takes care of the woman under house arrest, the woman under house arrest, whose baby died in a cult-like ceremony the year before, the nurse's co-worker and friend, and the father of the nurse's cousin. (I wondered why she had the two latter as voices, they didn't really add much to the story, maybe I missed something.) While her writing is beautiful, it flowed, and was quite lovely, she developed such strong people, so strong and distinct I didn't feel their actions rang true to the personalities she created. I had a hard time believing what some of them did, I just didn't buy some of the scenes. And those last 30 pages I felt were rushed and made for an easy ending. I'm all for happy endings, but this was just a bit too tidy for my liking and again, didn't flow with the world she created.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a sucker for first novels. Most of my reading friends know that, and will often send me premiere works of an author to sample. House Arrest would have appealed to me for that reason alone, but it was the writing, and the shaping of characters and story that won me.

This debut novel explores aspects of friendship that often are ignored. The two main characters come from completely different backgrounds, and each are reluctant to trust another individual, to move out of the comfort zone each has carved out of their worlds. These two women, a home health nurse and a young woman, pregnant with her second child, on home arrest after the suspicious death of her first child in a cult related activity, are thrown together by circumstance. They forge a bond that forces them each to struggle, grow, trust and forgive, in order to move forward in their lives -- a friendship born from diversity. Each examines their inner scale that balances right and wrong, sorting the moral, legal, ethical, and humane issues that ultimately both bind them together and free them.

I have to 'fess up. Ellen Meeropol is one of my dearest friends. We haven't been in as close touch as we once were, since we both retired from nursing, but she still remains in the count when someone asks me to think of my closest friends. I've read poetry and prose of hers in the past. What impressed me beyond the story was how she has grown since I last read her work. She has shaped and tempered her craft. She is a writer.

Knowing Ellen personally, it was interesting to see how she entwined her own passions for truth, political activism and her career of nursing into the story. We met as nurses working with children who were born with Spina Bifida and their families. Even in that work, she was an advocate and activist for children with disabilities and for people with latex allergies. We collaborated on many projects to increase awareness of latex allergy, and she was the person who first recognized the symptoms of my own illness. (Good nurse that I am, I ignored her, and almost died for my efforts. Moral: Always listen to Elli.) Today, twenty years after we first began increasing awareness of this allergy, it is still not well known, and there are still people, even in the medical profession, who do not take it seriously. I think were they to read this story, it might just make the difference.

The ultimate appeal of this book, though is with the characters. It is easy to imagine meeting any one of these people, with their beliefs, self-doubts and search for answers: Emily wondering if she'd missed signs of an infection in a patient, Gina's curiosity at meeting a celebrity patient, Sam's love for his daughter, Pippa's examination of the world she had taken for granted. Decisions are not always easily defined, but the reader is carried along completely as these characters move through the maze of issues which confront them. Every one of us has a story to tell. House Arrest allows us to glimpse the tales of some ordinary people who transcend the every-day, and reach toward the extraordinary.


(This unusual and thought provoking story is due out in February 2011)

[Shimi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This truly original and compelling novel is full of courage and complexity. First-time author Ellen Meeropol gives us a diverse cast of sensitive characters with rich, storied lives that are unfurled slowly, almost delicately, as the novel progresses.

Emily Klein, an agency nurse in Springfield, Massachusetts, provides care to home-bound patients, who help fill the painful void left by Emily’s parents. When the novel opens, Emily has been assigned a new patient, Pippa Glenning, a young runaway from the South in her second pregnancy who is under house arrest, awaiting trial for the tragic and mysterious death of her first baby. Pippa is the youngest member of the House of Isis, a spiritual family group that worships the goddess Isis.

Despite their differences, Pippa and Emily reluctantly become friends, and Pippa dares to ask Emily for help. Because she is pregnant, it is Pippa’s responsibility to dance in an upcoming ritual - the same ritual during which, one year earlier, Pippa’s first child accidentally died. But the house arrest monitor makes Pippa’s participation in this midnight ritual impossible. While Pippa is beginning to question the ties of the House of Isis family group, which is breaking down under the strain of the recent tragedy, she is nonetheless dedicated to her goddess, Isis, and determined to dance. Will Emily help Pippa, risking her own job in the process?

Meeropol is a skilled, subtle writer. Each of her characters, even minor ones like Gina, Emily’s friend and co-worker, and Sam, the ex-husband of Emily’s cousin and roommate, is so well-drawn, so human, they come to life vividly on the page. The home-care visits and Emily’s interactions with her patients sing with authenticity.

Meeropol describes the various settings of the story in a masterful way. From the snowy rhododendron grove where the Isis ritual is held to Emily’s bleak childhood home in Maine, rich sensory detail conveys haunting emotions, in language that manages to be both elegant and economical.

Political intrigue is woven in delicious bits throughout the story: the mystery of Emily’s parents and her estrangement from her family in Maine, why Pippa left her family in Georgia, the prejudice and violence against the House of Isis. But the story is not so much a political thriller as a tale about loneliness, challenging notions of family and friendship and belief. The struggles of Emily and Pippa, and what they mean in the modern world, will stay with you long after the final page.

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading a debut book is sort of like Forrest Gump’s proverbial box of chocolates. You never know what you will get. The good news is, with House Arrest, you get something that’s very savory indeed.

Ellen Meeropol is a self-described “literary late bloomer” – even more enticing. House Arrest focuses on home-care nurse Emily Klein an her charge, Pippa Glenning – the young cult member under house arrest for the freezing death of her young daughter during a winter solstice ceremony. As the pregnant woman in her self-described family, it is Pippa’s responsibility to dance in the upcoming solstice…a near impossibility since she is confined by a ankle monitoring device. Soliciting Emily’s help is her only chance.

The author – a long-time nurse and a social justice activist – does not take the easy way out by turning this into a crowd-pleasing adventure saga. Rather, she explores the ethical dilemmas that confront each of us every way we turn. These two women come from markedly different backgrounds, yet both are dealing with family incidents from the past…and the present. And both are navigating the limitations of freedom.

Families, Elli Meeropol suggests, is a fluid definition. We get flashbacks to birth families, the cult family, families composed of cousins and exes living together. And ethics can be similarly fluid. At the beginning, Emily muses, “I didn’t know Pippa well, but I already suspected she wasn’t much on toeing the line either. Me? I follow the rules.” Or does she? Aren’t there times when rules are meant to be broken? And when?

When Elli turns her laser beam on the world of home health, she writes with a special authority. In reading up on her background, I discovered that she authored many articles about pediatric issues and latex allergies, and was given a Chair’s Excellence Award from the Spina Bifida Association of America. Zoe, the young child of Emily’s cousin, has spina bifada, and she is one of the most delightful and fully-realized child characters I’ve recently met.

The key flaw of House Arrest is the rather fast bonding of Emily and Pippa – two very mistrusting women – with each other. As a reader, I would have preferred a more languorous meeting of the minds; each one seems to instantly know the other will be a trusted friend without enough cause. That aside, this is still an assured debut that shimmers with authenticity. While reading it, I was immersed in the world she created.

[Celine Keating · Rating 5 out of 5]

HOUSE ARREST is a terrific book. The novel is full of heart and deeply felt, with characters you care about immediately. It's also an unusual and involving story that effortlessly takes on weighty and important issues. What I loved best about the book is the author's warmhearted acceptance of all kinds of people. Nurses and cult members, divorced parents and political activists, are all presented as flawed yet thoroughly lovable. The story itself is gripping, with real life quandaries and choices, suspenseful and unpredictable, the prose striking. An arresting novel!

[Jacqueline Sheehan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This debut novel tackles several topics that sometimes go sideways, but not so in this book. Just say the words,"religious cult" and most people will respond with well-worn beliefs. Thankfully, the main character of House Arrest takes us beyond this point and lets us into a fresh and surprising world. And she presents us with questions about one of my favorite topics; what constitutes a family? The characters are fascinatingly flawed. I am eager to read this author's next book.

[Steve Carter · Rating 5 out of 5]

This short novel is packed with ideas and actions. Actions in the present and feelings and results of actions that reverberate from the past.
The story is told primarily through the first person of Emily, a nurse who works at a for-profit visiting nurse agency in Western Massachusetts. Then in other chapters it switches to the third person voice to be with other characters and witness their movements and thoughts that are out of the view of Emily.
This is an effective mechanism in that it gives us a strong central character to really get to know and pull for while further illuminating the world around her, its people, and their motivations. It is a solid choice that avoids the possible confusion of an alternating first person work.

The story centers around a young woman, 20, pregnant with her second child when only a year ago something terrible happened to her first because of accidental actions related to the tiny local cult she has become a part of. She is under house arrest with an ankle monitor, Emily is her home care nurse, and is increasingly drawn into the young woman's dilemma.

This is a very fine novel. With a tight suspenseful emotionally charged plot.
It is the first novel of an older woman who focused on writing after a career in nursing. That surely is a personal triumph for Meeropol, but would not be enough to draw readers to the work if it were not the outstanding novel that it is.

I will be seeking out her other work published since House Arrest.

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

In House Arrest, Emily Klein is a home visit nurse who is given a new pregnant client, Pippa Glenning. Pippa is on home confinement until the trial resulting from her young daughter's death in a cult-like ritual. If Pippa plays by the rules she may be allowed to keep this baby, and just be on parole for 3 years after the baby is born. Pippa, however, is torn and feels she must find a way to participate in an upcoming cult Solstice ceremony which means ignoring her "house arrest".

House Arrest was a short, debut novel which made me feel sad at times for Pippa and the circumstances that lead to her daughter's death and her subsequent home confinement. Initially, I was surprised by how quickly Emily and Pippa began to develop a concern for each other but, Emily's family circumstances do make this easier to understand. The novel had several other characters that were introduced but not in too much detail. I liked that the novel reflected the names of actual places that I am well familiar with in that the author is from the area where I grew up. Note - A family cat ends up dead in this story which bothered me.

[Shannon Cooley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful book

I read this one after Ellen’s 3rd book “Kinship of Clover” and it answered so many questions. The characters are so interesting and fleshed out and the questions it raises are incredibly thought provoking. I can’t wait for her next book to get to know some of these characters even more.

[Tara J. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not my cuppa.

[Twobbema · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting story, somewhat tedious read

[Lanette Sweeney · Rating 4 out of 5]

This debut novel is skillfully structured, hitting on many issues (cult dynamics, religion, racism, abortion, boundaries) and deftly weaving together multiple storylines. The story makes for quick reading and is told through the viewpoint of four characters, each of them richly drawn, but especially the visiting nurse and her cult member patient. The author made me care about each of the characters and the action was fast paced. Sometimes, though, the character’s actions defied credibility or understanding. Also some questions raised are never answered despite the neat wrap-up of most issues by the end.

A couple of other matters: The sexy cover is misleading; there is no scene in the story that this image represents, so don’t be put off by it.

And: am honored to know this author personally and am inspired that she didn’t start churning out novels until after her retirement! But strangely a search for the author brought up no results on Goodreads, though I was able to find the book by title. What’s up with that?

[Vanessa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really struggled with what to rate this book but based on its sheer ability to keep me reading, it's 4 stars. However, due to a few quibbles I had with it (including a certain police action near the end that makes no sense the more I think about it), I knocked this down to 3.

First things first, cheers to the excellent Books on the Nightstand podcast for recommending this book, published by the small indie press Red Hen, that I doubtless would never have heard of otherwise.

The novel is the story of a home healthcare nurse named Emily who is appointed by the court to provide care for a young cult member named Pippa who is facing indictment for the death of her infant daughter due to neglect (her child plus one other died of exposure during a cult ceremony the previous winter.) While two other cult members (including the cult leader who is also the baby daddy) sit in jail awaiting arraignment and almost certain prison time, Pippa is granted a reprieve of sorts because she is pregnant again and is instead confined to the home she shares with fellow cult members by a monitoring bracelet. Against all of Emily's better instincts and advice from everyone, she finds herself developing a friendship with the young woman despite Pippa clearly wanting Emily's help in bending the rules. Emily meanwhile is dealing with some ghosts from her past that may make her either the exactly right or exactly wrong person to be working on this case. And she has a unique living situation herself-she lives with her cousin Anna and helps her take care of her young daughter who has spina bifida. Meanwhile, her cousin's self-employed ex-husband lives upstairs where he acts as occasional baby sitter and dinner guest.

The book was not without it's problems. There are a few clunky passages of dialogue and some histrionic moments from Emily that were a little eyeball roll-inducing. Some of the side characters (like Emily's boss) were completely unbelievable. But more to the point, I don't know that I totally bought the moral dilemma of Emily's that drives the story. And speaking of nurse Emily, sometimes she was reductively whiny just so, I think, Meeropol could feel like she was getting the point across about why Emily felt so tormented and ambivalent. Dude, we get it. But then again, without that dilemma, there is no story.

It's also curious that although the story is told from four points of view (Emily, Pippa, a friend and co-worker of Emily's, and a family member of Emily's), only Emily's chapters are in the first person.

Still, this is Meeropol's (a former nurse) first effort and despite some of the complaints in other reviews about unspectacular dialogue, I think the naturalistic dialogue worked well for the story and made it feel authentic and immediate. I was so connected to the story, I was sad when it was over. Part of the reason fiction is important is to help us as readers connect with and try to understand people who are different from us. Although I hated Pippa's character before I met her, as I suspect most readers will, I came to empathize with her greatly by the end without feeling manipulated by the author. Best of all, I love a book I can't put down and it's been a while since I've had one.

[Aj Sterkel · Rating 3 out of 5]

A home health care nurse, Emily, has to care for a pregnant woman, Pippa, who was put under house arrest after her young daughter wandered off during a religious ceremony and froze to death.  

This story seems simple on the outside, but it raises a lot of interesting ethical and legal questions about medicine, religion, and the American justice system. I love the way that the author handled the cult in this book. The fictional cult members are treated as humans by the author and not stereotyped or villainized. I like that the author pointed out how Pippa would be treated more fairly by the justice system if she were Christian. She would have been allowed out of her house for important religious services. The author also realistically shows the public's hostile response to the cult after newspaper articles are published about them. The only thing that bothers me about the cult in this book is Pippa's lawyer calling the group a cult when he's talking to her. It seems unprofessional, and she doesn't react to that word being used to describe her family. That doesn't feel realistic to me.

This book is about family. The reader gets glimpses of dysfunctional families, extended families, and the nontraditional families that the characters created for themselves. It shows that "family" is whatever you make it.

I enjoyed this book, even though I have some issues with it. Emily is a very bland character. I think the author intended for her to be plain, but I had a hard time connecting with her and caring about her. I'm also not sure why Gina and Sam have points-of-view. They are both more interesting than Emily, but their POVs add nothing to the story. Some of the medical stuff, especially the stuff about Spina Bifida, distracted me. It made me curious, but the author doesn't explain it well enough to satisfy my curiosity. I know that Emily is a nurse, but I'm not sure why some of the medical stuff needed to be in the story. Finally, the characters' legal problems are wrapped up too quickly and neatly at the end.

This book is published by a small press, and I know that they probably don't have a ton of money, but I wish that the book had more pages and fewer words on each page. Having a little more white space on the pages would have been easier on my eyes. There are also a few typos.

This book is worth reading because it is extremely thought-provoking. The characters grapple with difficult moral questions that have no clear answers. If you love books that make you think, I'd recommend this one.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

The novel opens with the death of two small children during a night of celebration welcoming the winter solstice. The tikes wander off and succumb to the elements. But since these were the children of cult members, the situation isn’t quite so easy for society to determine: Were the parents guilty of neglect (or worse, murder), or was this simply an accident that occurred during a ritual ceremony? Pippa, the mother of one of the children, is sentenced to house arrest because she is pregnant. The other mother and the father of both children are imprisoned. Emily Klein is assigned to be the visiting nurse who cares for Pippa during her pregnancy, perhaps because this difficult case will give Emily’s unsympathetic boss the reason to fire the compassionate nurse.

The novel examines several moral dilemmas: What, exactly, is a cult? Are all cults evil by nature? Are there times when a law, believed to be unjust, should be defied? How does one deal with the issue of “double morality” where a good act could trigger a bad result?

Another question examined in this novel is the definition of family. Indeed, there are no traditional (mom, dad, child/ren) families described in this book. The Family of Isis (the cult previously mentioned) consists of the members of the religion – two men, several women and two children – all of whom live together, care for the others and work to keep the family unit viable. Emily herself lives with her cousin Anna and Anna’s daughter Zoe who has spina bifida. Anna’s former husband lives upstairs and assists with the child’s care. This question, of course, reverberates through today’s society. The author thoroughly examines the benefits and consequences of “family”.

One weak point for me was the lack of strong male characters of any consequence. Sam, the ex-husband, is a rather minor character. Tian, the cult leader, spends his time jailed for the death of the children. Mitchell, the other male cult member, home-schools the children but really is an invisible character with no important part to play in the book.

This is a rather well written first novel with important ideas conveyed in a manner that provokes critical thinking. I highly recommend it for book group discussions.

Grade: B

[Readnponder · Rating 4 out of 5]

This first novel by a self-described late-bloomer is wonderful. I read it during a weekend when I was sick with a cold, and it distracted me from my symptoms. A home health nurse is assigned to visit a young pregnant cult member who is under house arrest pending trial. Her toddler had died from exposure during a winter solstice ceremony.

The nurse, Emily, has her own family of origin issues she has not come to terms with, including the imprisonment of her father for protest activities during the Vietnam era, while the reader is unsure whether to feel sympathy or suspicion toward the pregnant mother.

I liked the format of telling the story from several points of view. I appreciate that the author did not load the book down with non-essentials and at 200 pages was a comfortable length. The book presents a number of ethical issues which will keep a book club talking all night.

[Clare · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I saw the cover to this book, it kind of gave me the heebie jeebies. Then when I read a little of the fly leaf I realized the book is loosely based upon an incident that happened here in Massachusetts a few years ago. When a local cult came under public/police scrutiny, it turned out that two of the children in the cult had died and no members had reported the deaths to authorities.

I never heard what happened in that case but Meeropol's novel could be based on truth or perhaps she did a "what if?" book. In any event, I learned a bit about cults (who leads them, who joins them, etc.).

The writing is quite simplistic at times which was not totally unexpected with a new author. I hope in her next book that Meeropol lets herself go a little and makes and effort to let the reader "feel" more by describing events and feelings with more emotion.

I'll have to read other reviews of this book. I am curious about what people think. I do hope Meeropol keeps writing.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Christina passed this along to me. It was an advanced uncorrected proof (though I didn't actually notice any errors), so it didn't have the provocative cover photo. It tells the story of a home nurse, Emily, assigned to care for a pregnant woman on house arrest, Pippa. Pippa is confined because her 14-month-old baby died of exposure as Pippa and other members of the Isis cult celebrated Winter Solstice in a blizzard. Will Emily help Pippa escape for one night so she can dance at this year's ritual? There are interesting issues: religious persecution and the choice between keeping a law and allowing religious freedom, for example. I thought it was okay, but I really had a hard time sympathizing with/believing in the decisions made by the main characters. I also thought Emily was unnecessarily prickly, especially with her extended family, who took her in and loved her when her own parents died. Some of the emotions felt contrived to me.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very interesting portrayal of an ethical dilemma invvolving religious beliefs, best interests of society, as well as best interests of children and medicine. Told in alternating chapters by different characters it is the story of a mother whose child died during a Winter Solstice religious ritual and the subsequent fallout from that night. She is now pregnant again and under house arrest for her safety as well as that of her unborn child. Meeropol carefully threads together the many elements of this story allowing Pippa, the pregnant woman and Emily, her nurse to grow and learn about life outside their small worlds as well as to develop trust in others which they both lacked. Pippa and Emily have led parallel lives and Meeropol uses this to make her important points about loss, trust and staring over again.

[Helen Dunn · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a tough one for me to rate. I liked it quite a lot for the first half and then when Grandpa Ivan died it suddenly came crashing down and everybody in the book (except Pippa) started to drive me nuts.

I found Anna uptight and miserable as a character. Emily even more so and I was incredibly tired of her self-pity over her parents. I wanted to know more about the Isis family and less about Zoe's medical care. Zoe and her condition seemed completely unneccesary to the story, BTW.

Could Marge have been any more of a caricature? And Gina seemed like she'd become a big player but then didn't.

I suppose this is how real life works - not everybody is an important player in a story even though they are around while it's happening -- but this is a novel and I want everything in the book to matter.

I found the pie-in-the-sky ending totally absurd.

[Melissa Wiebe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Originally reviewed at Jayne's Books

I found the book to be a bit dry at times, which made this a challenging read for me. Found that only one of the characters to be at all interesting and I honestly didn't like how the book ended, which was ambiguous at best. Thought that the book just sort of ended and there was nothing to indicate as to what happened to Pippa and her baby. My heart just wasn't the book, probably because the main narrative jumped around so much and there wasn't a single narration to the book or even what felt like a single thread to the book. Maybe I just expected too much out of the book.

[Red Hen Press · Rating 5 out of 5]

On the surface, House Arrest tells a simple story. A visiting nurse is assigned to provide prenatal care for a woman who's accused of a crime and facing pretrial incarceration, but because she's pregnant, instead of jail, she's allowed house arrest. But under the surface, the characters inhabit a world swirling with secrets and complications. The narrator's father was imprisoned for burning a draft board during the Vietnam War. The women under arrest fled home because of a very different crime. Stir in a religious "cult," a vindictive boss, and a child with spina bifida, and this novel is as intense as a three-alarm fire. The characters are beautifully three-dimensional, mundane yet a mile deep. And it stays with you long after you've turned the final page.

[Joanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Saw this on the New Books shelf-seemed interesting. This is the first novel by Ellen Meeropol, and while it's got some flaws, it's not a bad first effort. Maybe 3.5 stars is more accurate but I thought I'd round up.

House Arrest is the story of Pippa, pregnant and on house arrest for the accidental death of her daughter during a cult ritual to celebrate the winter solstice. Visiting nurse Emily is assigned the case and, big surprise, the two develop a friendship.

There are definitely flaws here and some things that really could've used more development but overall it was quick and entertaining.

[Christina · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a new fast-paced, plot-driven novel by nurse/activist Ellen Meeropol. (Who, interestingly, is married to the son of the Rosenbergs. Yes, those Rosenbergs.) I believe it's due to hit bookstore shelves at the beginning of February.
I really liked the medical aspects and I was definitely drawn in to the story. But I didn't love the writing and I thought most of the characters were pitiable, not likeable. So hence the three stars. Here's my full review at The Blue Bookcase: http://thebluebookcase.blogspot.com/2...

[Dori Ostermiller · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an unusual and surprising read that slowly heats to a boil; by the last third, I was having trouble putting it down! Meeropol's characters are well-drawn and sympathetic; she creates psychological complexity and back-story in precise, elegant strokes, while never losing sight of her plot. Nicely paced and nuanced. A satisfying and thought-provoking story that allows us to examine the ways in which we judge each other and ourselves, and the circumstances under which true compassion can be possible.

[Callie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story of Emily, a home nurse who gets assigned the case of Pippa, a pregnant cult member who is under house arrest in connection with a tragedy that befell her daughter. Told from many different viewpoints, the story shows how the situation Pippa is in would be taken at face value, and why it would be wrong to do so. The characters are lovely and well drawn (apart from the character of Sam, who I had a hard time remembering who he was and why he was given a unique perspective, instead of Anne). The story is very unlike anything I have read before!

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very well written first novel. I love getting inside people's heads and she does this well. The story of two women who each carry baggage from their past, and how their unlikely friendship unfolds. It's got some great chances at making decisions based on doing what's right, despite the consequences. Pippa is in a "cult" and under house arrest. Emily is the nurse assigned to her case because Pippa is pregnant. Their story unfolds and Pippa asks Emily to help her do something illegal and risky. It makes me wonder what I would do in a similar situation.