Can two broken boys find their perfect home?
Sam is only fifteen but he and his autistic older brother, Avery, have been abandoned by every relative he’s ever known. Now Sam’s trying to build a new life for them.
He survives by breaking into empty houses when their owners are away, until one day he’s caught out when a family returns home. To his amazement this large, chaotic family takes him under their wing – each teenager assuming Sam is a friend of another sibling. Sam finds himself inextricably caught up in their life, and falling for the beautiful Moxie.
But Sam has a secret, and his past is about to catch up with him.
Title: The Boy Who Steals Houses
Author: C. G. Drews
Publisher: Orchard Books
Date Published: April 4, 2019
Genre: YA Contemporary
Date Read: February 9, 2020
Format: eBook
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The Boy Who Steals Houses – Review
Review at a Glance:
A tense but heartwarming story about two brothers who temporarily “steal” houses while their occupants are away. There’s an autistic character (written by an autistic author), a found family, and I liked it a lot!
In More Detail:
C. G. Drews has been on my radar for a long time now because I’ve been following her for a few years on Instagram (you might know her as paperfury). I’ve been keeping up to date on her book writing progress for a while and I’m always excited when she has a new book out! I’m yet to read A Thousand Perfect Notes (although I own a copy. Story of my life), so I’m not sure why I decided to go for this one first – but I really enjoyed it.
The story wasn’t as I expected. I actually didn’t know what I expected; it’s one of those books I went into without knowing a great deal about it, and I’m so glad I did, because everything that happened was completely unexpected and it took turns that I didn’t see coming!
I loved the brothers and their relationship. It’s a very unique sibling relationship because they’ve stuck together through some truly awful times. Sam often finds himself looking after his autistic older brother, Avery, but they end up spending a large section of the book apart from each other.
It’s not until later when the boys join together again and we see the completely different paths their lives have taken in such a short space of time. It’s fascinating to see the choices they made, the directions they went in, and how different they’ve become just over the course of the story.
One of my favourite things is the “found family” trope, and this book has that as one of its main elements. I really loved that part of it – especially, in this case, the mystery and the tension that arose (because Sam has found himself inside a house and everybody thinks he’s a friend of somebody else).
This book is heartbreaking, funny, eye-opening, and I liked it a lot. I can’t wait to read A Thousand Perfect Notes (but I’ve heard it’s devastating, so I need to be prepared)!
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