The House We Grew Up In

The settings in the book, particularly the Bird family home, underscore the secretive and complex family ties and the characters’ different perspectives. When Lorelei and Colin first start their family, their house represents hope and the chance at a new life. It is in “one of the prettiest villages in the Cotswolds” (1), an idyllic and desirable area of England. The house symbolizes Lorelei’s mental state, and as she becomes increasingly entrenched in her trauma, the house becomes dirtier and more cluttered. This sense of emotional paralysis is enhanced by the gentrification taking place around the house. Lorelei references “ghastly gastro pubs” and resents the change (163), while Vicky approves of a new café in the village. As Lorelei becomes more isolated, the house is described as lodged “like a rotten tooth” (5) between the neighbors’ freshly decorated houses.

The house becomes increasingly unlivable in tandem with Lorelei’s isolation. As family members leave, their rooms become overrun with junk. Only Rhys’s room has not been touched, and its shrine-like state, frozen in 1991, symbolizes the way the Bird family has not moved on from his death. Lorelei’s resistance to change in the house—from Maddy’s desire to take over Rhys’s old bedroom to Vicky’s attempts to clear out some garbage—represents her inability to confront her trauma.