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4.02 AVERAGE
4.02 AVERAGE
I really enjoyed this book.
It was interesting to learn more about what life with an autistic child is like.
The book had times where you knew what was coming but it still makes you cry anyway
The characters are fabulous and are developed throughout the book.
I like how everything wraps up nicely at the end of the story but also how it keeps you turning the pages.
I read this book in two sittings. This book will stay with my for a while and will be kept on my bookshelf and never given away! But I recommend everyone to read it, it’s wonderful.
It was interesting to learn more about what life with an autistic child is like.
The book had times where you knew what was coming but it still makes you cry anyway
The characters are fabulous and are developed throughout the book.
I like how everything wraps up nicely at the end of the story but also how it keeps you turning the pages.
I read this book in two sittings. This book will stay with my for a while and will be kept on my bookshelf and never given away! But I recommend everyone to read it, it’s wonderful.
I was pleased to receive a review copy of Shtum a few months ago as there had been a lot of hype around the book and I was really keen to see what it was all about. I have to be honest and admit that for the first few chapters of this book I really wasn’t sure whether I wanted to keep reading, it just wasn’t holding my attention at all. I’m glad that I persevered though because once I reached the halfway point I did find this book a lot more engrossing.
I don’t really feel qualified to talk about the representation of autism in this book because it’s not something that I have any direct experience of, however I do have friends who have children that are autistic but are affected to a much lesser degree than Jonah, and I also have a family member who is profoundly mentally and physically disabled, albeit not from autism, so I do have a little understanding. Jonah was a great character to read about, it’s not often that autism, or any profound disability, is portrayed in novels so I commend the author for writing this book.
Throughout the novel I wanted to feel sorry for Ben and Emma at the situation they were in with their son but they weren’t particularly likeable characters, which made it harder to care. For most of the book Ben was so self-pitying that it was very hard to even tolerate him, and I didn’t feel that I ever got to know enough about Emma to form much of an opinion. I can imagine that having a profoundly disabled child would be a strain on most, if not all, relationships so the breakdown between Emma and Ben was understandable. It was very strange how Emma went about the break up but then perhaps it was done in this way to highlight just how impossible it was for her to deal with Ben anymore, given how wrapped up he was in his own thoughts and feelings.
The biggest issue that I had with this book is the way certain issues were written about; it wasn’t so much the obsession with bodily functions but the way they were written about. So many of these particular paragraphs should have elicited sympathy for the characters going through it, and the person who has to deal with it, but the way it was written made me really quite angry. It felt like these characters, who did not have control over their own bodies anymore, were being treated with absolute contempt by the person who should have loved and cared for them the most. I know how difficult it is to be a carer and I know how difficult it is to have to be responsible for another person’s bodily functions and yet it did not bring out any empathy in me, and I feel like it really should have done. So much of it just left me cold. Perhaps this is what the author intended but it made me want to stop reading rather than making me want to understand Ben’s point of view.
On a much more positive note, I adored the relationship between Jonah and his grandfather, Georg. There were some wonderful and tender moments between them that did melt my heart, it was quite clear that they had a strong bond and that they really understood each other. It was this relationship that kept me reading the book.
This novel is very focused on what it is like to have an autistic child but actually at its heart it is much more about people’s inability to communicate. Emma couldn’t even directly tell her husband that she was leaving him; Georg and Ben had never had a conversation about what it was like for Georg growing up, and Ben only found out snippets when he was listening in to conversations that Georg was having with Jonah. There was also Ben’s problems with alcohol, which was masking the issues he had facing up to Jonah’s problems. So it became apparent to me that Jonah’s inability to speak was actually representative of the entire family’s inability to communicate with each other, they were all stifled and closed off and actually although Jonah couldn’t speak he was probably the most expressive of all the characters in this book; he may not always have expressed himself in a way that society would deem appropriate but he did always make himself heard when he needed or wanted something, and that is more than can be said for the other main characters in this book, and for me, this was the most interesting part of this story. The idea that the boy who could not speak actually expressed himself more than those that could speak is incredibly powerful and is a lesson to us all about how we need to learn to communicate better and, more importantly, that we must learn to pay attention to people and to not always focus on the words people use but to really see what they’re communicating to us.
I struggled with rating this book because it wasn’t really a book that I could say I enjoyed as such but it did become a book that I found interesting and it did give me a lot to think about when I’d finished it. I think overall I am going to rate this book 3.5 out of 5.
I received this book from the Orion via Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.
Shtum is out now and available from all good bookshops.
I don’t really feel qualified to talk about the representation of autism in this book because it’s not something that I have any direct experience of, however I do have friends who have children that are autistic but are affected to a much lesser degree than Jonah, and I also have a family member who is profoundly mentally and physically disabled, albeit not from autism, so I do have a little understanding. Jonah was a great character to read about, it’s not often that autism, or any profound disability, is portrayed in novels so I commend the author for writing this book.
Throughout the novel I wanted to feel sorry for Ben and Emma at the situation they were in with their son but they weren’t particularly likeable characters, which made it harder to care. For most of the book Ben was so self-pitying that it was very hard to even tolerate him, and I didn’t feel that I ever got to know enough about Emma to form much of an opinion. I can imagine that having a profoundly disabled child would be a strain on most, if not all, relationships so the breakdown between Emma and Ben was understandable. It was very strange how Emma went about the break up but then perhaps it was done in this way to highlight just how impossible it was for her to deal with Ben anymore, given how wrapped up he was in his own thoughts and feelings.
The biggest issue that I had with this book is the way certain issues were written about; it wasn’t so much the obsession with bodily functions but the way they were written about. So many of these particular paragraphs should have elicited sympathy for the characters going through it, and the person who has to deal with it, but the way it was written made me really quite angry. It felt like these characters, who did not have control over their own bodies anymore, were being treated with absolute contempt by the person who should have loved and cared for them the most. I know how difficult it is to be a carer and I know how difficult it is to have to be responsible for another person’s bodily functions and yet it did not bring out any empathy in me, and I feel like it really should have done. So much of it just left me cold. Perhaps this is what the author intended but it made me want to stop reading rather than making me want to understand Ben’s point of view.
On a much more positive note, I adored the relationship between Jonah and his grandfather, Georg. There were some wonderful and tender moments between them that did melt my heart, it was quite clear that they had a strong bond and that they really understood each other. It was this relationship that kept me reading the book.
This novel is very focused on what it is like to have an autistic child but actually at its heart it is much more about people’s inability to communicate. Emma couldn’t even directly tell her husband that she was leaving him; Georg and Ben had never had a conversation about what it was like for Georg growing up, and Ben only found out snippets when he was listening in to conversations that Georg was having with Jonah. There was also Ben’s problems with alcohol, which was masking the issues he had facing up to Jonah’s problems. So it became apparent to me that Jonah’s inability to speak was actually representative of the entire family’s inability to communicate with each other, they were all stifled and closed off and actually although Jonah couldn’t speak he was probably the most expressive of all the characters in this book; he may not always have expressed himself in a way that society would deem appropriate but he did always make himself heard when he needed or wanted something, and that is more than can be said for the other main characters in this book, and for me, this was the most interesting part of this story. The idea that the boy who could not speak actually expressed himself more than those that could speak is incredibly powerful and is a lesson to us all about how we need to learn to communicate better and, more importantly, that we must learn to pay attention to people and to not always focus on the words people use but to really see what they’re communicating to us.
I struggled with rating this book because it wasn’t really a book that I could say I enjoyed as such but it did become a book that I found interesting and it did give me a lot to think about when I’d finished it. I think overall I am going to rate this book 3.5 out of 5.
I received this book from the Orion via Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.
Shtum is out now and available from all good bookshops.
As an actually autistic person, I couldn’t read it. I don’t want to dismiss the feelings of the parent of an autistic child, but I also don’t want to seek out those feelings with my free time. I’d never want my parents writing a book like this about me and I don’t want to read one written like this.
I also definitely don’t enjoy how graphic the descriptions were regarding normal bodily functions of Jonah.
I also definitely don’t enjoy how graphic the descriptions were regarding normal bodily functions of Jonah.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Excrement, Alcohol
Moderate: Vomit
Shtum is a powerful novel, about families, and adversity, and fighting for a goal. It's funny, tender, gut-wrenching, frustrating and full of depth.
Originally posted on bluchickenninja.com.
I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. It draws you in from the very first page and tells a heartbreaking story of a family with an autistic son. One thing I found really interesting what that though this story is about a child with autism, it’s really more about the father and how he copes with a child who is unable to talk and look after himself.
This book is an emotional rollercoaster from the very beginning and it’s a rollercoaster you won’t want to get off. Once you’re introduced to Jonah you become fascinated with this life he lives and you won’t want to put the book down till the story is over.
However my one tiny complaint about this book would be that the ending dragged on quite a bit. I assumed that the story would conclude with the results of Jonah’s tribunal, but it did not. The father still had some issues to work through (because it really is the father’s story). But I did feel that it had been tacked on at the end life an afterthought after what felt like the natural conclusion to the story.
But this still managed to be a very enjoyable read. I’ve seen it compared to The Storied Life of AJ Fikry and The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night Time (though I haven’t read either of those so can’t verify those claims). Either way this is a story that is definitely worth a read.
I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. It draws you in from the very first page and tells a heartbreaking story of a family with an autistic son. One thing I found really interesting what that though this story is about a child with autism, it’s really more about the father and how he copes with a child who is unable to talk and look after himself.
This book is an emotional rollercoaster from the very beginning and it’s a rollercoaster you won’t want to get off. Once you’re introduced to Jonah you become fascinated with this life he lives and you won’t want to put the book down till the story is over.
However my one tiny complaint about this book would be that the ending dragged on quite a bit. I assumed that the story would conclude with the results of Jonah’s tribunal, but it did not. The father still had some issues to work through (because it really is the father’s story). But I did feel that it had been tacked on at the end life an afterthought after what felt like the natural conclusion to the story.
But this still managed to be a very enjoyable read. I’ve seen it compared to The Storied Life of AJ Fikry and The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night Time (though I haven’t read either of those so can’t verify those claims). Either way this is a story that is definitely worth a read.
boek uit en ik snap the raving reviews, wat een goed boek is dit.
Excellent on how it covers the reality of parenting a child with severe special needs, but didn't hit the mark for me otherwise. The narrator (Ben) is a mess, not at all likeable and seems to think that as long as he acknowledges beforehand what a bad choice he's making, he can keep on making one poor decision after another. The female characters were all very one-dimensional - I'd have liked to see something from Emma's point of view as well. The story is - well, I'm finding it hard to summarise, because there are just so many dramas all happening one after the other - as if the author never felt that he'd got enough in there and that the story needed another twist, another crisis.
I was already quite fed up with all of the movie-of-the-week kinds of books about autistic children and their long-suffering parents before I came to this book, but this one is nothing like anything you’ve read before about the subject. There are an autistic child here and long-suffering parents, and the story revolves around the decision of these parents to fake breaking up in order to cut through bureaucracy, so that their son can get accepted to a school that specializes in his condition. But this novel has so much more in it. It is a gritty, angry and brutally honest book about relationships between husbands and wives, between parents and their children, whatever their ages may be, between men, and between us and ourselves. It’s ultra-realistic, dark and heart-breaking, but above all — truly brilliant. A must-read.
A beautifully written heart wrenching story that will get hold of any preconceived idea you might have on autism, put them in the trash and give a way sadder but so much more beautiful and most importantly honesty version of the truth. I felt like reading a memoir and quickly understood why when I read about the author.