Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

9 reviews

lawbooks600's review against another edition

emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This might be a good book...

Update:

Representation: Character with autism, minor Asian character
Score: Six and a half points out of ten.

I wanted to read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time but never got around till now. I had to pick it up when it was time--it was the next book in my TBR. I glanced at the blurb, making it seem intriguing. I headed in, thinking I would read a story about the murder of a dog. However, that is not what I got, and, as a side note, the narrative was okay and nothing too remarkable.

Spoilers ahead. I've warned you.

It starts with the first person I see, Christopher, stumbling upon a deceased dog and wanting to discover who killed it. The unique aspect of this fictional composition is that Christopher has autism. The prime-numbered chapters were an appreciated touch as they made The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time stand out, but the story's entirety isn't solely dedicated to solving the dog murder mystery. Only the first half is dedicated to that. The second half revolves around Christopher going to London after stumbling upon a deeper mystery. Christopher discovers her mother is alive and not deceased as his father said. Toward the last 200 pages, Christopher sets off alone to London, and he eventually finds his mother. The conclusion wasn't satisfying enough for me as it petered out rather than ending with a bang. I couldn't connect or relate to Christopher or any of the other characters in this piece of fiction, even though Christopher has autism. The authenticity isn't guaranteed either as it's unclear whether the author also has autism. 

Well. To summarise, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time promised to be an intriguing murder mystery, but it subverted my expectations when I read half of it, and it cannot be trusted as an accurate portrayal of neurodiversity. You'd be better off reading genuine neurodivergent novels like Please Don't Hug Me and A Kind of Spark.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Death, and Blood

Full trigger warnings: Death of a mother from a heart attack and another person in the past mentioned, child abuse, physical assault and injury, blood depiction

reddeddy's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Cursing, Eating disorder, Excrement, Abandonment, Vomit, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Child abuse, Animal death, Toxic relationship, and Ableism

Moderate: Bullying, Death of parent, Drug use, Xenophobia, Murder, Confinement, Grief, Religious bigotry, Violence, Vomit, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Infidelity, and Sexual content

Minor: Addiction, Injury/Injury detail, Drug abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Kidnapping, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Dementia, Self harm, and Police brutality

elzmri's review

challenging dark emotional funny informative inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Animal death, and Infidelity

Minor: Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Domestic abuse, and Vomit

daybreakreads's review against another edition

funny hopeful lighthearted reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I would describe it as “cute”. I listened to the audiobook, but I know the physical book has illustrations that might have made it more endearing. I was looking for something similar to The Maid by Nita Prose or Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine in the sense that I love socially awkward narrators. In comparison, the narrator here feels much less well-rounded and developed and more of a stereotype of autism rather than a real person. It was still cute and endearing, but it was hard to feel real connection or empathy to a one-sided character. There isn’t a lot of plot; it’s mainly focused on showing how the narrator sees the world and interacts with it so much differently than the rest of us. It’s just hard to enjoy that kind of book when the narrator is hard to love. Ending was a bit cute but that’s it really.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Mental illness, and Animal death

Minor: Ableism, Alcohol, Blood, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Drug use, Grief, and Death

mary_do_12's review

challenging informative inspiring reflective relaxing medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

„I think prime numbers are like life. They are very logical but you could never work out the rules, even if you spent all your time thinking about them.“

If you keep in mind that I had to read this for school, my five star rating is almost world changing. But here we are, and I really honestly enjoyed this book. I really like how the author managed to explain Christopher’s thoughts to the reader so that they seemed logical. I feel like now when I might meet people that are similar to Christopher, maybe I can understand them a little better. I love reading books that teach me something new or give me insight on a character with experiences totally different from mine. That is one of the reasons why I enjoyed this book so much. The messiness that mirrored Christopher’s thoughts and the math problems that I did not understand but that were still an important part are some of the things that make this books so genius. Thanks for writing this and for giving me the chance to expand my horizon.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death and Vomit

Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Death of parent, Police brutality, and Death

stories's review against another edition

adventurous emotional informative inspiring tense medium-paced

4.0

Reread for the first time since highschool. It’s fascinating what I remembered

eg who killed Wellington

and what I didn’t

eg everything surrounding Mother

. 

It is very much still well written - captures an autistic voice so clearly and is highly engaging. 

Swearing and family relations make it imo inappropriate for primary. Particularly

Christopher’s father

. 

Not my taste, but a solid novel. I’m struck, as I believe I was as a kid, primarily by the sheer, overwhelming bravery of Christopher. Definitely a theme to unpack, alongside truth/honesty and conflict/order.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Cursing

Moderate: Excrement, Ableism, Vomit, Infidelity, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Bullying, Death of parent, Grief, Animal cruelty, Alcohol, Blood, and Child abuse

wentub's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

good book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Ableism, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Toxic relationship

Minor: Infidelity

bellaiu's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

the plot twists left and right were groundbreaking 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Gaslighting, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

laraperry's review

adventurous hopeful mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death

Moderate: Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, Excrement, and Vomit

Minor: Ableism and Alcohol