camoo3032's review against another edition

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

3.25


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lillelow's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Read this when I was younger and for some reason something about it stuck in my head, so I decided to read it again as an adult. Apparently I’d forgotten most of the plot because I didn’t remember the major plot twist, but other than that, the book didn’t stand out to me as much this time around.

If you have no experience with autism and would like an insight into what that might look like (which I think everyone should) this will probably be a very eye-opening book and I’d absolutely recommend it. But if you’re already familiar with autism, I guess it doesn’t make that much of an impact - hence why I don’t find it as mind-blowing to read now as when I was younger and probably didn’t know as much. The story in itself is actually quite tragic and other than the plot twist, it’s all rather predictable - so the score ends up somewhere in the middle for me. 

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reddeddy's review

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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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pianoplayer279's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

It took a while to get going but once the plot really began, I really enjoyed it. Age 14+

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itsnotalakeitsanocean's review

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0.25

People have GOT to stop recommending this as good autism representation (unless we're comparing how far representation of autistic characters have come since this book was published). Especially because the author didn't intend for the protagonist to be autistic and just latched onto the idea later on.

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trintrin's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative inspiring mysterious sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

omg I’m actually teary after finishing this book. It’s both heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time. Christopher was such a delight to follow, I loved reading all his little theories and observations, especially in the first half. But the second half, oh man
I never expected this to get so sad. That scene of him reading all those letters from his mother broke my heart. And the entire London tube scenes shittttt I can’t fully formulate an opinion on his parents but I hope their family finds a way to heal and cope. And that Christopher truly fulfils his dreams and lives happily ever after.


The only thing that bothered me a little is that this stopped being a murder mystery pretty early on, but that’s got to do with the way this book is marketed ig 

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productioneer's review

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emotional hopeful lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5


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the_procrastinatorinator's review

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

3.25

Not sure if the autism representation in this is very good, but it was a quick read 

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rieriereads's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

𝘐 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘨𝘴. 𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢 𝘥𝘰𝘨 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨. 𝘐𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘮𝘰𝘰𝘥𝘴. 𝘏𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘺, 𝘴𝘢𝘥, 𝘤𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨. 𝘈𝘭𝘴𝘰, 𝘥𝘰𝘨𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘧𝘢𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘥𝘰 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘤𝘢𝘯𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘬.

𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝙲𝚞𝚛𝚒𝚘𝚞𝚜 𝙸𝚗𝚌𝚒𝚍𝚎𝚗𝚝 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝙳𝚘𝚐 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝙽𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝-𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎 was a quirky, fun, emotional, and overall good read. The book starts off with 15-year-old Christopher, who has autism, finding out that the neighborhood dog, Wellington, was killed.
 
Listening to the audiobook, it felt like the book was divided into two parts: a murder mystery and an emotional story of growth and family. Two distinct opposites that some may see as okay and others may disagree with. I'm in the middle.
 
In the first part, as Christopher acts like a detective, we can see that he sees things and people differently. He understands certain situations differently and notices details not many would even give a thought to. And I love how, while listening to the audiobook version, it feels like I am by his side.
 
Most of the characters were likable, and I definitely loved how Ed's, Christopher's father, feelings and frustration were shown. Though I may not agree with some things he has done, his emotions were raw and honest.
 
Aside from Christopher's perspective and how he sees and understands the world, I also loved the way his parents say I love you to him. The gesture was sweet; it was my favorite detail of the novel. I also really liked the prime-numbered chapters, and it was a novel within a novel.
 
Unfortunately, even though the book was narrated beautifully, I found some parts tedious to listen to. A part of me wanted something else to happen since the plot for me was predictable. Overall, it was still a good book. I wouldn't probably read it again, but I would still maybe recommend it to those willing to try it.

•••

My Rating System

5 🌟 - Life changing, a new favorite read
4 ⭐ - I loved it
3 ⭐ - I liked it 
2 ⭐ - It was okay
1 ⭐ - I hated it but decided to  not dnf

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bookreader22's review against another edition

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

2.75

It was really hard for me to finish this book. It made me feel scatterbrained. 
Also, I hope children are not reading this book for school.  There are too many curse words in it. This is not something I would want my child reading.

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