Reviews with content warning for Emotional abuse - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

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

31 reviews

scoads's review

adventurous emotional funny inspiring mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

A book with more than a few problems and an interesting yet problematic take on autistic stereotypes in young boys, but a very compelling and suspenseful story told from an interesting perspective, very close to my heart.

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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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ajs279's review

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fast-paced

1.0

The book was fun to read but there was not enough research or communication with the neurodivergent community

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samburkhouse's review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted medium-paced

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

2.25

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maizerbeam_16's review

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adventurous emotional mysterious relaxing 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

3.5

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adalinemccormick's review

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dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.75

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kaylamoran's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

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

3.0

I'm genuinely torn on this book. As far as enjoyment, I loved it. But I don't think I can give it more than a 3 or recommend it because it just felt like a collection of autistic stereotypes clumsily thrown together. Not that any of the behaviours are necessarily inaccurate, but I'm tired of how autism is only ever portrayed one way, we aren't all like Sheldon Cooper or Rainman. We need different portrayals too.

Also, I'm a bit alarmed by how many reviews describe Christopher as high functioning. It's not the functioning labels that bother me, I only recently learned they were problematic myself. It's the fact that Christopher clearly has very high support needs, and the fact that he's being considered high functioning reminds me of how autistics who are good at masking aren't believed. If this is what's considered high functioning, we need more of an understanding of what autism is.

And I blame no one for that (if you wrote that in a review I totally get it, and I'm not upset and I don't think you did anything offensive). Because it's BECAUSE this is the only portrayal we get that that causes the lack of understanding, it's not the reader's fault at all. The lack of societal understanding of autism is largely due to this.

So yeah. Portrayals like this are the reason I hear stuff like "you can't be autistic, you're too good at reading emotions" or "you're sarcastic" or "you're too pretty" or "girls aren't autistic." And I guess it's not the books fault either, because it's a valid experience of autism and some people do fit this description. I guess I just wish it wasn't the only one we saw.

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