Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

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

3 reviews

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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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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ageckocalledachilles's review

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

2.0

I found this book funny and cool when I first read it at 11 years old, but since then I have grown up and come to realise that it wasn't that great.

SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT

Christopher is treated with mingled pity and irritation by the author, to the extent that his father is portrayed as 'the reasonable parent' (he hits Christopher at several points. That's literal child abuse.) The portrayal of autism is accurate in places, but in others comes off as stereotyped and poorly researched. In summary, if you're gonna write a book where the adults treat a child like shit, don't imply that it's justified bc their disability is 'just so hard to deal with'.

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