Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

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

16 reviews

lillelow's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death

Moderate: Terminal illness, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Eating disorder, Abandonment, Vomit, Ableism, Confinement, Bullying, Panic attacks/disorders, Gaslighting, Death of parent, Cursing, Violence, and Toxic relationship

paperquilt's review

mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Gaslighting, Ableism, Excrement, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Vomit

Moderate: Child abuse and Abandonment

Minor: Infidelity

henriediosa's review against another edition

challenging mysterious sad medium-paced

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

1.0

I'm neurodivergent. I really wanted this book to be good, but it ended up disappointing me. It's a shame because I like Christopher's character traits. He is an interesting character. But I wish he had different parents. I wish he had a different author.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Child abuse, and Ableism

Moderate: Alcoholism

Minor: Vomit

chronicallydepressedbudgerigar's review

funny fast-paced

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

It's a mercifully short read at least. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Gaslighting, Animal death, Ableism, Excrement, and Medical content

Extremely offensive to autistic people, anyone who might be classed as neurodiverse and/or intellectually disabled.

robin_reads's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

This book is written from Christopher’s POV. Christopher has Asperger’s and he wants to find out who killed the neighbor’s dog. 

This was sadder than I expected it to be but also lovely. It was refreshing and eye-opening. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Gaslighting, Vomit, Panic attacks/disorders, and Ableism

kaylamoran's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Ableism

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Cursing, Gaslighting, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Infidelity and Physical abuse

technoblade's review

challenging informative reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.75

This book is not fucking funny if you rated it funny you are only saying that cause he is autistic . This was intensely sad 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Ableism, Blood, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, and Violence

noahsingh's review

emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

2.0

mixed feelings about this book as someone on the spectrum, definitely related to the main character a lot but the amount of abuse he suffers from his family, which isn't properly condemned imho made me incredibly uncomfortable. yeah, wouldn't reccomend it to other people on the spectrum, definitely found it triggering

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Panic attacks/disorders, Child abuse, Animal cruelty, and Ableism

Moderate: Mental illness, Emotional abuse, Addiction, Abandonment, Police brutality, Infidelity, Gaslighting, and Physical abuse

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

seaschells's review

adventurous challenging dark sad tense fast-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

2.0

If you read this book, I hope you find it entertaining, well-paced, and interesting, but it is NOT educational. The only things you’ll learn about autism are stereotypes. Additionally, I’d put a trigger warning on it for parental abuse of their kid. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Gaslighting, Child abuse, and Animal death

Moderate: Violence, Toxic relationship, Police brutality, Physical abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Excrement, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Abandonment, Vomit, Chronic illness, and Blood