Reviews

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

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kaikai1618's review against another edition

3.0

Enjoyment: 3.5 stars
Accuracy: 1 star
Writing if you ignore accuracy: 4 stars

At first I really enjoyed this book. The pacing was quick and the writing style was easy to read with entertaining events throughout the book. I still think it's well written in terms of writing style alone and the events that transpired had me fairly invested or surprised. However, the book is sadly advertised as literature about an autistic person when it is inaccurate to the experiences of people on the spectrum. It's a very damaging way of portraying autistic people, making it seem as though they are inheritey toxic, overly codependent, and will bring about the suffering of those around them. It's aweful. I myself was reading this book through a specific lense of trying to learn and understand the character to be more aware of the struggles artistic people face. If I had known about the poor research and execution done with this character, my reading approach would have been very different. Can you imagine reading this as an autistic person, seeing a character that doesn't represent you and yet people are raving about this innaccurate book, using it in classrooms and for parents and the message you receive is that you can never live a normal life or be happy? What in the world. People, read own voice memoirs instead. And if you read this book read it as a work of complete fiction. Toss out any notions that you will learn about people on the spectrum.

parita_g's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional medium-paced

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

4.0

laurolly's review against another edition

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4.0

4 Stars. This book was absolutely fascinating, I loved the mini tangents which the narrator goes on to explain things such as logic problems, maths equations, and the angle we view stars. Christopher’s point of view is very factual but highly engaging, and because of this narration style I found myself examining my own biases about autism as I read. I found myself frustrated in places because Christopher was unable to pick up certain social queues which I found obvious, however, from being able to understand his point of view I was become equally as frustrated with other characters for not understanding Christopher. I thought it was a wonderful story examining the difficulties of raising a neurodivergent child from the perspective of the child.

sam_hartwig's review against another edition

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5.0

This book is about a 15 year old boy named Christoper and he has Asperger's Syndrome. It follows his life as he trys to investigate the 'murder' of his next door neighbour's dog named Wellington. This leads to him finding out about an even bigger family mystery. The story is written from his point of view which I thought was so different and I really felt like i knew him by the end of the book. It was so interesting to learn all about how he sees the world and how he acts in normal life situations. I couldn't put this book down because I really wanted to find out what happens next and I was so intrigued to learn more about Asperger's Syndrome as i don't really know much about it. I have to mention that the book has a fair bit of swearing in it, but you have to look past it because i really recommend you read it!

laurasauras's review against another edition

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4.0

I hadn't read this since I was in high school, and it's every bit as amazing as it was then. I truly believe the characters and my heart broke for all of them. It's amazing that you can empathise so strongly with the secondary characters, the parents, neighbours and teachers when it is told so strictly from Christopher's perspective.