Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

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

81 reviews

itsatyepo's review against another edition

dark informative slow-paced

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

0.5

A shocking representation of autistic people by a writer who said that “imagination trumps research” in response when asked if he did any research on autism. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Grief, Emotional abuse, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Police brutality, Violence, Vomit, Alcohol, Child abuse, Gaslighting, and Animal cruelty

nixtrixz's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death, Death of parent, and Animal death

Minor: Child abuse

paigerini's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

I read this for class recently. I was told it was the first of its kind: a book from the perspective of an autistic teenager.

My  MAJOR gripe with this novel is how Christopher is portrayed. I understand that he is (implied) on the autism spectrum, but his combination of traits/characteristics seemed almost too stereotypical that I was pulled out of the story. I did some research, and the author only used anecdotal evidence for Christopher's character and did no research on autism itself. I feel like the author wrote this book in a way to make the audience pity the people in Christopher's life, even though they do not have any idea how to interact with him properly. As a neurodivergent person, I cringed at how some sections vilified Christopher for things he has a hard time controlling. I understand that is part of the conflict and plot of the book, but I feel that the autism representation could've been handled better.

When it comes to the story, however, it was decent. The plot was compelling enough for me to fly through the latter half. Overall, an okay read.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse and Animal cruelty

Minor: Vomit

vanessatombolini's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Vomit, and Excrement

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Gore, Alcohol, Cursing, Ableism, Grief, and Infidelity

Minor: Mental illness, Bullying, Panic attacks/disorders, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Classism, Police brutality, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Violence, Toxic relationship, and Terminal illness

gellyreads's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative medium-paced

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

3.0

This is okay. I like what it's trying to do, but I feel like the way Christopher talks doesn't seem accurate for a 15 year old? He seems too young? I know he's neurodivergent, but there's plenty of people how are who don't seem so young? IDK. It just didn't sit right with me. That and the dad being... too much.

Why did he kill the fucking dog? I have no idea. That seems more unhinged than just lying about the wife you are trying to divorce being dead to me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Animal cruelty, Abandonment, and Grief

sarah_hutchins's review against another edition

emotional lighthearted reflective fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism

Moderate: Animal death and Animal cruelty

Minor: Child abuse and Death of parent

another_dahlia's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Physical abuse, Ableism, Police brutality, Domestic abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, and Child abuse

Moderate: Bullying and Infidelity

Minor: Vomit

reddeddy's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Cursing, Eating disorder, Excrement, Abandonment, Vomit, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Child abuse, Animal death, Toxic relationship, and Ableism

Moderate: Bullying, Death of parent, Drug use, Xenophobia, Murder, Confinement, Grief, Religious bigotry, Violence, Vomit, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Infidelity, and Sexual content

Minor: Addiction, Injury/Injury detail, Drug abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Kidnapping, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Dementia, Self harm, and Police brutality

filuipa's review against another edition

adventurous reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

I will be thinking about this one for a while. This was one of the best audiobooks I have heard so far so that definitely improved the experience but mostly to see situations through Christopher's way of understanding the world was extremely insightful of autistic experiences, that I don't know have much knowledge of.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death

chelseasofia's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This book is so beautiful. I read it a long time ago and loved it. I reread it because Jeff Woodman did the audio and I’ve been enjoying listening to him do the LJG books. He’s just delightful and though he uses a different voice here (so he sounds unfamiliar), I was not disappointed. He’s a fantastic voice actor!

But besides that, the book was just as brilliant, funny, and heartbreaking as ever. I don’t know whether this is a realistic representation of autism or being on the spectrum in general, so I’ve left that to the side. However, I realized this time around how much I resonated emotionally and in some ways mentally with the main character Christopher. Like how he likes some colors and detests others, and uses these markers or rules to order his world. I did that when I was little too, just like having food preferences, as a way to feel some sense of control in the world and what happened to me. These things make sense to me and I still have certain preferences that might seem eccentric or ridiculous to most people, but it’s brilliant to read the perspective of a character who makes sense of the world this way and to feel seen a little. In this way, I think the book does speak broadly to neurodivergence in general.

I  also just resonated emotionally in the way of how as children sometimes we just can’t understand how or why adults do the things they do. And the adults that bother to meet you where you are, are like gold. This book has me thinking a lot about how we’re all trying our best, and sometimes even our best can still hurt the people we love. Or, rather, the people tasked to care for us can really truly love us and still make terrible mistakes. Not that that excuses their behavior, it just shows how messy life really is.

My heart was with this character from the get-go and I was rooting for him all through. This one will stick with me for awhile.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Panic attacks/disorders, and Animal death

Moderate: Infidelity, Ableism, and Child abuse

Minor: Vomit and Excrement