Take a photo of a barcode or cover
Reviews tagging 'Violence'
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
51 reviews
dark
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Physical abuse, Violence
Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cursing
emotional
funny
lighthearted
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Death of parent, Alcohol
challenging
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Violence
adventurous
challenging
dark
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, Child abuse, Gaslighting
Moderate: Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Police brutality, Death of parent, Abandonment
adventurous
emotional
funny
informative
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Death of parent, Murder
Moderate: Violence
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Violence, Vomit, Gaslighting, Abandonment
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Ratings:
Plot:⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
Writing:⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
Characters:⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
Diversity:⭐⭐⭐/5
Overall:⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
Sadness:⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
I was really excited to pick this book up after I saw and loved the play version that my school put on last year. As someone who is neurodivergent and is on the autistic spectrum and who has family members who also have autism, I also have done peer tutoring at my school ever since I was in middle school. I was extremely excited to read a book about an autistic boy.
I chose to read this book this month due to the fact that it's autism awareness month and I wanted to get into the mind of someone who is higher on the autism spectrum to me so I could better understand their mind and that was the aspect of this book that I enjoyed the most. It did a really good job of putting you in the mind of an autistic person and showing you what is really happening in their mind. It did make me cry a few times because I just felt so bad for the father and everything he was going through and it made me think of some things that my family has gone through and how certain members of my family were going through.
The one thing that disappointed me the most was the fact that it could be pretty boring at moments and I found myself skimming some parts.
I also felt like I was just a little to dumb for this book because even though he was definitely dumbing down some of the things he was explaining but I still had no idea what he was saying.
I also had a hard time with the second half because it caused me to feel kinda icky not because of anything the book was doing but because what was happening in the book was causing me some anxiety.
All together I enjoyed this book but it just wasn't exactly what I wanted.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Panic attacks/disorders
Moderate: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Violence, Death of parent, Abandonment
Minor: Excrement, Vomit
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death
Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Violence
Minor: Bullying
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This book is difficult to review. I would love to rate it higher, since I enjoyed it, but the issues hurt it a bit.
The Big Problem: Although not directly stated, the main character, Christopher, appears to be on the autism spectrum. I am not autistic, and the closest connection to it I have is someone in my family who I don't interact with very often. So, I'm not very knowledgable about autism, but as I read I had suspected that Christopher might be a stereotypical portrayal because he has savant syndrome, aka he's abnormally good at math and logical stuff while having a developmental disability. Articles online that I've seen, written by autistic people and their family members, also seem to also think that Christopher isn't a very good portrayal of an autistic person. Although the inside front cover of the book states that the author "worked with autistic individuals as a young man", it seems that he admitted that he didn't do any research before writing. All this is pretty sad. This book was written a while ago, but that shouldn’t be an excuse.
Protagonist: Before I looked into all this, I found Christopher to be a really interesting character. Disregarding the topic of realistic/unrealistic autism for a second, this book did a great job of putting me in the head of a protagonist who thought very differently from me, which I think has some value. You certainly get a good grasp of what sort of person Christopher is. His point of view also adds unique things, such as chapters being numbered by prime numbers and lots of drawings being included throughout the book.
Plot: The book basically alternates between "plot" and "non-plot"--the latter of which is Christopher's thoughts about all sorts of things, such as his dreams, outer space, and religion (and yes, he speaks very bluntly about sensitive subjects like this, so don't read this is you can't handle being offended by that sort of thing). Because of this, I can imagine that some people might get a little bored waiting to get back to the plot. Due to the chapters being fairly short, I didn't have a problem with this. I actually flew through the book and finished in two days.
Intensity: In general, this book is pretty intense. Being a murder mystery (of a dog), you might expect this, but the parts that are tense are actually surprisingly serious. I would definitely look at the content warnings if you have any concerns.
Family: Something that I really liked about this book was its portrayal of a broken household. I thought the feelings conveyed by the people in this particular relationship felt pretty real, and I liked how none of them felt one-dimensional and had different sides to them.
Overall, I would say that this book is enjoyable...if you either don't know much about autism and/or take into account that the portrayal of it is likely not accurate. I would look into reviews by people with autism before picking up the book.
The Big Problem: Although not directly stated, the main character, Christopher, appears to be on the autism spectrum. I am not autistic, and the closest connection to it I have is someone in my family who I don't interact with very often. So, I'm not very knowledgable about autism, but as I read I had suspected that Christopher might be a stereotypical portrayal because he has savant syndrome, aka he's abnormally good at math and logical stuff while having a developmental disability. Articles online that I've seen, written by autistic people and their family members, also seem to also think that Christopher isn't a very good portrayal of an autistic person. Although the inside front cover of the book states that the author "worked with autistic individuals as a young man", it seems that he admitted that he didn't do any research before writing. All this is pretty sad. This book was written a while ago, but that shouldn’t be an excuse.
Protagonist: Before I looked into all this, I found Christopher to be a really interesting character. Disregarding the topic of realistic/unrealistic autism for a second, this book did a great job of putting me in the head of a protagonist who thought very differently from me, which I think has some value. You certainly get a good grasp of what sort of person Christopher is. His point of view also adds unique things, such as chapters being numbered by prime numbers and lots of drawings being included throughout the book.
Plot: The book basically alternates between "plot" and "non-plot"--the latter of which is Christopher's thoughts about all sorts of things, such as his dreams, outer space, and religion (and yes, he speaks very bluntly about sensitive subjects like this, so don't read this is you can't handle being offended by that sort of thing). Because of this, I can imagine that some people might get a little bored waiting to get back to the plot. Due to the chapters being fairly short, I didn't have a problem with this. I actually flew through the book and finished in two days.
Intensity: In general, this book is pretty intense. Being a murder mystery (of a dog), you might expect this, but the parts that are tense are actually surprisingly serious. I would definitely look at the content warnings if you have any concerns.
Family: Something that I really liked about this book was its portrayal of
Overall, I would say that this book is enjoyable...if you either don't know much about autism and/or take into account that the portrayal of it is likely not accurate. I would look into reviews by people with autism before picking up the book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Animal death
Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Death of parent
challenging
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Panic attacks/disorders
Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Violence
Minor: Death of parent