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elizanderson1066 's review for:
Strange Sally Diamond
by Liz Nugent
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Whilst I found this book to be a compelling read on the surface, I have to voice the distinct level of discomfort I felt when reading it. I feel like we need to question the motivation behind writing books which narrate the story from the first person perspective of a protagonist whom is clearly neurodiverse. For a neurotypical author to utilise a neurodiverse voice in such a way where the purpose seems to be to just give the novel a hook, feels more than a little problematic.
Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Sally Rooney's Intermezzo and Graeme Simsion's The Rosie Project series all do this as well, and whilst only the last example can be accurately described as using an autistic perspective for comedic effect, they all surely use it to add a unique selling point to their work, despite the fact that all these authors have publicly admitted that they have little to no experience of, and conducted a minimal amount of research into autism.
Sally Diamond's unique perspective on life does not come from being autistic, but she is clearly neurodiverse - caused by PTSD due to experiencing extreme trauma as a child. And while this book certainly isn't a comedy - it is actually intensely poignant and harrowing at times - I did get the impression that several of Sally's self-proclaimed "socially deficient" personality quirks were supposed to be funny. It didn't seem like care was being taken with her character at all, despite the often graphic descriptions of her horrific childhood. It felt pretty tone-deaf, a lot of the time.
Upon reaching the novel's conclusion I was also left with a big question mark around the point it was trying to make, and the take-home message seems confusing at best and insensitive at its worst. I'm curious to see what others feel about this one.
Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Sally Rooney's Intermezzo and Graeme Simsion's The Rosie Project series all do this as well, and whilst only the last example can be accurately described as using an autistic perspective for comedic effect, they all surely use it to add a unique selling point to their work, despite the fact that all these authors have publicly admitted that they have little to no experience of, and conducted a minimal amount of research into autism.
Sally Diamond's unique perspective on life does not come from being autistic, but she is clearly neurodiverse - caused by PTSD due to experiencing extreme trauma as a child. And while this book certainly isn't a comedy - it is actually intensely poignant and harrowing at times - I did get the impression that several of Sally's self-proclaimed "socially deficient" personality quirks were supposed to be funny. It didn't seem like care was being taken with her character at all, despite the often graphic descriptions of her horrific childhood. It felt pretty tone-deaf, a lot of the time.
Upon reaching the novel's conclusion I was also left with a big question mark around the point it was trying to make, and the take-home message seems confusing at best and insensitive at its worst. I'm curious to see what others feel about this one.