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lit_chicana 's review for:
Good Morning, Dinah
by Emily Holyoak
Good Morning, Dinah is an atypical coming of age, and first love story. Dinah is a 17 year-old autistic girl entering her senior year in high school. All she wants is to keep to her routines, avoid change and melt downs with the help of her service dog Higgins. All was on track until her new autistic classmates older brother, Maverick, tries to befriend her. Dinah is skeptical of Mavericks friendship. Maverick is all about change, asks too many questions and makes Dinah challenge herself. As Dinah begins to trust Maverick he becomes part of her routine but when Maverick disappears Dinahs world is turned upside down. Dinah begins to shut down and questions if letting someone in, if change is worth it?
I found this book to be such a refreshing coming of age and first love story particularly because it is told from the perspective of an autistic teenager and it was written by an author who is autistic and captures all the nuances of being neurodivergent. There is a lot of internal dialogue but I found it crucial to the plot. It helps you understand how this autistic girl processes emotions and further more it shuts down the stigma about autistic people being emotionless robots. My one caveat is that some of the escapism scenes that Dinah has are too long winded. I found those parts of the book hard to get through even a bit boring in some cases. As the story goes on they become more relevant as these escapism scenes help her or better said force her to face her fears. The character growth and development of Dinah is wonderfully done I can only describe it as watching her bloom and become comfortable with herself. The male character Maverick was beautifully written, he is supportive and understanding with Dinah without being condescending. He is genuinely sweet, loving and caring. The supporting characters were all well written and likable. This is a beautiful book that helped me view autism in a new positive light. A book like this was long overdue.
Book tropes: YA, outsider, neurodivergent, first love
I found this book to be such a refreshing coming of age and first love story particularly because it is told from the perspective of an autistic teenager and it was written by an author who is autistic and captures all the nuances of being neurodivergent. There is a lot of internal dialogue but I found it crucial to the plot. It helps you understand how this autistic girl processes emotions and further more it shuts down the stigma about autistic people being emotionless robots. My one caveat is that some of the escapism scenes that Dinah has are too long winded. I found those parts of the book hard to get through even a bit boring in some cases. As the story goes on they become more relevant as these escapism scenes help her or better said force her to face her fears. The character growth and development of Dinah is wonderfully done I can only describe it as watching her bloom and become comfortable with herself. The male character Maverick was beautifully written, he is supportive and understanding with Dinah without being condescending. He is genuinely sweet, loving and caring. The supporting characters were all well written and likable. This is a beautiful book that helped me view autism in a new positive light. A book like this was long overdue.
Book tropes: YA, outsider, neurodivergent, first love