Scan barcode
A review by exmish
Saving Max by Antoinette van Heugten
3.0
I won this book via GoodReads, so here is my brief review (I won't go into plot details and whatnot as that has already been amply covered by other readers).
If I hadn't just read _House Rules_ by Jodi Picoult (which I didn't love, but I liked it enough), I probably would have enjoyed this book more - not because I found the Picoult book to be better, but rather because the two books were so similar (young man with Asperger's finds himself accused of murder) that I felt like I was reading a re-run.
I thought the story was interesting but far-fetched, and I had the "whodunit?" figured out in the first few chapters. I enjoyed seeing the details of the how and why as they played out.
As the mother of a child with bipolar disorder, I really did NOT like how he went from having a diagnosis of Asperger's, to the hospital (mis)diagnosis, to "oh, whew, it's just bipolar disorder and now life is (literally and figuratively) sunny out in Santa Fe." I understand the use as a plot device, but anyone parenting a child with bipolar disorder knows that getting that diagnosis is rarely a relief.
Also, as a parent with a failed adoption in Ghana (West Africa), it also rubbed me the wrong way at the end. It is extremely difficult to adopt, domestic or internationally, as far as the process goes - there is almost no way that Marianne could generate the amount of paperwork necessary to do so (not to mention the fingerprinting, etc.).
If I hadn't just read _House Rules_ by Jodi Picoult (which I didn't love, but I liked it enough), I probably would have enjoyed this book more - not because I found the Picoult book to be better, but rather because the two books were so similar (young man with Asperger's finds himself accused of murder) that I felt like I was reading a re-run.
I thought the story was interesting but far-fetched, and I had the "whodunit?" figured out in the first few chapters. I enjoyed seeing the details of the how and why as they played out.
As the mother of a child with bipolar disorder, I really did NOT like how he went from having a diagnosis of Asperger's, to the hospital (mis)diagnosis, to "oh, whew, it's just bipolar disorder and now life is (literally and figuratively) sunny out in Santa Fe." I understand the use as a plot device, but anyone parenting a child with bipolar disorder knows that getting that diagnosis is rarely a relief.
Also, as a parent with a failed adoption in Ghana (West Africa), it also rubbed me the wrong way at the end. It is extremely difficult to adopt, domestic or internationally, as far as the process goes - there is almost no way that Marianne could generate the amount of paperwork necessary to do so (not to mention the fingerprinting, etc.).