‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime’ is written from the perspective of 15 year old Christopher, a boy with ASD (called its now dead-term in the book but it was written before the name change was pushed), as he tries to solve the murder of the neighbours dog. It is going to be difficult for me to review this the same way I always review books for reasons that should become clear as I write this review, so bear with me. 

My mum got me this book when I was first diagnosed ASD perhaps to help me figure some things out about myself while I was still starting to discover how my brain worked, and for some reason those many years ago I never read it. When I went home for Easter I saw it on my shelf and wondered why I had never read it, and decided to give it a go as it is one of the most mainstream depictions of ASD in literature that I am aware of, though also maybe a bit young of a book for me now with what I typically read. It was for example full of pictures to explain things rather than actually just using words to explain things, which both fit the plot point of Christopher writing the book as the story unfolds, but also was much more juvenile writing than I enjoy reading. 

On the same wavelength, the writing style was extremely basic and to the point, completely lacking in description, which I understand is due to a combination of writing from Christopher’s mind and also the age demographic (my mind doesn’t function in quite so blunt a manner, it is more far too all over the place.) Addressing the most important element of the book, Haddon’s depiction of ASD, I think it was mostly well done. There were many parts of Christopher I related too, which was nice as I don’t see it often in characters, but also with the diversity in ASD obviously many parts that I don’t experience. Christopher was certainly an individual with high-functioning ASD. He also had his brain STEM orientated (the chapters were all prime number) which is the complete opposite to my literary brain. However, though there is a spectrum with how mainstream a presentation of ASD Haddon’s story is, I wasn’t so much a fan of the lack of recognition of the spectrum, for Christopher was completely emotionless in many situations and came across quite psychopathic, a trait which can be the case but is certainly not universally representative. At no point is it recognised that not everyone with ASD sees in the same way. At one point he romanticises a world where everyone has just died and he is overjoyed because the rest of the population is dead, which didn’t sit too well for me. The best presentation came in the chapters spent on the train and in the train station, the depiction of information overload is so good and it made me feel so heard and understood. The constant scheduling also really resonated. 

Returning to the plot, it would often cut from moments of tension and just insert an unrelated chapter about a random topic or special interest, which was nice in a way that it demonstrated the volatility of his brain, but from the perspective of good storytelling this really wasn’t beneficial. Some elements were humorous, and there were also many jokes that just made absolutely no sense. It did spoil the whole plot of Hound of the Baskervilles (which is weirdly timed as I am reading it next because it has connections to Herefordshire and is therefore themed reading for my few days away) without any reason or warning which was quite annoying though and I also can’t brush over how toxic the adult relationships are and this really isn’t addressed and made out as almost okay, especially in the resolution of such. 

So there we go, I rambled, and this is really difficult to rate as from a storytelling perspective it was lacking in many places and wouldn’t score too well, it was a little too young for me now,  but I also really resonated with the book. I really should have just read it when it first found its way onto my shelf.