I don't usually rate books so highly if I can't really tell someone what happened in the book. But this one I think was more a matter of reading the right book at the right time. This book, to me, was mostly about the main character's personality in relation to the rest of the characters, who were stand-ins for "regular" people as we know them, while she was defined as an "other."

This book is definitely dystopian and definitely disturbing in parts. It is not a fun or comforting read. It leaves the reader with many unanswered questions, just as the main character is left with many unanswered questions.

I think this book interested me so much at this particular point in time because the main character (who doesn't have a name, but is referred to as The Child) had several traits I noticed in myself. Within the last six months I've been coming to terms with the fact that I most likely am autistic and while this wasn't a complete shock, I'm still coming to terms with what that looks like in me. Now, I don't know what the author intended when she wrote this book, but the MC definitely reads as autistic to me. Throughout the book it's constantly explained away by the fact that she does not remember life before the prison that she and the 39 other women are trapped in. The other women all had "regular" lives and families and grew up in what we (the readers) would recognize as modern society. The MC, though, remembers nothing of that because she is significantly younger than the rest of the women.

Because of this, there are large gaps in her knowledge about things that the other women just take for granted. For example, she doesn't know to be ashamed when she uses the toilet in front of everyone because it's all she's ever known.

I think a lot of her behaviors can be explained by this world (the prison, the outside world when they escape) being the only world she has ever known. But I also don't think it's unreasonable to suggest that she might be autistic. 

I recognized many behaviors and attitudes in the MC that I see in myself: not liking to touch or be touched by other people; lack of emotions in situations where others were emotional; wanting to know things for the sake of knowing them and not because they would have a particular use. This last trait reminded me of my own particular way of getting into hobbies: I have to know as much as I can about that particular topic even if it won't ever be useful for me. And there were multiple times throughout the book that one of the women asked why the MC wanted to know something because it would never be relevant, but she insisted she learn it anyway. 

It's hard to think of everything the MC did that made me think she was autistic (mostly because I start to forget things about books immediately after I finish them), but I think other autistic people might recongize the same behaviors and traits in her.

The story itself was also very intriguing, so I recommend reading it if you're someone who doesn't mind a book with many questions and very few answers. It's definitely a book that will stay with me for a lont time, and one I might consider rereading.