As a spectrum woman myself, I have to be honest and say reading this book was a deeply painful experience for a number of reasons. First, the book itself is fine. I thought Higashida covered a lot of important elements of living with ASD. Some of it didn't necessarily line up with things I've experienced or heard of but that's why it is called autism SPECTRUM disorder. No two people will experience it in the same way. 

After I read the book, I read the reviews, and this is what was painful for me. Reviewers don't believe that Higashida actually wrote the book. They claim that the prose is "too sophisticated" for someone his age and especially someone his age on the spectrum to have possibly written it. They claim that the translator, David Mitchell, and his mom, embellished the original manuscript in order to make a buck. Either this book WAS written by Higashida and no one believes it because of how deeply entrenched ableism is in our world (because how DARE someone with AuTiSm write something of VaLuE!) or, he didn't actually write the book and was exploited by the adults in his life. It doesn't matter which is true. Both are deeply painful options for those of us on the spectrum.