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mj_reads 's review for:
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
by Mark Haddon
I don’t know what to say…this book is good but it just isn’t great. My rating started at 4 stars and now I’m at 2…the more I thought about this book the more it disappointed/annoyed me.
Ugh okay so this is sort of a story within a story. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time is presented to readers as a murder mystery story written by the main character himself for school. Everything that happens in this book is told to readers exactly as the main character sees and experiences it. Which I have to admit, is a really great concept.
Our main character, Christopher, is a 15-year-old boy who has high functioning autism…or so we think. That is never actually specified, ever. Readers see that Christophe struggles socially and emotionally, and we are aware that he goes to a school for people who have special needs. But in regards to what is actually going on with him, we never get any explicit explanation. This isn’t all that surprising, because in one of the earlier chapters the character expresses his belief that everyone has special needs (ie: when someone needs to wear glasses) and is different when it comes to learning, so he doesn’t think that his special needs are all that different from anyone else’s. And this is my first issue with this book, it’s a book that suggests representation for children with special needs but does not provide a clear diagnosis. Not only that, but the symptoms shown throughout the book appear to be very extreme cases. I work with students who have learning disabilities/special needs and while I know everyone who has a diagnosis experiences their symptoms differently I couldn’t help but feel the way that Christopher shows his symptoms felt a bit exaggerated. Also his self-awareness seems to be a bit off when compared to the degree of his symptoms. He is incredibly rude when he talks about other students in his school and he thinks very highly of himself in comparison to other students. I’m not saying it isn’t possible for someone like Christopher to feel this way, but based on my experience with students like him it definitely feels like a bit of a stretch. (Don’t @ me I know anything is possible but I spent a lot of time doing research on students with high functioning autism and this just felt really off for me).
So anyway onto the plot. This story is presented as a murder mystery, Christopher is investigating who murdered his neighbor’s dog. And without going into too much detail since I don’t want to give away the plot twists, this book is about much more than that. What I will say is that I like the idea of this story. I was really invested in the things that Christopher discovers and found myself rooting for him. I just wasn’t really into the delivery of this story, and I also didn’t find it to be all that believable. Everything felt too convenient for the story and not necessarily accurate in the representation of a person with HFA…or just in general tbh. I can’t imagine this story going this way for anyone, let alone Christopher after spending so much time in his head in this story. So while it was relatively entertaining, it just didn't work for me here.
Idk this just...wasn’t what I wanted. I didn’t mind that the plot was different from what I was expecting, but the characters weren’t what I was hoping for and like I said the plot was just too much to be believable, even for a work of fiction. Great concept though.
Ugh okay so this is sort of a story within a story. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time is presented to readers as a murder mystery story written by the main character himself for school. Everything that happens in this book is told to readers exactly as the main character sees and experiences it. Which I have to admit, is a really great concept.
Our main character, Christopher, is a 15-year-old boy who has high functioning autism…or so we think. That is never actually specified, ever. Readers see that Christophe struggles socially and emotionally, and we are aware that he goes to a school for people who have special needs. But in regards to what is actually going on with him, we never get any explicit explanation. This isn’t all that surprising, because in one of the earlier chapters the character expresses his belief that everyone has special needs (ie: when someone needs to wear glasses) and is different when it comes to learning, so he doesn’t think that his special needs are all that different from anyone else’s. And this is my first issue with this book, it’s a book that suggests representation for children with special needs but does not provide a clear diagnosis. Not only that, but the symptoms shown throughout the book appear to be very extreme cases. I work with students who have learning disabilities/special needs and while I know everyone who has a diagnosis experiences their symptoms differently I couldn’t help but feel the way that Christopher shows his symptoms felt a bit exaggerated. Also his self-awareness seems to be a bit off when compared to the degree of his symptoms. He is incredibly rude when he talks about other students in his school and he thinks very highly of himself in comparison to other students. I’m not saying it isn’t possible for someone like Christopher to feel this way, but based on my experience with students like him it definitely feels like a bit of a stretch. (Don’t @ me I know anything is possible but I spent a lot of time doing research on students with high functioning autism and this just felt really off for me).
So anyway onto the plot. This story is presented as a murder mystery, Christopher is investigating who murdered his neighbor’s dog. And without going into too much detail since I don’t want to give away the plot twists, this book is about much more than that. What I will say is that I like the idea of this story. I was really invested in the things that Christopher discovers and found myself rooting for him. I just wasn’t really into the delivery of this story, and I also didn’t find it to be all that believable. Everything felt too convenient for the story and not necessarily accurate in the representation of a person with HFA…or just in general tbh. I can’t imagine this story going this way for anyone, let alone Christopher after spending so much time in his head in this story. So while it was relatively entertaining, it just didn't work for me here.
Idk this just...wasn’t what I wanted. I didn’t mind that the plot was different from what I was expecting, but the characters weren’t what I was hoping for and like I said the plot was just too much to be believable, even for a work of fiction. Great concept though.