The Curious Incident of The Dog In The Nigh-Time By Mark Haddon
269 Pages
Vintage
Paperback
"Christopher, a fifteen-year-old boy with an autistic spectrum condition, lives with his father; he explains that his mother, Judy, died two years ago. He discovers the dead body of Wellington, the neighbour's dog, speared by a garden fork. Mrs Shears, Wellington's owner, calls the police, and Christopher comes under suspicion. When a policeman touches him, he hits the policeman, and is arrested, then released with a police caution. He decides to investigate the dog's death, despite his father's orders to stay out of other people's business. However, he is severely limited by his fears and difficulties when interpreting the world around him." -Wikipedia
YAY I have now completed three books for this month and for diversity month, which is quite good for me. Like I said in my other post I am proud of myself at my progress of my reading rate with not only the past few months but with this retardation. I remember failing miserably every time last year when this readathon came along.
Anyway book reviewing time
This book along with To All The Boys I loved Before were chosen for the #AYEARATHON readalong books for this month, which was good because I needed to read this one as it has been on my shelf for a few years now.
Setting:
Let me talk about the setting of where this book took place, which was Swindon. It's a small town in South West of England, which I never have heard of before. It sounds great there but however in the book, Christoper travels to London, and it sounded just as amazing as I have imagined, even though he was scared being there, I was enjoying what he was describing. (I won't go into detail about that cause it'l spoil it)
Some people may think it's weird that I liked it because he was talking about the tubes and trains where I have never been on one before, because in my NZ our transport to anyother city is by car or bus. I would love it if taranaki had a train system running around the region, might have to invest into that idea. lol. But yeah it sounded cool to me. lol.
Also what I loved was learning certain slang words that maybe only people from the South West of England use, which was "Rag" I though that was quite a good one. Now I can say to people if they piss me off, "I am losing my rag." Also there were certain British culture themes in this book that I loved and you could totally tell this book was set in England just by the language Mark was writing in. What I loved about Mark too is that he kept to his British voice and you could tell he was British without even knowing before hand, which was great.
Yes a well written book there Mark.
Characters:
Christoper is the main character in this story and their was something familiar I noticed about him, I couldn't put my finiger on. Then it came to me, he reminded me of Oscar from Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. This was because they had the same disability which was autism. I loved how Mark truly portrayed an autistic boy in a raw and realistic way. I have grown up with a boy who is autistic and Christopher had the same qualities my friend has too. I liked it how I was in his head and understood how an autistic boy thought, which gives me a better understanding into how my friend thinks on a daily basis. I really like Christopher, because he told us the reader why he does what he does, and why it affects him in a huge way. I feel like I will remember Christopher from now on for the way he thinks and how clever he is. When I was reading this book I started to become proud of him, just like his dad was, when he would describe mathematical equations, writing his book and his drawings were impeccable. As for his father, all I want to say is, I'm glad he is progressing. That's all I wanna say.
My Final Thoughts:
I was thinking about giving this books 3.5 stars, but as I wrote this review, I must confirm that it is a solid 4 stars because of how Mark allowed us to go into a mind of an autistic boy and gives a better understanding into autism itself. Thank you Mark, also that writing style just made me want to come to England even more. It's fantastic. I didn't give it five stars purely because I don't feel that too connected to the book, I liked the story, but not like the other books I have read this month that have kept me thinking and stressing about certain character. I feel I may end up forgetting the story to this one and may have to re read it in the future,
Would I recommend this book?
Yes I do, I feel everyone should read this book at least once to read Mark wrtiting style and understand autism a little more.
I hope you enjoyed this review
Comment below if you are reading this or have read it?
Happy Reading
Greg. x
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