Women From Away

Year Three Book Eight

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night by Mark Haddon 

July 14, 2016

Overall Rating: 3.68/5

Lindsay: I  have to admit that (for no good reason), I didn’t have many expectations for this book, but I am happy to report that I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it! I found TCIOTDITN to be extremely heartwarming and sweet. I loved the reading from the perspective of the narrator, Christopher and I found the plain, simple statements refreshing. I admire how the author managed to tell a larger, deeper story both within and beyond the framework of Christopher’s thought-process. A 4/5 for me.

Lauren: This was my second time reading it and I think I appreciated it more this time than I did the last time. I appreciated how unique the writing style was and the whole idea behind the book. I liked the creativity and the format of the book - that his therapist told him to write things about his day-to- day life down and that's what he was doing. Little quirky things like putting the math question at the back of the book or drawing things he thinks about, or even how every chapter went up by prime number. I liked that unique and witty aspect to the writing style. He lost me a bit in the story however. Towards the end of the book, the flow of the book changed... there became more of a “and then and then and then” approach to his writing and it bothered me. I think he lost the things that made the book so special in the beginning. So I can't help but be slightly disappointed, because I feel he really had something there and the end of the book felt very rushed for me. However, I did love that it was a super short read and an interesting, eye-opening look into the mind of somebody with autism. Things like the touching of hands because he doesn't like to be hugged, or the scene where he's discussing how too much stimuli makes him break down, start moaning and go into a corner alone to gather himself. Also counting the cars to determine what type of day it was going to be and not liking brown and yellow foods. It gives you an idea of the struggles that these people go through and maybe if you have somebody in your life that fits somewhere on the autism spectrum, it could help you to better understand them.