I want my name to mean me
I have heard of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time before, but I always thought it a children’s novel and worried I would get annoyed with it.
Book Review: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
Rating:
Title & Author: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
Genre: Contemporary, Mystery
Release date: May 2003
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Random House
Synopsis
Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. He relates well to animals but has no understanding of human emotions. He cannot stand to be touched. And he detests the color yellow.
Although gifted with a superbly logical brain, for fifteen-year-old Christopher everyday interactions and admonishments have little meaning. He lives on patterns, rules, and a diagram kept in his pocket. Then one day, a neighbor’s dog, Wellington, is killed and his carefully constructive universe is threatened. Christopher sets out to solve the murder in the style of his favourite (logical) detective, Sherlock Holmes. What follows makes for a novel that is funny, poignant and fascinating in its portrayal of a person whose curse and blessing are a mind that perceives the world entirely literally.
I give The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon four out of five hearts because it is a very interesting story and even the world that Christopher lives in is not too annoying.
I do have to say I listened to the audio book and even thought I thought the voice of the reader was well chosen, I didn’t like it. It was too childish for a 15 year old. If it hadn’t been mentioned in the book I would have thought he was more like 10 or 12 years old, which makes a huge difference. It was in the voice, not the actions. I know how a severe autistic person can be.
The interactions between Christopher and other people are very realistic and I liked that. He doesn’t like to be touched, knows some things really well. He needs clear instructions to what you want him to do and these are all characteristics of a person in the autism spectrum.
I liked the twist in the story behind the dog in the night-time, it is very reminiscent of things children don’t know and shouldn’t know. For most of the book it seems such a simple thing, the death of a dog, but by the end it seems this whole different tragedy.
Let me know what you thought of this book!
If you have any requests for which book I should talk about next, please let me know in the comments down below.
For now, let books enrich your life!