Skip to main content

REVIEW: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

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

get it here

BOOK SUMMARY:

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.


BOOK REVIEW: 

4 STARS

I was given this book by a friend who said this was her favourite book. It has become one of my favourites too.

15-year-old Christopher is extremely logical, doesn't get metaphors and is autistic. He hates being touched, he doesn't like being around strangers and he does not relate to human emotions. It is interesting to read how people with autism perceive things, and it really opens my eyes and makes me understand more.

This book was written like a diary and instead of chapters, it has numbers that separate each day and incident. It was different from many other books and I really love that. It comes with diagrams and equations and things that you don't normally see in a book. It was refreshing and new. 

Christopher faces many difficulties in life. The biggest obstacle being his unfamiliarity with people and places hinder him from doing a lot of things. There were many incidents in this book that strongly emphasized how the way Christopher perceived things was so much more different from the way most people do. He hates the colour yellow and carries a bottle of red dye with him and he doesn't understand what a high-five is, just to name a few.

In this book, Haddon writes of how a dysfunctional family tries to raise an autistic son. It is a book that touches on family feud, social disability and the best part, a murder case. There will be many unexpected twists along the way and how Christopher narrates it in an extremely logical way ties the story together, making it an enjoyable read. 

If there'd be any way that you can understand how a person with autism would perceive the world, this would be a simple start.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

REVIEW: The Colossus Rises

Seven Wonders: The Colossus Rises (#1) by  Peter Lerangis Get it  here BOOK SUMMARY: One Boy Jack McKinley is an ordinary kid with an extraordinary problem. In a few months, he’s going to die. One Mission Jack needs to find seven magic loculi that, when combined, have the power to cure him. One Problem The loculi are the relics of a lost civilization and haven’t been seen in thousands of years. Seven Wonders Because they’re hidden in the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.   BOOK REVIEW: 3 STARS I read this book a while ago, back in 2013. I didn't like it at that time, too confusing, too unclear. Everything happened so quickly and I didn't get time to process it. 5 years later, I decided to give it another chance. For those who likes the PJO series, the plot will seem familiar - young boy and his friends with a task to save the world, cliché of course, but nonetheless, a favourite. However, I won't be comparing to PJO much because it is an entirely different seri

REVIEW: The Peculiar Life of a Lonely Postman by Denis Thériault

The Peculiar Life of a Lonely Postman by Denis Thériault Get it  here BOOK SUMMARY: Bilodo lives a solitary daily life, routinely completing his postal rounds every day and returning to his empty Montreal apartment. But he has found a way to break the cycle—Bilodo has taken to stealing people's mail, steaming open the envelopes, and reading the letters inside. And so it is he comes across Ségolène's letters. She is corresponding with Gaston, a master poet, and their letters are each composed of only three lines. They are writing each other haikus. The simplicity and elegance of their poems move Bilado and he begins to fall in love with her. But one day, out on his round, he witnesses a terrible and tragic accident. Just as Gaston is walking up to the post-box to mail his next haiku to Ségolène, he is hit by a car and dies on the side of the road. And so Bilodo makes an extraordinary decision—he will impersonate Gaston and continue to write to Ségolène under this guise.

SEPTEMBER WRAP-UP

September passed awfully quickly. One moment I was sitting for my semester finals, the next moment I'm in Japan eating my weight in food, and after that I'm back in college for my last semester. Time flew by extremely quickly. This month marks the start of author interviews (link) on this blog! It was daunting at first since in my culture, we typically consume and not ask. However, ever since the last few years of secondary school when I was taking SPM (similar to the GCSEs), I became more fearless, after all, what's the harm in asking. It was a great experience because I was able to understand more about the author, the story and learn more about the thought processes the author had when writing each scene. After all, it's great to be an active consumer! In terms of books, this month was an interesting month. I've read a lot more books that I thought I had.  1.  The Back Door of Midnight  by Elizabeth Chandler A friend of mine lent this book to