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

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was an interesting book. This follows a brilliant 15 year old boy named Christopher, who is a bit different. He loves red, dogs, math, and physics. He hates brown, yellow, and being touched. When he finds his neighbor's dog murdered one day, he decides he is going to take on the mantle of one of his favorite characters Sherlock Holmes and solve the murder. Christopher also decides to write a book about solving the murder of poor Wellington the dog.

As Christopher puts on a brave face and talks to neighbors he doesn't know to solve the crime, he comes to find out more about his family than he expected while also finding out who killed Wellington. As he find out more about what happened to Wellington, he also learns about his mother, he faces many of his fears to achieve his goals, and he learns many new things.

This is more of a family drama than it is a murder mystery. We learn about Christopher's journey through life through his eyes as he sees the world through a totally different lens and most people just think he's crazy or weird. His own parents get frustrated with him because they don't understand his needs and why he does things the way he does.

I'm really curious how a person with Asperger's/Autism would feel about this book or a parent with a child would view this book. While I really enjoyed the story and learning about Christopher's journey, I have no personal experience to draw from or to compare to. I am a mom and I can certainly relate to some of the parenting struggles that Christopher's parents went through with the general parenting stuff as all kids have things they do that make them unique.

I listened to the audiobook and I very much enjoyed it.  I read this for the Book Riot Read Harder challenge prompt for a book by or about someone that identifies as neurodiverse.  This was also on The Great American Read list, and I'm trying to read as many of those as I can.  I can see why this gem is on that list.  I'm so glad I took the time to read this.

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