Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

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

14 reviews

indohyus's review against another edition

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I picked this up from the library during Banned Books Week. It was very good, and I quite enjoyed the narration's unwavering commitment to the protagonist's perspective. The book would not be the same without it. Thanks to this choice, as well as the matter-of-fact way the protagonist describes all that is relevant, I found myself empathizing strongly with him. I found many of the behaviors and thought patterns he exhibited are ones that I too experience in some circumstances. I appreciated that this book gave me a window into the perspective of another person who is both very close to and distant from myself, not only learning how he navigates life's complex challenges but also how he sees the biggest and smallest parts of the world-- cars, cows, creation, time, space. This book is written at a suitable level for audiences as young as middle-grade, and beyond serving as a means of empathy, I think this book could be a very useful tool for exploring what a novel can be and learning how to analyze a fictional text that provides a limited perspective. I would very roughly guess that took me 10 hours to read this book from cover to cover. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Animal death, Infidelity, Violence, Excrement, and Vomit

Minor: Cursing, Domestic abuse, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

anjh's review against another edition

adventurous funny informative lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

not rly sure what to say about this. it was good. not amazing but good. as an autistic person i related a bit to Christopher with his obsessions around numbers and perfection and maths but there were times where i felt a bit awkward reading it i guess? perhaps from empathy around feeling his discomfort in situations and social anxiety around awkward social interactions. 

i liked the graphics in this book and feel like it adds friendliness to it for younger readers especially. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Death of parent

buzzinfly's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cursing, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Sexual content, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Confinement

meliacartin's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, Death, Infidelity, Terminal illness, Grief, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Domestic abuse and Physical abuse

vanessatombolini's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Excrement, and Vomit

Moderate: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Cursing, Gore, Infidelity, Grief, and Alcohol

Minor: Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Police brutality, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

lawbooks600's review against another edition

emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This might be a good book...

Update:

Representation: Character with autism, minor Asian character
Score: Six and a half points out of ten.

I wanted to read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time but never got around till now. I had to pick it up when it was time--it was the next book in my TBR. I glanced at the blurb, making it seem intriguing. I headed in, thinking I would read a story about the murder of a dog. However, that is not what I got, and, as a side note, the narrative was okay and nothing too remarkable.

Spoilers ahead. I've warned you.

It starts with the first person I see, Christopher, stumbling upon a deceased dog and wanting to discover who killed it. The unique aspect of this fictional composition is that Christopher has autism. The prime-numbered chapters were an appreciated touch as they made The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time stand out, but the story's entirety isn't solely dedicated to solving the dog murder mystery. Only the first half is dedicated to that. The second half revolves around Christopher going to London after stumbling upon a deeper mystery. Christopher discovers her mother is alive and not deceased as his father said. Toward the last 200 pages, Christopher sets off alone to London, and he eventually finds his mother. The conclusion wasn't satisfying enough for me as it petered out rather than ending with a bang. I couldn't connect or relate to Christopher or any of the other characters in this piece of fiction, even though Christopher has autism. The authenticity isn't guaranteed either as it's unclear whether the author also has autism. 

Well. To summarise, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time promised to be an intriguing murder mystery, but it subverted my expectations when I read half of it, and it cannot be trusted as an accurate portrayal of neurodiversity. You'd be better off reading genuine neurodivergent novels like Please Don't Hug Me and A Kind of Spark.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Full trigger warnings: Death of a mother from a heart attack and another person in the past mentioned, child abuse, physical assault and injury, blood depiction

reddeddy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Excrement, Vomit, and Abandonment

Moderate: Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Drug use, Infidelity, Sexual content, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, and Alcohol

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Drug abuse, Self harm, Police brutality, Dementia, Kidnapping, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

elzmri's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny informative inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Animal death, and Infidelity

Minor: Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Vomit, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

daybreakreads's review against another edition

funny hopeful lighthearted reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I would describe it as “cute”. I listened to the audiobook, but I know the physical book has illustrations that might have made it more endearing. I was looking for something similar to The Maid by Nita Prose or Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine in the sense that I love socially awkward narrators. In comparison, the narrator here feels much less well-rounded and developed and more of a stereotype of autism rather than a real person. It was still cute and endearing, but it was hard to feel real connection or empathy to a one-sided character. There isn’t a lot of plot; it’s mainly focused on showing how the narrator sees the world and interacts with it so much differently than the rest of us. It’s just hard to enjoy that kind of book when the narrator is hard to love. Ending was a bit cute but that’s it really.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Mental illness

Minor: Ableism, Alcoholism, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

mary_do_12's review against another edition

challenging informative inspiring reflective relaxing medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

„I think prime numbers are like life. They are very logical but you could never work out the rules, even if you spent all your time thinking about them.“

If you keep in mind that I had to read this for school, my five star rating is almost world changing. But here we are, and I really honestly enjoyed this book. I really like how the author managed to explain Christopher’s thoughts to the reader so that they seemed logical. I feel like now when I might meet people that are similar to Christopher, maybe I can understand them a little better. I love reading books that teach me something new or give me insight on a character with experiences totally different from mine. That is one of the reasons why I enjoyed this book so much. The messiness that mirrored Christopher’s thoughts and the math problems that I did not understand but that were still an important part are some of the things that make this books so genius. Thanks for writing this and for giving me the chance to expand my horizon.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death and Vomit

Minor: Death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Police brutality, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail