Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

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

101 reviews

oliviacharlene's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Child abuse

rhinobeatle's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Cursing, Infidelity, and Death of parent

blankaurban's review

informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

This book was unlike anything I've read before. 

It was really interesting to see what the inside of a person's head with autism looks like. It helps you understand a lot of things about how different everyone is and how that can affect their life and their mind. In Christopher's case it was fascinating to read about how easily he could de-attach himself emotionally from almost any situation. He also had an extreme ability to focus on something for hours in some cases, going into a sort of "trance".

When we got to the biggest reveal and the turning point in the book, I audibly gasped. Maybe I could have guessed it, but it's probably better that I didn't. The fact that there were so many messed-up things in this book made it all the more interesting, which may sound bad, but it is true.

The writing style was simple, yet it had some great quotes in it and it portrayed a 15-year-old's level of writing. It was basic, but you could still understand exactly what the writer meant at all times.

This book was a great read (especially for a debut novel) and I would recommend it to any age group!

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.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, Panic attacks/disorders, and Blood

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Infidelity, and Death of parent

Minor: Cursing and Drug use

ajay913's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, and Abandonment

Moderate: Cursing, Eating disorder, and Police brutality

Minor: Sexual content, Excrement, and Vomit

itsatyepo's review against another edition

dark informative slow-paced

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

0.5

A shocking representation of autistic people by a writer who said that “imagination trumps research” in response when asked if he did any research on autism. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Vomit, Police brutality, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

nixtrixz's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, and Death of parent

Minor: Child abuse

pam_simpson06's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious sad fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Cursing, and Excrement

Moderate: Ableism, Alcoholism, Animal death, Violence, Vomit, and Alcohol

Minor: Mental illness, Police brutality, Dementia, Death of parent, and Abandonment

paigerini's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

3.0

I read this for class recently. I was told it was the first of its kind: a book from the perspective of an autistic teenager.

My  MAJOR gripe with this novel is how Christopher is portrayed. I understand that he is (implied) on the autism spectrum, but his combination of traits/characteristics seemed almost too stereotypical that I was pulled out of the story. I did some research, and the author only used anecdotal evidence for Christopher's character and did no research on autism itself. I feel like the author wrote this book in a way to make the audience pity the people in Christopher's life, even though they do not have any idea how to interact with him properly. As a neurodivergent person, I cringed at how some sections vilified Christopher for things he has a hard time controlling. I understand that is part of the conflict and plot of the book, but I feel that the autism representation could've been handled better.

When it comes to the story, however, it was decent. The plot was compelling enough for me to fly through the latter half. Overall, an okay read.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Child abuse

Minor: Vomit

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

laurenleigh's review against another edition

funny informative reflective fast-paced

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

3.5

This tells the story of a neurodivergent boy solving a neighborhood mystery that quickly devolves into a pretty messy family drama. One one hand, I think this could increase empathy and understanding for autistic people and folks on the spectrum. There were so many times where Christopher felt scared, uncomfortable, and anxious, while adults in his life kept trying to push him past his limits. It was so frustrating, especially when you can see things through his first-person perspective. On the other hand, I couldn’t find any reporting that this author is neurodivergent, and I feel conflicted about that. I’m generally neurotypical, so my review should totally be taken with lots of salt grains!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment

Moderate: Child abuse and Physical abuse