Reviews tagging Ableism

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

78 reviews

mistystar's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death

Minor: Ableism, Blood, Death of parent, and Vomit

autism6000's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

so fucking bonkers 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism and Animal death

Moderate: Emotional abuse

stories's review against another edition

adventurous emotional informative inspiring tense medium-paced

4.0

Reread for the first time since highschool. It’s fascinating what I remembered

Spoiler

eg who killed Wellington

and what I didn’t

Spoiler

eg everything surrounding Mother

. 

It is very much still well written - captures an autistic voice so clearly and is highly engaging. 

Swearing and family relations make it imo inappropriate for primary. Particularly

Spoiler

Christopher’s father

. 

Not my taste, but a solid novel. I’m struck, as I believe I was as a kid, primarily by the sheer, overwhelming bravery of Christopher. Definitely a theme to unpack, alongside truth/honesty and conflict/order.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Cursing

Moderate: Excrement, Ableism, Vomit, Infidelity, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Injury/injury detail, Bullying, Death of parent, Grief, Animal cruelty, Alcohol, Blood, and Child abuse

kateausten's review against another edition

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death

Moderate: Child abuse, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Excrement, Ableism, and Cursing

Minor: Physical abuse, Death of parent, and Alcohol

technoblade's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.75

This book is not fucking funny if you rated it funny you are only saying that cause he is autistic . This was intensely sad 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Ableism, Blood, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, and Violence

lara_r's review against another edition

emotional fast-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? It's complicated

4.0

Surprising plot twists

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Death

Moderate: Ableism, Infidelity, Vomit, Murder, Death of parent, Physical abuse, and Violence

Minor: Excrement, Blood, Drug use, and Child abuse

Dead dog

emey_reading07's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death

Moderate: Child abuse, Ableism, and Panic attacks/disorders

sarahkinney's review against another edition

emotional mysterious fast-paced

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

3.75

While in 2003, the book was praised for autistic representation - the author's claim that he did not research the topic while writing the book is apparent while reading. Despite this, the book is an easy read, with a unique writing style and the twist is presented excellently. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Ableism, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Vomit, Domestic abuse, Excrement, Blood, Bullying, Cursing, Death of parent, Grief, and Infidelity

teaofleaves's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Animal cruelty, and Ableism

Moderate: Child abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, and Infidelity

Minor: Vomit

cassie7e's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.5

I have mixed feelings about this book. It's bittersweet, and more on the bitter side.

The author kept describing overwhelm as almost purely visual and intellectual, especially with words. While lots of sights of signs can be part of it, along with lots of things to think about, sensory overwhelm isn't just about how *many* things are around that you "notice" but that they feel intense. In fact bc of the intensity of color and brightness and sounds and temperature and air currents and clothes and people moving and bumping, you might "notice" even fewer things, bc it's hard to be observant when you're overwhelmed! The author does not seem to understand this distinction between being extremely observant while calm and being overwhelmed. 

This character isn't totally unrealistic (I'm sure there's someone out there like him), but he embodies all the stereotypes one could cram into an autistic character at once. The math thing is especially heavily utilized in this story. Christopher also is quite ableist and condescending to the other "special needs" kids at his school, has casual racial prejudice, and other prejudiced fears of certain kinds of people. I can't tell if he's just supposed to have picked these up from the people around him or if the author considered these accepable prejudices at the time that no one would think twice about reading.

There were a few things I liked about this book:

Totally related when Christopher was asked "Do you like biscuits?" and he said "Some biscuits" because there are different kinds w different textures and flavors and sweetness you could like or not!

Christopher's dad (when he's not angry and frustrated, which was hard for me to read this second time having experienced that in real life) does a lot of useful things, like explaining how he's going to touch Christopher to move him, and where, and why, and all the steps, before he does it; prepares foods in a way Christopher can/will eat and doesn't force him to eat differently; has a special gesture to show love that doesn't force hugging.

The informational digressions!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Ableism, Animal death, and Infidelity

Minor: Suicide, Racism, and Violence