Reviews with content warning for Child abuse - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

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

73 reviews

saritaadam's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional fast-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

3.75

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balfies's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny informative inspiring fast-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

Last read this in 2015 - god it's good. The depth of it is so impressive, it's such a tight, well-paced read with exceptional characterisation. Wanted to reread something kind of familiar but also tick off a book from the Year 12 syllabus to refamiliarise myself before I'm in classrooms again next year.

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trintrin's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative inspiring mysterious sad medium-paced

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

5.0

omg I’m actually teary after finishing this book. It’s both heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time. Christopher was such a delight to follow, I loved reading all his little theories and observations, especially in the first half. But the second half, oh man

I never expected this to get so sad. That scene of him reading all those letters from his mother broke my heart. And the entire London tube scenes shittttt I can’t fully formulate an opinion on his parents but I hope their family finds a way to heal and cope. And that Christopher truly fulfils his dreams and lives happily ever after.

The only thing that bothered me a little is that this stopped being a murder mystery pretty early on, but that’s got to do with the way this book is marketed ig

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snrkville's review against another edition

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fast-paced

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

1.0

A terrible portrayal of autism by an author who has admitted to doing next to no research.
A story about an abused child acting out his trauma and receiving no real sympathy or protection from anyone, ultimately being forced to rely on his abusers for support after they face no consequences whatsoever for heinous and illegal acts of child abuse. And worst of all they are portrayed sympathetically. It’s no wonder that toxic organizations like Autism Speaks endorse it - it reflects the self-pitying attitude of parents who cannot accept their children’s differences because they’re too busy crying over the perfect family they imagine they’d have with a neurotypical child instead of accepting them as they are and providing a safe and loving environment. I don’t think the author even thought that deeply about the story he was writing, to be honest. Yet another stereotypical story about a math genius egotistical autistic kid who feels nothing for anyone, which is completely unrooted in the reality of autistic experience. Not to mention the sadly lacking mystery that the title advertised.
I am sad to learn that middle schoolers are required to read it instead of a story that engages neurodiversity with compassion and knowledge.

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victoriawl93's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious slow-paced

3.0

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henriediosa's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious sad medium-paced

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

1.0

I'm neurodivergent. I really wanted this book to be good, but it ended up disappointing me. It's a shame because I like Christopher's character traits. He is an interesting character. But I wish he had different parents. I wish he had a different author.

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chronicallydepressedbudgerigar's review against another edition

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funny fast-paced

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

It's a mercifully short read at least.

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avaafran's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

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rieriereads's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.5

𝘐 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘨𝘴. 𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘢 𝘥𝘰𝘨 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨. 𝘐𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘮𝘰𝘰𝘥𝘴. 𝘏𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘺, 𝘴𝘢𝘥, 𝘤𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨. 𝘈𝘭𝘴𝘰, 𝘥𝘰𝘨𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘧𝘢𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘥𝘰 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘤𝘢𝘯𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘬.

𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝙲𝚞𝚛𝚒𝚘𝚞𝚜 𝙸𝚗𝚌𝚒𝚍𝚎𝚗𝚝 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝙳𝚘𝚐 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝙽𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝-𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎 was a quirky, fun, emotional, and overall good read. The book starts off with 15-year-old Christopher, who has autism, finding out that the neighborhood dog, Wellington, was killed.

Listening to the audiobook, it felt like the book was divided into two parts: a murder mystery and an emotional story of growth and family. Two distinct opposites that some may see as okay and others may disagree with. I'm in the middle.

In the first part, as Christopher acts like a detective, we can see that he sees things and people differently. He understands things differently and notices details not many would even give a thought to. And I love how, while listening to the audiobook version, it feels like I am by his side.

Most of the characters were likable, and I definitely loved how Ed's, Christopher's father's, feelings and frustration were shown. Though I may not agree with some things he has done, his emotions were raw and honest.

Aside from Christopher's perspective and how he sees and understands the world, I also loved the way his parents say I love you to him. The gesture was sweet; it was my favorite detail of the novel. I also really liked the prime-numbered chapters, and it was a novel within a novel.

Unfortunately, even though the book was narrated beautifully, I found some parts tedious to listen to. A part of me wanted something else to happen since the plot for me was predictable. Overall, it was still a good book. I wouldn't probably read it again, but I would still maybe recommend it to those willing to try it.

•••

My Rating System

5 🌟 - Life changing, a new favorite read
4 ⭐ - I loved it
3 ⭐ - I liked it
2 ⭐ - It was okay
1 ⭐ - I hated it but decided to not dnf

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katlouisee's review against another edition

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I don't think this book was for me. I found it hard to imagine Christopher as a fifteen-year-old as his tone is kind of juvenile (the narrator of the audio version I was listening to was apparently 12 too, which probably didn't help suspend my disbelief) and his info-dump delivery was often quite overwhelming to me. I am not autistic, however, so I assumed this was maybe my lack of understanding about what might be a neurodivergent way of thinking and narrating special interests, social difficulties, etc. Only to find out that the author admits to having done "no research" on autism for this book (Haddon on his own blog) and isn't autistic himself. I'm down to give autistic-POV another go but will seek out autistic authors for this because the parts of the book that seemed like stereotypes evidently were and that was really disappointing. I've had a peek at some spoilers and unfortunately I really don't care enough about the rest of the plot to push through on this one, so am moving on to something else.

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