Reviews with content warning for Animal cruelty - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Reviews tagging Animal cruelty

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

44 reviews

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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noahsingh's review

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emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

2.0

mixed feelings about this book as someone on the spectrum, definitely related to the main character a lot but the amount of abuse he suffers from his family, which isn't properly condemned imho made me incredibly uncomfortable. yeah, wouldn't reccomend it to other people on the spectrum, definitely found it triggering

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kitschykody's review

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i was really resonating with the representation of the mc but then found out it was all based on stereotypes and the author did no research. UGH. felt gross abt it so i didn’t finish it.

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chocolatsalade's review against another edition

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adventurous funny medium-paced

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

4.25

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_mm_'s review against another edition

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adventurous emotional medium-paced

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

3.5

I dont really remember, but when i was younger i loved it!

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a_alves00's review

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adventurous emotional lighthearted mysterious 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? No

5.0

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alexisgarcia's review

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reflective fast-paced

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

2.0

While I thoroughly enjoyed being able to read this book through the perspective of someone with Autism, I really did not enjoy the plot or characters. there were also some racist undertones and micro aggressions. like when dreadlocks are explained they’re explained as dirty? and i can’t tell if that’s to allude to the locational and overall racism in the world and how the main character absorbs the info he’s fed or if it’s just straight up racism. so it was a little educational but not my fave unfortunately

Spoiler

like the mom??? she talked about how much she missed him, how broken up she was about it, and how much she regretted the way she treated him. but then when he started acting in ways that she didn’t like she did the same thing as before.. and i feel like we also glazed over the fact that because the dad was upset he killed a dog??

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