Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

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

24 reviews

lana_reads98's review against another edition

adventurous inspiring reflective 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Infidelity, Alcohol, Animal death, Vomit, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Death of parent, Police brutality, and Physical abuse

samburkhouse's review against another edition

adventurous lighthearted medium-paced

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

2.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Ableism, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Animal death and Violence

Minor: Alcohol

charliesmith1564's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, and Physical abuse

cehanzen's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Physical abuse, Child abuse, and Domestic abuse

kaylamoran's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful sad 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

3.0

I'm genuinely torn on this book.  As far as enjoyment, I loved it.  But I don't think I can give it more than a 3 or recommend it because it just felt like a collection of autistic stereotypes clumsily thrown together.  Not that any of the behaviours are necessarily inaccurate, but I'm tired of how autism is only ever portrayed one way, we aren't all like Sheldon Cooper or Rainman.  We need different portrayals too.  

Also, I'm a bit alarmed by how many reviews describe Christopher as high functioning.  It's not the functioning labels that bother me, I only recently learned they were problematic myself.  It's the fact that Christopher clearly has very high support needs, and the fact that he's being considered high functioning reminds me of how autistics who are good at masking aren't believed.  If this is what's considered high functioning, we need more of an understanding of what autism is.

And I blame no one for that (if you wrote that in a review I totally get it, and I'm not upset and I don't think you did anything offensive).  Because it's BECAUSE this is the only portrayal we get that that causes the lack of understanding, it's not the reader's fault at all.  The lack of societal understanding of autism is largely due to this.

So yeah.  Portrayals like this are the reason I hear stuff like "you can't be autistic, you're too good at reading emotions" or "you're sarcastic" or "you're too pretty" or "girls aren't autistic."  And I guess it's not the books fault either, because it's a valid experience of autism and some people do fit this description.  I guess I just wish it wasn't the only one we saw.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Ableism

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Cursing, Gaslighting, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Infidelity and Physical 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

trippalli's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective relaxing tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

An inspiring story narrated by an autistic teenager as he navigates large challenges and solves a mystery. Clever and respectful, this book pots you in that boys shoes and is a unique book narrator that is both eloquent and engaging.

The trigger warnings are from an autistic perspective so while still can be upsetting these have a uniquely informative perspective, less emotional upset and more logical analysis of situations and disgust at things that trigger the narrator, and there narrator's response to being upset.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Excrement, Vomit, and Animal death

Moderate: Animal death, Eating disorder, Alcohol, Excrement, Mental illness, and Vomit

Minor: Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Police brutality, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Vomit, Animal death, Drug abuse, and Grief

rucha_s's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful informative medium-paced

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

3.75

The best thing about this book was the narration from the POV of a protagonist who is autistic. It made the reading challenging, confusing, frustrating but simultaneously rewarding. Mark Haddon has done a remarkable job of creating one of the most memorable protagonists I've come across and that singular point makes this a dazzling read. 

Now for what I didn't find appealing - That this book is classified as a murder mystery, however, the murderer is revealed at about the 50% mark which was way too soon! Once this reveal occurs, it is all about another subplot, which although in itself is rather interesting, it also kind of takes away the essence of the book being a murder mystery :/ 

Final words - Worth a read simply for the character of Christopher Boone. Also worth noting that the narration is lacking the usual sentence structure and punctuation - that is just to add to the authenticity of the experience, however, some readers might find this off putting. Do skip this book if you're looking for an easy feel good read. While it is feel good, it is certainly not an easy read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Excrement, Animal death, Death of parent, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Physical abuse, Vomit, and Panic attacks/disorders