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awhittz's review
4.5
An incredibly well written, insightful and creative piece, painful in places. I’ve thought about it a lot since.
ktate's review
5.0
An honest, raw, beautiful memoir. A personal account of an experience of autism, including lack of resources, funding, and access to a diagnosis. A quick read! Heartfelt and personal.
marsnicoli's review
2.0
I'm sure it will be very helpful to some people and i probably am just not one of those. Maybe I just belong to too many demographics the author also does, and so I truly didn't learn a thing in this, but I also didn't really find much emotional kinship or related more than a surface level recognition of similar experiences. It read a lot like a blog where the author is just pouring some thoughts and stories without much structure or deeper insight.
sknight707's review against another edition
5.0
Wow. What a beautiful and raw piece of work. Highly recommend.
andintothetrees's review
3.0
Mixed feelings about this one... On one hand, I think it's great books like this (about autism, by autistic people) exist, and this was an enjoyable read. Also, props to the author for having the guts to put this very personal work out there for us all to see. I really enjoyed the chapters on the author's special interests too (e.g. body modification and fan fiction). But... the structure and depth of the book felt more like a series of blog posts than an actual book (which made it easy to read, but ultimately unsatisfying) and wasn't clear enough about what autism actually is (I came to this with a lot of prior knowledge, but if you didn't have that, I don't think you'd have learnt a huge amount). Finally, in keeping with the blog-like feel, I found the writing style rather immature at times - two specific examples being apologies to family members for writing about them/events that may upset them, and the frequent "jokes" or other comments about being "so old". Charlotte is in their early 30s. Yes, no longer a teenager, but hardly pension age.
ETA I also *really* wasn't into the ~creative writing~ bits in italics within the book. But I'll admit that's just not my cup of tea in terms of reading material anyway - maybe it's yours and you'll love them!
ETA I also *really* wasn't into the ~creative writing~ bits in italics within the book. But I'll admit that's just not my cup of tea in terms of reading material anyway - maybe it's yours and you'll love them!
missoliviareadsbooks's review
4.0
Hugely powerful read that takes you on a full rollercoasterof emotions, not shying away from the real life horrors faced by the author.
angelsbeforeman's review
emotional
informative
reflective
fast-paced
3.75
i'm autistic myself and this is pretty good. i do think someone who's not autistic or someone who is autistic but likes this kind of book more than i do would for sure get more out of it. i didn't love the style personal taste wise, however i think it makes the material easy to understand for allistic people. and that is good. wouldn't reread but it's a valuable piece for sure!
ghostie669's review against another edition
5.0
This book was incredible for me to read, I read three quarters of it in one sitting and didn't finish it there and then because I fell asleep. It's raw and powerful and it is the first book I read that made me feel not alone as an autistic person. It's a very intense read sometimes, and I cried more than once (am crying now) but I think that just serves to show what an incredible book it is.