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abbie_'s review against another edition
emotional
medium-paced
3.0
A tricky one to rate as I'm aware it's very much drawing off the author's own experiences with his profoundly autistic son. When it comes to reading about people's experiences with autism (both people who are autistic and those who care for autistic children), it's important to remember that no one book can ever encompass 'the autistic experience' because it doesn't exist. It's a spectrum and people's experiences fall all along it. But the issue can be, there's not *that* much fiction out there (that I've come across anyway!) that deals with it, although publishing is getting slightly better with prioritising own voices.
But for non-verbal children like Jonah in this book, they rely on their parents to tell their story for them, and I worry that people who maybe don't think too critically about what they're reading will just take this book and think, wow that's what living with an autistic child is like, when really it's just one experience. And Lester does a great job depicting his own struggles, getting very real and very uncomfortable at times. But it's definitely a book that is about the father, Ben, rather than Jonah which the back cover suggests. There are a few parts where Ben discusses Jonah as a person, but mainly it's his own experiences, feelings and struggles with alcoholism that are the main point of focus.
But it does do a great job of highlighting the utter lack of support that parents of disabled children get in the UK, as well as stigma around disability in general.
The ending also sort of threw me.
But for non-verbal children like Jonah in this book, they rely on their parents to tell their story for them, and I worry that people who maybe don't think too critically about what they're reading will just take this book and think, wow that's what living with an autistic child is like, when really it's just one experience. And Lester does a great job depicting his own struggles, getting very real and very uncomfortable at times. But it's definitely a book that is about the father, Ben, rather than Jonah which the back cover suggests. There are a few parts where Ben discusses Jonah as a person, but mainly it's his own experiences, feelings and struggles with alcoholism that are the main point of focus.
But it does do a great job of highlighting the utter lack of support that parents of disabled children get in the UK, as well as stigma around disability in general.
The ending also sort of threw me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Antisemitism, Excrement, Ableism, and Alcoholism
Minor: Murder
mnbesser522's review against another edition
As an actually autistic person, I couldn’t read it. I don’t want to dismiss the feelings of the parent of an autistic child, but I also don’t want to seek out those feelings with my free time. I’d never want my parents writing a book like this about me and I don’t want to read one written like this.
I also definitely don’t enjoy how graphic the descriptions were regarding normal bodily functions of Jonah.
I also definitely don’t enjoy how graphic the descriptions were regarding normal bodily functions of Jonah.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Alcohol, and Excrement
Moderate: Vomit
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