Reviews tagging 'Panic attacks/disorders'

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

62 reviews

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
SpoilerI 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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lana_reads98's review against another edition

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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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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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beeping_librarian's review against another edition

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

3.75

This book made me very sad. 
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robin_reads's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

This book is written from Christopher’s POV. Christopher has Asperger’s and he wants to find out who killed the neighbor’s dog. 

This was sadder than I expected it to be but also lovely. It was refreshing and eye-opening. 
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kaylamoran's review against another edition

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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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abbyisabellas's review against another edition

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informative inspiring mysterious reflective 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

4.0

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mistystar's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging mysterious sad medium-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

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mary_do12's review against another edition

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challenging informative inspiring reflective relaxing medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

„I think prime numbers are like life. They are very logical but you could never work out the rules, even if you spent all your time thinking about them.“

If you keep in mind that I had to read this for school, my five star rating is almost world changing. But here we are, and I really honestly enjoyed this book. I really like how the author managed to explain Christopher’s thoughts to the reader so that they seemed logical. I feel like now when I might meet people that are similar to Christopher, maybe I can understand them a little better. I love reading books that teach me something new or give me insight on a character with experiences totally different from mine. That is one of the reasons why I enjoyed this book so much. The messiness that mirrored Christopher’s thoughts and the math problems that I did not understand but that were still an important part are some of the things that make this books so genius. Thanks for writing this and for giving me the chance to expand my horizon.
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sarabookshelf's review against another edition

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emotional informative

3.25

I finished this book a few days ago and I am still not sure how I feel about it. It provided some interesting insights into being on the spectrum, but the story didn't quite hit the mark for me. The chapters didn't flow, the story didn't have a clear and satisfactory ending, the relationships and people were quite frustrating. I don't know, maybe that was the whole point. It wasn't bad, but it just wasn't what I expected. Oh and don't be fooled by the reviews that say this is a funny book or a childrens' book, I absolutely wouldn't classify it as either of those, as it deals with some quite heavy and difficult topics. 
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