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

January 21, 2013 /
Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. He relates well to animals but has no understanding of human emotions. He cannot stand to be touched. And he detests the color yellow. This improbable story of Christopher’s quest to investigate the suspicious death of a neighborhood dog makes for one
I have been recommended this book more than a dozen times but only recently got my hands on a copy. I know this is technically a young adults book but I know when I was classed as a young adult I would not have enjoyed this at all, or at least I wouldn’t of understood it as well as I did now. 
I did enjoy this book, I read the whole thing in one afternoon it was that easy reading. It took me a while to get used to the narrative though because it is written from the point of view of a boy with a form of autism. For anyone who can’t quite imagine what that’s like, it’s where the world is heavily described but not the reactions or emotions of any of the human characters. Being a person who relies heavily on emotions and reactions, I did struggle at the beginning but since the plot was so good it kept me going. 
The plot is excellent, without a doubt and it isn’t the only “curious” plot line within the book, there are others and I found myself being surprised by the turns they took. I was suckered in from the start and the more I read, the more I wanted to know. And thankfully it had a good ending that requires no sequels and ties everything up nicely so I was satisfied (important after the disappointment in the ending of The History of Love.)
The characters were believable, my mum has worked with autistic children and I have met a few people with certain types of autism to feel that Christopher genuinely acted the way an autistic person does, authenticity is vital with these kinds of characters. His parents were believable too, I enjoyed the fact for once their mother and father had almost role reversal from what is the expected society norm, that it’s his father that is his main carer.
My favourite quote was 
“Sometimes we get sad about things and we don’t like to tell other people that we are sad about them. We like to keep it a secret. Or sometimes, we are sad but we really don’t know why we are sad, so we say we aren’t sad but we really are.” 
It was my favourite quote because it’s something most (if not all) people do but we never try and explain it or even think about it at the time, it’s just human nature to do it. That’s one of the things I enjoy about this book, that it tried to explain things that most people just take for human nature. 
Over all, I really hope everyone gets a chance to read this book. Not only is it easy to read & enjoyable, I think it helps you see the world through the eyes of someone different, a 15 year old autistic boy. 
Now reading… The Lollipop Shoes by Joanna Harris

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