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Book Review of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
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I had put this book on my paperbackswap wish list after seeing it on a recommended reading list. I finally got around to reading it. I wasn't sure what to expect so was surprised that it was written from the point of view of an autistic 15-year old boy living in the UK with his dad. The "incident of the dog in the night time" is the gruesome discovery (by the protagonist) of the neighbor's dead dog.

I figured that the book would mainly be about learning who was responsible for the dog's death but the identity of the killer was revealed about halfway through the book.

I don't know anyone with Asperger's or autism so don't know how accurately Christopher is protrayed. And, I've heard that the Asperger's/autism spectrum is pretty broad so symptoms/behaviors can vary greatly. However, as I was reading the book, I thought that being a parent to someone like Christopher could be pretty challenging.

I skipped over some of the "examples" that Christopher provided as they were sometimes long and really added nothing to the story. The book is a slim 221 pages. If the author hadn't added all the examples (diagrams, drawings, lengthy explanations of how.why Christopher had arrived at a certain conclusion), the book would have probably been 25 pages shorter.