14 - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
Vintage, 2003
226 pages
Date completed: November 21, 2009


So much of this book made me feel for the narrator. Christopher is an autistic boy who strikes out to write a mystery novel about a dog who was killed in his neighborhood. However, in the process, his world just becomes more and more complex and saddening; often Christopher himself finds it overwhelming.

This was such a good insight into the mind of an autistic child. When I did fieldwork in a first-grade classroom there was a child similar to Christopher, though obviously much younger. But that was another reason I felt drawn to the story.

At first, it took awhile for me to really get into this book. I thought the beginning was all right, but I wasn't captivated until a bit farther on, when the plot starts to pick up. Though Christopher's insights were truly interesting, I needed something else to keep me into it. But this is one of the few books that actually caused me to gasp out loud-- more than once!-- and also was one of the few lately that I got so lost in that I was honestly surprised to see that it two hours had passed by the time I finished it.

So overall...an insightful, captivating book that drew me in and became a very, very quick read. It probably took me three hours total. But like I said, it made me react physically, which I don't usually do. Occasionally I giggle at things in books, and I've cried once or twice, but I usually keep the story confined in my head and don't outwardly react. Read it.