Esme's Reviews > The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Such a terrible and overhyped book - please, if you want to write a book that is meant to make people feel sympathy (if not empathy) for the main characters, don't make him a sociopathic spoilt brat who ruins everyone's lives without feeling sympathy. Yes, he's meant to be autistic, but Haddon didn't bother researching autism at all so that point is moot. I can't describe how much I wanted this little shit to be ran over by a train when he went to fetch his pet rat (which had made an entirely understandable decision and ran away from Chrissy), but alas, he wasn't and he went on to ruin someone else life.

I can deal with a character that is evil (in the sense that they hurt others), but they have to have some charm or they just come out as one dimensional douchebags. There was nothing interesting about Chrissy boy, he just commented about how good he was at maths, how much he hated people (even when those people were trying to help him), and how hard his life is even when he is being mollycoddled. Make no mistake, I have nothing against autistic people, but I'm pretty sure the vast majority of autistic people don't think they're God's gift and that everyone else deserves to die; my (admittedly limited) understanding of autism suggests that people suffering from autism have trouble expressing emotion, rather than being devoid of it. Haddon's lack of research seemed to show mainly in the fact that, even though the book is meant to be from the viewpoint of an autistic child, the understanding of autism seemed to be very superficial, as if Haddon had looked at child with autism and said "yep, what they say and act like must be exactly how they think... Better write a book about it."

Understandably, as I wasn't overly fussed on Chrissy boy, I did not enjoy the writing style at all. It was a recount of events in the most obnoxious way, appearing not to have taken any literary skill at all. It is very reminiscent of how I (and most others) used to write when I (or they) was five, you know, saying "and this and then and now and when and and and and" - I was sat there thinking "say 'and' again, I dare you, I double dare you!", and if I had been Jules (I think he was the one played by Mr. jackson), I'd have shot Chrissy boy around seven hundred times, because it seems the only word the author could think to write was 'and'.

If this had been fully a murder mystery, then I may have given this book a two stars (providing it was done well) because a good puzzle can make up for unlikable characters and shoddy writing. But no, the culprit was 'found' (he gave himself in without any tension leading up to the moment) and then the book turns into a family drama. A family drama about a horrible and boring family. Great.

This book lied to me, it should have been called "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime and the Less Curious Incident of a Dysfunctional Family".

Another thing that really bugged me was the random God-bashing thing. I'm not a Christian (or religious at all), but it was not needed in the slightest, it was as if Haddon thought he may as well get Dawkins on all our asses. It felt really preachy and forced and it didn't fit in the context of that part of the story, it was just stupid.

The final point I'll make is that this book gives people a false view of autism, and many people who did not know much about the condition before may now think this unresearched drivel is correct.