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Joe's Reviews > The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
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The concept is interesting: narrating the novel through the POV of an autistic boy. The chapters are cleverly numbered by prime numbers, which ties in with the novel. It has interesting illustrations and diagrams to look at. However, I would not recommend this because it disappointed me and I couldn't, in good conscience, tell anyone to read a book I was disappointed in.
I guess my disappointment lies in the fact that not only did my book club tout this as a mystery novel but also many of the literary reviews I read as well. What I was expecting was an exciting roller coaster ride mystery about an autistic boy trying to find the killer of his neighbor's dog and, as he slowly sleuths out the killer, finds himself embroiled in dangerous life threatening situations. Kind of like Tartt's The Little Friend told from an autistic POV.
However, The Curious Incident... is not a mystery in any way, shape or form and because of this, the autistic POV begins to wear thin by the second half of the novel remaining sometimes fascinating yet sometimes tedious. Instead, you get a novel that starts off as a promising murder mystery. At the first half of the novel, the mystery is solved. Or rather we're unceremoniously told who is the murderer of the dog. From that point, the second half of the novel hugely focuses on Christopher attempting to travel to London by himself. A difficult task considering Christopher is autistic, hates crowds and can't stand to be touched by people. I won't tell who the murderer is or why Christopher takes off to London, as these are the only two real surprises of the novel. I will say overall this was a huge disappointment to me. I thought I was getting an exciting murder mystery and instead I got a highly readable family melodrama. Perhaps if this was not pushed as a murder mystery I would have enjoyed it much more.
An interesting read but I wouldn't recommend it.
by
The concept is interesting: narrating the novel through the POV of an autistic boy. The chapters are cleverly numbered by prime numbers, which ties in with the novel. It has interesting illustrations and diagrams to look at. However, I would not recommend this because it disappointed me and I couldn't, in good conscience, tell anyone to read a book I was disappointed in.
I guess my disappointment lies in the fact that not only did my book club tout this as a mystery novel but also many of the literary reviews I read as well. What I was expecting was an exciting roller coaster ride mystery about an autistic boy trying to find the killer of his neighbor's dog and, as he slowly sleuths out the killer, finds himself embroiled in dangerous life threatening situations. Kind of like Tartt's The Little Friend told from an autistic POV.
However, The Curious Incident... is not a mystery in any way, shape or form and because of this, the autistic POV begins to wear thin by the second half of the novel remaining sometimes fascinating yet sometimes tedious. Instead, you get a novel that starts off as a promising murder mystery. At the first half of the novel, the mystery is solved. Or rather we're unceremoniously told who is the murderer of the dog. From that point, the second half of the novel hugely focuses on Christopher attempting to travel to London by himself. A difficult task considering Christopher is autistic, hates crowds and can't stand to be touched by people. I won't tell who the murderer is or why Christopher takes off to London, as these are the only two real surprises of the novel. I will say overall this was a huge disappointment to me. I thought I was getting an exciting murder mystery and instead I got a highly readable family melodrama. Perhaps if this was not pushed as a murder mystery I would have enjoyed it much more.
An interesting read but I wouldn't recommend it.
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Finished Reading
November 21, 2007
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Well, thanks . . . this thread is actually ABOUT the book! Ha Ha!I found this book something that left you thinking about autistic people.
Don't think I'll read it again, but it was enjoyable when I did it on audio one summer, while gardening.
"The chapters are cleverly numbered by prime numbers, which ties in with the novel."I know it's two years ago, but can you remember why you wrote this? I don't recall the chapter numbers tying in with the novel. I just assumed it was a marketing gimmick, employed to get people talking about the book: "Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - isn't that the book with prime chapter numbers?"
I could be mistaken, but I think it had something to do with math and numbers calming the kid down. That he would count prime numbers in his head when things go too intense for him.
Christopher loved primary numbers so he decided to number his chapters as such.
Joe, good review and good points of view. The only thing I will argue slightly (although I understand why you may have felt such a way) was about the book turning into a family melodrama. Yes, I agree, it did but I think it spoke wonders as to how hard it is to parent (mother) a child with autism and how hard it is to have your child not speak to you (father). It is a very difficult and real thing.
It's not a mystery book. You're book group told you wrong.
Admire your honesty. The "mystery" seemed to be a joke based on Christopher's perception of THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLE'S. It's also the only template Christopher knows of for organizing his novel. It's too bad the marketers tried to sell this as a simplistic genre book.
I am unsure why some people seem offended by your review. I loved the book, but you were being polite and everything and you made what in my opinion is a valid complaint. There are a few actually malicious reviews on here. Go take the fight to those people, guys.
i found the whole business about Christopher's mother unbeleivable. how could the father hope to get away with it? the mother could easily have decided to visit the boy, or phone for instance, and then what?
This review is not that far from what my thoughts were on the book. I too expected a murder mystery and this really wasn't one. It seemed like it could have been that when you read the beginning, but after some time, I realize it is not the case at all and seems more like something I would watch on the Lifetime Movie Network (I only know of LMN because one of the people who raised me watched this channel a lot). However, I will give the book that the prime number chapters was clever, and being someone who has Asperger's, I will say it is easier to relate to Chris to a point where I can confirm that some of what Chris thinks is akin to how someone with autism or Asperger's might think. Oh, and there were parts of the bits were I found Chris to be particularly annoying.
MY THOUGHTS EXACTLY and in truth, the only reason I gave it a 2/5. I loved the concept of the novel (murder mystery in a Autistics POV) but nothing much happened, I couldnt connect to the characters and logic and math isnt my thing
As someone with Aspergers I appreciated the novel a lot. I think it’s a bit rough to write a review of the book based on your assumption that it was a mystery novel. Especially since your mystery book club and reviews aren’t very reliable sources. They are all very subjective.
After reading other reviews, I'm glad to know I'm not the only who felt like this.
I so agree with your review. I loved the way the book started, I found Christopher's perspective of the world fascinating, and my heart went out to him for the challenges he has to face every day. But somewhere at the halfway point, the mystery is done, the story is losing momentum, and I am considering reading the last 50 pages for closure.
It isn't the fault of the book that your preconceived expectations about it were wrong.
JustSomeGuy wrote: "It isn't the fault of the book that your preconceived expectations about it were wrong."My "preconceived expectations" were a direct result of how literary reviews and my book club marketed this novel, nothing more—which is clearly expressed in my review.
Neither my review nor my opinion should detract from your enjoyment of the novel. The bottom line is did YOU enjoy it? If yes, then that's all that should matter to you.
12 years later and people are still salty over my review which is beyond bizarre to me.
Salty indeed. To be fair to JustSomeGuy he may have just gotten around to reading it or checking reviews.That said, I don't agree with him. Blurbs (which I no longer read, they are almost always rubbish), reviews and promotions set up expectations. Those expectations may cause you to read it and you may be disappointed.
You said so, you explained why. You didn't say it was a bad book, merely that it wasn't what you were expecting. Basically warning people that if you want a certain thing, this book (in spite of the marketing hype) isn't for you.
Surely that is what reviews are for.
I started reading it a couple of years ago. I got part way through it and had much the same reaction as you.
I did what I always do when a much hyped book isn't working for me. Your review saved me wasting more time, simply because it confirmed that the book didn't get better as it went along.
We all have different tastes, and you review acknowledged it.
Bloody good review.
One thing you stated you understood about this book was that it’s from the point of view of an autistic boy, yes, but it’s his diary. so of course its going to have a lot of extra information. The beginning of the book is the start of the mystery of who killed wellington and Christopher's’ journey to find them. But that was just the top page of everything that happened here. There was a whole past for Christopher to dig up. And that never would have happened without the first mystery. The second mystery is what is going to happen to Christopher. Will he make it to his mom’s, will he get caught by the police? What happening with Christopher, he is very unpredictable. Not because of his autism but because of his perspective and knowledge of things work for him. And then the kicker about the ending of the book was that it wasn’t this great big satisfying ending. It was reasonably calm, and realistic for two parents sharing custody.
Coreyw wrote: "One thing you stated you understood about this book was that it’s from the point of view of an autistic boy, yes, but it’s his diary. so of course its going to have a lot of extra information. The ..."I'm glad you enjoyed it and were able to translate what the reviews meant by "mystery". I hated it then and I still hate it now.
Jaime wrote: "Joe, good review and good points of view. The only thing I will argue slightly (although I understand why you may have felt such a way) was about the book turning into a family melodrama. Yes, I ag..."For the sake of your child i really hope you don’t model your parenting strategy after this book bc as an autistic person it was horrid to read and its extremely ableist
EXACTLY how I felt about this book
Honestly, this was exactly my experience with this book. I went into it thinking it would be a mystery novel because that’s how it was presented to me. However I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It’s wonderfully written and so heartwarming. A book being incorrectly described to you by other people is probably the poorest reason I’ve ever seen someone give for a one star review.
I loved the book, but I knew what I was getting before I began. I'm sure that I'd be disappointed if, say, Inspector Morse spent 300 or so pages doing his taxes or rearranging his record collection.