# Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time



## gohn67 (Jul 19, 2005)

This book is written in the the POV of an autistic 15 year old.  The character development is really goood.  You really get inside the protagonist's head, and the mind of someone who is Autistic.  There is alot of humor in his quirks and some of the things he thinks in his mind.  For example he doesn't like the color brown or yellow, so he doesn't eat anything that's brow or yellow.  But he likes red, so he eats alot of red things.  It makes the character very human.  Mark Haddon, the Author does a good job of making the reader sympathise with the main character, so by the end I was really pulling for him to succeed.  He also describes how the protagonist feels in certain situations.  He creates the chaos of his mind when he's around too many people, and his brain can't function.  Stuff like that. 

The plot of the story is full of twists, and it starts out as simple mystery of who killed Wellington the dog to something bigger and more complex.

The story is written in very simple stream of consious type writing.  It gets annoying sometimes, but it creates an authentic feel tool, as if an Autistic kid really wrote the book.  

Also it is a quick read only 220 pages or so, and it goes faster with the simple writing style.


 :5stars:


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## ssj2raider (Jul 19, 2005)

What did you think of the fact that this book was supposed to be a children's book? I didn't think it was all appropriate for a child to read. Perhaps for a parent to read to a child and explain things, but not for a child just to sit down and read him/herself.

What did you think of the book as a whole? Sometimes it was annoying, as much as it was authentic, that Haddon added chapters that pertained to absolutely nothing. I can see how an autistic person might find details extremely important and how it does create an authentic feel to the book, but I think there could have been a limit to how much detail he actually put into the book. The part where he put the math problem into an appendix was interesting, especially how he did work it all out, but I think he could have stopped with adding every single street sign and such.


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## gohn67 (Jul 20, 2005)

> What did you think of the fact that this book was supposed to be a children's book?


I didn't even know.  But I agree that it is probably not appriate for a child.  I'm trying to think of the stuff I read when I was a kid but can't really remember.  So hard for me to compare.



> I can see how an autistic person might find details extremely important and how it does create an authentic feel to the book, but I think there could have been a limit to how much detail he actually put into the book.


To me those details really showed how his mind worked.  When I read it created a differnt feel then most books, just the writing style.

I agree with you though that it did get kind of annoying sometimes.  Like the ANd she siad and he siad and she siad, stuff.  I found the details very interesting; I guess I just like those types of details.


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## Farror (Jul 20, 2005)

I personally did not like it. I understand that the main character is a very simple person, but his point of view made all the characters seem simple, and shallow.


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## Pendulum (Jul 20, 2005)

I liked it a lot. I think that the fact that he made the characters shallow pointed out the way his mind works towards people, because autistic people don't understand people the way most do. They don't understand emotions, so they don't often show them and they are not the things they first notice in others, less so than physical (or real) features. And I think the sense of characters was portrayed well enough through the dialogue that you didn't need his opinion so much. I found it a refreshing break from the usual narratives that are written.


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## -Sambo italiano- (Jul 29, 2005)

I read half of it and stopped when He found the letter from his mum.

It just became predictable and like a lot of other books I've read and didn't enjoy. Please tell me if I'm wrong and it is very different I may just pick it up again.


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## Pendulum (Jul 29, 2005)

It's a little predictable after that point, but it's still a very good read. I reccomend finishing it.


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## -Sambo italiano- (Jul 29, 2005)

I might give it a go on holiday. I'm going to Marbella which is the cultural capital of......Marbella, so I'll need to read to drown out the dance music.


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## tearsstream (Aug 28, 2005)

I personally loved this book. The creativity and originality was evident to me, and I commend the author for being so extremely informed on the subject. I recommend this book.


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## Indigo (Sep 30, 2005)

ssj2raider said:
			
		

> What did you think of the fact that this book was supposed to be a children's book? I didn't think it was all appropriate for a child to read.



Why not? I'm 14 and I loved the book and so did all of my friends. It's not really written as a 'childrens' book, more of a teenager's book.


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## Rob (Dec 11, 2005)

I listened to it on CD, while I was driving, and thought it was excellent. Having it read in a child's voice really adds to the story.

Cheers,
Omni


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