Book Review: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon

Publisher: Vintage
Format: Bought, paperback
Links: Goodreads | Amazon UK
Blurb: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time is a murder mystery novel like no other. The detective, and narrator, is Christopher Boone. Christopher is fifteen and has Asperger’s Syndrome.

He knows a very great deal about maths and very little about human beings. He loves lists, patterns and the truth. He hates the colours yellow and brown and being touched. He has never gone further than the end of the road on his own, but when he finds a neighbour’s dog murdered he sets out on a terrifying journey which will turn his whole world upside down.

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Review: I bought this book not too long ago because I knew my mum thought very highly of it and if you know me, you know both me and my mum love books and I usually trust her opinion on which ones are good (apart from the odd few that she’s been completely wrong about, but shh!) And I’d also heard how popular this book was and I do believe I started reading it like a bajillion years ago, when I wasn’t really into reading as much (probably because I was in a field, getting drunk all the time) but never finished it. I love books that deal with Autism and Asperger’s. I find it fascinating and they all deal with it and the characters who have it very differently. So on that aspect alone, I was really excited to start this.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time is about 15 year-old Christopher who has Asperger’s syndrome and he’s embarked upon his own murder mystery to discover who killed his neighbours dog, Wellington. But in the process, he discovers a lot more about himself and his family and he pushes himself to great lengths way beyond his own capabilities. This book really didn’t pan out as I thought it would. Although I didn’t really have any ideas on how it would but it just took a complete different direction than what I guess, my assumptions thought it would. But in a good way. A very good way.

I’ve read a fair few books where a character has Asperger’s or Autism and as I mentioned, I find these books extremely fascinating reads which is why I was drawn to this one when I saw it on the shelf in the bookstore but I can honestly say that I think this portrays the character with the condition, the way they are, their difficulties and their struggles the best out of all the others I have read. Written in first person, this book doesn’t only show you how Christopher lives, day in, day out but it helps you feel it too. You begin to understand him in a way that I haven’t with any other character who has had Asperger’s before.

I read this book quite easily in 2 days and I could have read in quicker had life not got in the way a little bit. It was one of the simplest and most compelling books I’ve probably ever picked up and I’m actually quite a slow reader, usually! I love that the book is scattered with diagrams and drawings and charts and graphs that Christopher has ‘drawn’ to illustrate certain points too, I felt that was a really nice touch. I also loved how he often went on a tangent and explained things – about himself, his family, his life – rather than just sticking to the main plot of the story. Had he not done that, I don’t think readers would have felt for Christopher and understood him nowhere near as much.

So all in all, this book was pretty damn amazing. I find it so difficult to write reviews for amazing books because I either don’t know when to stop or I don’t know where to start. I think this was the latter, as I really struggled with this review because sometimes a book is just too good to sum up in a 500 word review. 5 stars.

Have you read this book? What did you think? Or would you like to read it after my review? Let me know and discuss!