Another member on Goodreads told me to read this book - I meant to, but didn't until she got annoyed with me for taking so long and sent me a copy. It is a remarkable book - the only thing I can think that is similar to it is perhaps that short story, Flowers for Algernon.

My older sister is intellectually disabled, I grew up a science nerd and my daughter is a Sherlock Holmes nut. While I was reading it the central character seemed a strange fusion of the three of us. This book has so many resonances for me that when I get old and dotty I may even think that I wrote it. (if I thought I could get away with it I would start claiming this now...)

If you haven't read this book and have been put off because you think it's a children's book or it sounds a bit silly - don't put it off any longer. It is a beautifully written story that is moving without playing any cheap games with you as a reader.

Look, it is a delight. Read it.

"I think prime numbers are like life. They are very logical but you could never work out the rules, even if you spent all your time thinking about them."

A mostly light-hearted novel told from the perspective of Christopher Boone, a teenage boy with autism. A lovely autistic teenage boy with an incredible talent for math and a gifted logical brain that is amazingly observant of every little detail around him is our hero in this book.

He’s afraid of talking to strangers, being put in unknown situations, being touched and lacks the proper intuition about others that many “normal people” take for granted. He loves timetables, dogs, rats, prime numbers and Sherlock Holmes and he hates metaphors (not similes!), noisy places and yellow and brown colours.

Mark Haddon did an outstanding job. Christopher's lifestyle was depicted in such a personal and compassionate way by the author. For its representation of someone with Asperger's Syndrome, this best-selling novel has won numerous honours as well as criticism from the autism community.

This novel was amusing and heartbreaking at the same time, which I felt was a great combination. Despite Christopher's lack of understanding of emotions, the book is highly emotional. There are also a lot of laugh-out-loud moments, including times when you shouldn't be laughing, but Christopher tells them in such a way that you will.

I'd recommend this book to adult readers because it's not exactly a children's book, but it's not too difficult! Those of you who choose to read it will hopefully like it as much as I did.

Fun fact: The chapters of the book is numbered as ascending prime number!

n  You might like to check out more similar books here.n

What a wonderful and heartbreaking book! It really gives you insight into the mind of a person who has autism and how difficult it is for them and their caretakers. This was my second timing reading this book - with many years in between - because it was chosen for my next book club meeting and I'm going to see the play at the end of March. It's interesting what I remembered and what I didn't!

Very, very good. Imagine Rain Man deciding to solve a mystery, and that sums up a good part of the story. It was an incredible look into autism, and I really enjoyed it. Plus, it's a fairly quick read - I had no trouble finishing it in about 2 days.

A fair warning, though: the main character, Christopher, really likes Sherlock Holmes and at one point in the story talks about The Hound of the Baskervilles. He reveals every single plot point of the story, so if you haven't read it and don't want the ending ruined for you, read The Hound of the Baskervilles first, then read Mark Haddon's book.

“I think prime numbers are like life. They are very logical but you could never work out the rules, even if you spent all your time thinking about them.”



Christopher Boone, a 15-year old math genius with Asperger's Syndrome, discovers that a neighbor's dog has been murdered. Uncovering the murderer and writing a book about it is the primary impetus of Christopher in Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night. Throughout the investigation, Haddon offers fascinating insight into how Christopher structures his world and relationships.

I'd read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night before, but read it again for one of my book clubs. I liked it the first time as well as the second time, but like murder mystery books the narrator says he is writing, a second reading is a different experience. 3.75 stars

“I like dogs. You always know what a dog is thinking. It has four moods. Happy, sad, cross and concentrating. Also, dogs are faithful and they do not tell lies because they cannot talk.”

"و شاید ما واقعا یه مشت آدم غیرقابل کنترلیم"
کتاب روان و جالبی بود، خلاقیت کتاب رو دوست داشتم (این ک فصل ها عدد اول بود) ترجمه کتاب هم خیلی خوب بود نظرم.
کتاب خیلی قشنگ ذهن کریستوفر رو به تصویر کشیده بود، کریستوفرِ ساده و صمیمی که مبتلا به اوتیسم بود. اولش فکر میکردم کتابیه ک میشه یکی دو روزه تموم کنمش اما یکم طول کشید چون اون حجم از اطلاعاتی ک یهو میداد و آشفتگی ذهن کریستوفر یه خورده واسم غیرقابل هضم میشد. بعد به این نتیجه رسیدم ک بعید نیست رگه هایی از اوتیسم هممون داشته باشیم.
پ.ن: مسئله های ریاضی کتاب رو بسی دوست داشتم، با کاغذ و قلم کنارم کتابو میخوندم :د
پ.ن بازم: احساس کردم اخر کتاب صرفا تند تند میخواست همه چیزو سرو سامون بده و ی جورایی انگار افت کرد داستان.

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.

Possibly the worst autism “representation” (if you can call it that) I’ve ever seen in a book, and I had to DNF for the sake of my mental health (at the cost of my grade since I had to read this for school). In an interview, our lovely author even said, AND I QUOTE “i did no research for curious incident … imagination always trumps research.” If you are even thinking of writing a novel with a main character who is marginalized in a way you are not, you need to do your fucking homework.

Christopher is so obviously a collage of every autism stereotype Mark Haddon could jam pack into one “character” and its genuinely depressing that people will read this and think his depiction is in any way realistic. If anyone would like to join me in throwing this poor excuse of a novel into a bonfire, I’m free anytime this week!

It is the best of detective stories, and it is the worst of detective stories, and sorry for sounding like Charles Dickens, but it's true.

Christopher--the protagonist--has Asperger's, and how can you NOT fall in love with him when he's determined to investigate the murder of his next-door neighbor's dog? You can't. Combine that with all the hilarious investigations that would occur from someone severely lacking social skills and attempting to run an investigation (which Haddon expertly captures), and it makes for an unforgettably fun adventure.

But since Haddon narrates through Christopher's eyes, more often than not the Asperger's is distracting or worse yet annoying and preachy. The frequent digressions make a lot of the story seem like forgettable fluff. But when the narration is just right, it's pretty freaking comical, like Ace Ventura, but way better.

Final Rating: 3.5 stars

Do I have a mild case of Asperger's?

Things I do that are like things that Christopher does:

(2) Rely on a pattern of events to determine whether today will be an okay day. Christopher likes to count cars in the morning, I see if I can catch the subway as soon as I get into the station. If I can't, it's definitely not a good start to a potentially perfect day.

(3) Tune people out.

(5) Verbally analyze jokes that I don’t understand to the point that the joke is Just Not Funny Anymore, Please Stop.

(7) Wanting to be an astronaut as a kid because astronomy and physics made sense.

(11) Being such a huge believer in routine and order that if a bottle of water is misplaced on the kitchen counter or the TV stand is slightly awry, I feel disconcerted and uncomfortable until it is put away or straightened.

(13) Prime numbers are the coolest.

The similarities between Christopher's and my way of thinking makes me wonder if this is really how people with Asperger's think and reason. Did Mark Haddon adopt this familiar thinking pattern to make this book accessible to the readers? Or was it that the author couldn't help but write a novel this way since he doesn't have the syndrome either?

I was surprised to read this book from the perspective of a boy with Asperger’s. The little diagrams that Christopher uses to explain the logic games he plays were a refreshing element to the disjointed prose. However, after the initial novelty of the prose waned, I found it harder and harder to finish the book. At first, I found Christopher's lack of empathy interesting, but then I noticed the same pattern emerging again and again:

a. Parent says to not doing something.
b. Christopher does it anyway.
c. Parent gets angry.
d. Christopher gets angry.
e. Christopher’s anger manifests in black outs.
f. A lot of bad feeling results from the Parent.
g. Christopher plays with his Swiss knife.

It got old pretty quick.

A majority of the book focuses on the emotional trauma of the people around him. However, toward the end, when Christopher suffers emotionally from something to the point where it physically affects him, I found myself so numb that I couldn’t properly appreciate with what Christopher is trying to express. Simply, I stopped caring when it mattered. Maybe this emotional state was what Mark Haddon was trying to achieve, but I didn’t feel any particular attachment to the book by the end.

Also, I did not like the cursing. I don't mind cursing in general, but so many people yelled and cursed at Christopher that it made me wonder whether Haddon was trying to raise awareness of Asperger’s Syndrome by making people look like jerks. Not cool.

Overall, a solid 3.5 stars for the novelty and the entertainment. It was very interesting and very eye opening to go through life from the perspective of a boy with Aspergers. A star off for the lag toward the second half, but ultimately I don’t regret picking up the book!

I'm reading many types of novels, but I find myself being most absorbed by stories where people need to overcome obstacles within themselves in order to resolve or come to terms with the obstacles surrounding their physical life. This one is exactly that.

The book is an amazing tale about a high functioning autistic savant whose parents are behaving foolishly. Christopher, the autistic, is the narrator and his problems with living are astronomically complicated, but his parents are also suffering through difficulties which while not on the same scale as their son are also complicated. All three have to struggle with their own natures to actually solve anything, but in the consequent learning to quell their inner voices for better functioning it does not mean they get what they wanted. It's an unfair compromise with Reality, and Reality imposes the final terms and boundaries of their hopes. Even though Christopher is the one diagnosed as 'special needs' it's obvious his parents are struggling with the special needs that come from living with a kid far different from ordinary children.

Christopher is high maintenance and there do not seem to be any rewards in parenting such a child. He requires abnormal behavior from everyone around him that must be in a certain regulated and regimated fashion that soothes him enough to not act out. His parents need his affection and love, but he can't tolerate their looking at him or touching him, much less any emotions.

The book is supposedly Christopher's journal so the reader soon gets a read on who Christopher is. He is charming in an odd way, and he is obviously so helpless, but he cannot comprehend the entirety of his deficits or the serious handicapping of his dream to be an astronaut. Although he cannot bear emotions from anyone he is not unemotional. Anyone with empathy feels Christopher's agonies but he cannot be consoled by empathy on any level. His favorite sleeping dream is when he walks an earth where he is the only person alive. This is not a person to love, yet his parents adore him while at the same time tearing their lives to pieces by their unrequited love for him. It is a desperate existence for all of this family, but nothing can be done except to bear it, handling each Autistic meltdown with the only response that works: waiting it out patiently sitting nearby until it's over.

I could not do this, raise a child this functionally broken without any reward or affection or gratefulness. Even dogs can like and love back, enjoy petting or want to be with you - none of which is something Christopher can give or do. However, these parents never stop loving their son.

The Special Needs Counselor is the one person who helps Christopher understand how to share his life as much as he can, which is little better than understanding how different people are from him and that he must tolerate their presence without instigating or resorting to violence. He learns phrases that are meaningless to him, such as "how are you today" simply because he has learned these things minimize his contact with people. To not be polite extends the always unwelcome interest of all persons in his vicinity.

The parents are not special people except in their love for their unloving child. They are blue collar, not particularly sophisticated or wealthy. The son baffles them. In their sorrow and disappointment, which they cannot verbalize, they attempt to soothe themselves with alcohol and sex but find themselves once the temporary diversion is over in the same depressing reality. There is no cure, only palliatives.

This book is well-written and imagined, and I could not put it down. Christopher's mind is as illuminated as one would want from a good book. Strong in tone, the novel enlightens readers about the cruel inescapable cage the handicapped child and his parents must learn to endure, finding little help except for whatever resources they can discover within themselves and if lucky, in the community.

Sweet autistic boy who solves crimes and I love the title reference to Sherlock Holmes.