The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time
by
Mark Haddon
This book was lent to me by my colleague Paddy. He knew I was a Matthew Quick fan and said that this book is very similar on how it deals with Mental Health and I should try it. The name of this book I knew I had heard of before but could not remember where at all. Then, one day walking through the west end of London I walked passed a theatre which currently had this play showing. I then made some weird noise as I now remembered why the name was so familiar. My wife gave me a strange look as to what on earth I was doing o realising I was so loud..
"Wonderfully written and so clever. Funny, upsetting and mysterious all in one"
Précis (taken from the cover):
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.
Review:
This book did not take long at all to get into. You just fell into the story straight away. You picked up the style of writing within the first page or two and I felt then that I would enjoy this book. As stated before, Matthew Quick is one of my favourite authors and each book of his I have read deals with Mental Health in a different way. Christopher the lead character and narrator of this book has Asperger's Syndrome which is part of autism. The book is written as though it was actually done by someone with Asperger's so you have drawings, questions that Christopher would ask in real life as well as each chapter number being a prime number because he knows them all, all the way up to 7507.
The story itself is very clever. A dead dog has been found in the street. Christopher, who is saddened and angered by this sets upon himself to found out who the killer was. Now I love a good murder mystery and if you have read my reviews before you will know it is one of my favourite genre's to read. This book was so different to what I had ever read before or even watched on TV, which made it so intriguing. I read this book in a week which is really quick for me and reading this has helped me get on target for my year goal.
The character numbers in this book is short. You have Christopher and his dad who he lives with and then you have his teachers plus a couple of people who live on the same street. There are a few others but I won't mention them as it may ruin part of the book for you. Sometimes you don't need to have many characters in a book for it to be a hit. The less they are the more in touch with them you become. I don't know if the author Mark has someone in his family or friends that has Asperger's but you can tell even if he has that he has studied this subject very hard.
Now for the bit I did not enjoy.... I say not enjoy but it is more of a.. I found frustrating... The main story (who killed the dog) finished half way through the book and then a different story altogether finished the second half. I understand why the second half happened but for me it could have been included with the main story to keep you guessing longer. Apart from that this was a very enjoyable read. I found it so clever. It was funny, upsetting and mysterious all in one.
I scored this book a 4 out of 5. The only thing stopping it from being a 5 for me was the end of the murder mystery half way through. This book is an easy read so if you re looking for something to read whilst traveling or for some light evening reading then this is for you..
I would love to know what everyone else thinks who has read this book. Do you agree with me or not? Let me know.
Speak soon,
CBailey31
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