The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time (what a big name!) is indeed a curious book. Told from the point of view of a teenager with Asperger's Syndrome, Christopher, it is extremely different from all the books I've read.It starts with Christopher discovering his neighbour's dog dead in the middle of night. And because Christopher likes detective novels, especially Sherlock Holmes, he will investigate this case to find who is the culprit.
This book was fun at first, full of quirks and things that made you think. It was amazing to see the world in such a different way, where what you say is what you mean, with no metaphors. Christopher is a wonderful character that I couldn't help to like, and with his love for science and maths, I even learnt some new things! His interactions with other people, especially strangers, were really fun to read. However I had some trouble seeing him as fifteen, I kept imagining him a bit younger.
I loved the detective part of the book, finding out all the clues to discover who killed Wellington, the dog. There were other mysteries attached to that one that we couldn't help but notice (and solve, even if Christopher couldn't). But again, there is a downside to this as well, as the the discovery of the dog killer is disappointing, because is not a result of Christopher powers of deduction, but exasperation of the guilty one that finally confesses.
And this brings me to the second part of the plot: Family Drama. After finding out who killed Wellington, Christopher's world is throw off balance, and he flees home. He will continue to investigate things, solving his own mysteries. This part was nice at start but it started to get to much drama for my tastes, especially when compared with the beginning of the book. Also, the quirks that I enjoyed at first became repetitive and lost their charm.
The book is quite is easy to read. The language is simple and to the point, and you want to read just one more chapter every chapter. When I reached the point where the book lost its charm, it was still easy to finish it – I just stopped loving it.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time is a nice book, that I'm glad I've read.
(3.5/5)
Other reviews: Page Turners | Reading with Tequilla
The storyline reminds me a lot of "The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie" ...mmm...
ReplyDeleteI never borrowed that on from you... I'll do it some time in the future :D
ReplyDeleteI quite liked this book. It was short enough so the concept didn't get boring. I agree with you about the disappointing detective aspect though.
ReplyDeleteIt never got boring, and it was really quite fast to read (I did it in 2 days). My problem was that I stopped reading when the detective plot ended, so I had a big difference between the first day of reading and the second one.
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