Synopsis:
Christopher John Francis Boone, the fifteen year old narrator, of The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Nighttime finds his neighbour’s dog dead. Hit and scraped by a garden fork. Christopher is determined to find out who killed the poodle Wellington, he starts to write a book about it. But when he finds letters addressed to him by his dead mother Christopher starts to ponder the ” what ifs”. Christopher decides to go on a quest to find his mother ( who turned out not to be dead) in London. Christopher finds his mother and finds out who killed Wellington ( a shocking surprise) and he finishes writing his book. Which makes Christopher feel like he can do anything. And maybe he can.
Review:
I really enjoyed this book. Mark Haddon has a weird ability of writing perfectly in a child’s POV. For almost the entire book I was left wondering if it was actually written by a child. It captures a child so perfectly especially one with autism like Christopher. One negative aspect was I wish it could be longer. It is a small book and I would love a sequel. My favourite character was Siobhan. She is talked about endlessly by Christopher. She helps him write his book and is always telling him to follow his dreams. She has no speaking lines other than in Christopher’s voice but she just seems like a genuinely nice person. She is a caregiver and she obviously loves Christopher to pieces. All in all this is a great book that kids and adults will love! ( Although fair warning there is a lot of swearing in it.)
Reccomended ages 12- up
The Ellington Review 