The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon

Title: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime
Author: Mark Haddon
Pages: 226 
Genre: Mystery
Book Description: 
Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. He relates well to animals but has no understanding of human emotions. He cannot stand to be touched. And he detests the color yellow.

Although gifted with a superbly logical brain, for fifteen-year-old Christopher everyday interactions and admonishments have little meaning. He lives on patterns, rules, and a diagram kept in his pocket. Then one day, a neighbor's dog, Wellington, is killed and his carefully constructive universe is threatened. Christopher sets out to solve the murder in the style of his favorite (logical) detective, Sherlock Holmes. 

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My Opinion:
I read this book a couple of years ago for school and decided to re-read it. And let me tell you, I regret nothing. This book is just as amazing as it was the first time!

The main thing I love about this book is that it's written by a 15 year old with Aspergers. This is really unusual and allows us to see exactly how he's feeling from a first person narrative. I really enjoyed this because it gives us more of an insight into how a teenage living with this disorder goes through life and their struggles.

Secondly, I really liked the structure. The chapters weren't in a normal, chronological order, they were actually in order of prime numbers e.g 2,3,5,7 etc. I thought with was a really creative touch and it linked nicely to the narrator. There were also little black and white pictures distributed throughout the chapters which helped explain things. This touch along with the chapter style made the idea that this was written by a 15 year old more realistic and unique.

The plot was really well written and I was constantly intrigued. For a long time I was really curious to who killed Wellington and then other twists and turns began to reveal themselves I was constantly reading on to find out what happened! There were many important messages weaved in the pages of this book, for instance, lying.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading this and definitely recommend it to those of all ages. There's something in it for everyone whether its mystery, facts or adventure. I'll certainly be looking out for more books by this author!


Favourite Quotes:

And it shows that intuition can sometimes get things wrong. And intuition is what most people use in life to make decisions. But logic can help you work out the right answer

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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

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Sometimes we get sad about things and we don't like to tell other people that we are sad about them. We like to keep it a secret. Or sometimes, we are sad but we really don't know why we are sad, so we say we aren't sad but we really are

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Metaphors are lies

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I tuned it halfway between two stations so that all I could hear was white noise and I turned the volume up really loud and I held it against my ear and the sound filled my head and it hurt so that I couldn't feel any other sort of hurt

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Lots of things are mysteries. But that doesn't mean there isn't an answer to them. It's just that scientists haven't found the answer yet

Rating ★★★★★

5 out of 5 stars

Next book I'm going to review:
Daughter by Jane Shemilt