The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime

 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime

Sahnan Haber



Christopher is 15 years, 3 months and 2 days old when he comes home to find their neighbor’s dog: Wellington, lifeless on the ground with a fork stabbed into his body. Christopher has autism and likes dogs; their emotions are easier to understand than humans’. After arriving home and suspecting Christopher to be the killer, Wellington’s owner, Mrs. Shears calls the police. In a misunderstanding, Christopher ends up hitting one of the cops and is detained for the assault of a police officer. He is released that day, but with a warning and on the condition that he does not look any further into the murder of Wellington. However, Christopher is set on figuring out what happened. After ignoring warnings from his father, for a school project, Christopher writes about his investigation in a book: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime. As Christopher looks deeper into the case, he discovers a much more complicated plot than he imagined. 

This book uses a very classic format: murder mystery, but turns it on its head. For one, the victim of the murder is a dog, and the detective is a 15 year old schoolboy with autism. But there are also many interesting details with the book that the narrator, Christopher supposedly put in. There’s the fact that all of the chapters are prime numbers or also the diagrams and mathematical equations put in to demonstrate what he’s saying. The book is also written very interestingly, with the narrator noticing and describing almost everything around them, such as the estimated dimensions and area of their prison cell.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime is unlike any other book I have read, despite its common format. The characters are interesting and have many dimensions, and the ending is very satisfying. Once I finally picked it up, putting this book down was hard. However, one problem I have heard about this book is that its portrayal of autism/neurodivergence is not the best and pretty shallow. This makes it a little harder to appreciate Christopher as a character, however the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime is one of the most interesting books I have read in a while which is why I give it a 4.5/5 stars.




Comments

  1. Sasha GoncaloApril 17, 2023 at 7:52 AM

    Hi Sahnan,
    It sounds like this book takes many unexpected turns, but if all the chapters are prime numbers does that mean that they just skipped some. Like chapter four would be called chapter 5?
    -Sasha

    ReplyDelete
  2. HectorApril 17, 2023 at 9:23 AM

    good review

    ReplyDelete
  3. MichaelMay 11, 2023 at 2:32 PM

    Hi Sahnan. I read this book earlier in the year, and I agree with you when you say that there really isn't any other book like it. I had already forgotten about the prime numbers thing, but I still think that was very creative on Mark Haddon's part. It's nice to refresh my brain on a book that I have already placed in the sidelines of my mind.

    ReplyDelete

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