The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Review

 This book has been on my TBR for a while and on my last journey to the city, I was finally able to find a copy in my local Waterstones. The comment by the lovely worker saying she has watched a play based on the book and that it was really good assured me that it was indeed a good choice. However, I ended up rating this book ⅗ as I did enjoy most aspects of it, especially the narrator, but a lot the elements of the novel that I was sold on were a bit disappointing to me.

‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’ follows the story of Christoper Boone, a 15 year old autistic boy who is trying to find who killed his neighbor’s dog Wellington. He lives with his father and a rat in a small city. He is also a narrator of this novel as the readers are introduced to what we are led to believe will be the central mystery of the story as well as the other characters around Christopher. His perspective is unique, at least for me, as I have not had the chance to read a narrative from a young autistic boy. Christopher is incredibly analytic and logical, while humans and their behavior confuse him. The novel we are reading is actually framed as Christopher’s attempt to write a book, guided by his teacher as well as his attempt to solve the mystery of the murdered dog. During this investigation, he steps on many toes and discovers there is a different, more personal mystery he has to solve.


Mark Haddon through Christopher’s narration showed he is a skilled author. Christopher is an incredibly sympathetic character and it was equally fascinating and heartbreaking reading about situations in which others do not understand him or his depiction of how he feels during a meltdown or an episode when he dissociates. I did enjoy Christopher both as a character and as a narrator as well as the overall writing style. I must say that after a while the amount of lists that were present in the novel felt one too many. Additionally, a lot of the math that Christopher discussed in the novel flew over my head and I am not sure if their purpose was to show his coping strategies and special interest or if they had another meaning.

Still, the biggest issue I had with the novel is the structure. The first part where the readers are introduced to Christopher’s world and himself drew me in and I read it in a few days. I was interested in finding out how the mystery of the murdered dog would develop and what exactly would he find out. But, that discovery felt quite anticlimactic and the story took a completely different tone after that. It did not feel like a mystery story from the angle of an autistic person all the summaries have promised. Instead, the next few chapters are focused on the intricate details of how he arrived at a specific address in London, using the train and metro. I understand that this is his book and this might be something that Christoper would focus on, but I found it quite underwhelming and honestly a bit boring. Once he finally arrives at his destination, I expected the story to pick up again, but it still felt quite underwhelming until the end.

Speaking of the ending, it was so abrupt and nothing really got resolved. Although somewhat hopeful as Christopher completed his goals at school, there were far too many loose ends for me to consider this a good ending. I also felt like there were too many plot points, such as Christopher’s family situation that were not shown nearly enough attention and were incredibly rushed. Again, I know this is Christopher’s book, but I felt like there was not enough discussion about the adults in his life and how they influence each other.

I do also want to point out that I am not any kind of expert on autism nor am I neurodivergent myself, so I cannot speak for how (in)accurate the representation of a boy with Asperger’s syndrome in this novel is. In my research after reading it, I have seen vastly differing opinions from those that point out Haddon did not research to medical professionals praising it. I have seen many autistic people claim that this novel is full of stereotypes and inaccuracies about neurodivergent people.

Finally, I rated this ⅗ for the reasons I stated above. I honestly found it underwhelming. Maybe the issue is in advertising, as this novel was always depicted as a mystery/crime novel, not a family drama. Did you read ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’? What was your opinion of it?