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July 1st 2004
The End
I read this book at the beginning of June, and it was a real treat. I'm
not sure what I was really expecting, but I wasn't ready for the
tenderness and honesty of this book. The murder mystery, which attracted
me to the book in the first place (along with the amazing reviews), took
second place to an incredibly story about one boy's journey to discover
the truth about his mother's death.
At the beginning of the book I admired Christopher...even envied him. He
had a view of the world that I sometimes shared, that people are by and
large too busy using subtle body language rather than just speaking
their minds. Christopher's Asperger's Syndrome threw that social
interaction (or lack of it) into sharp focus, and really made me wonder
what it would be like not to be able to decode even the most basic of
body language messages. It seemed like Christopher had an odd sort of
freedom from all that bullshit; when he was told something he believed
it, literally, and he was unable to lie. But then the real story of the
book started to play out and those traits, which had initially been so
enviable, became suddenly frightening and clearly horrific.
The book was written so well, and so emotionally, that it was
unputdownable. I think I would have loved to have read this book when I
was in my early teens as I'm sure I'd have developed the same passion
for this book as I did for the Adrian Mole diaries.
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