*MAJOR SPOILERS FOR CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHTTIME*
Over the past few weeks, I read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon. I quite liked the book, as I hadn’t read a good mystery in a while. Also, it was pretty short, and my attention span for reading isn’t long at all, so the length was good for me. The book follows Christopher, a 16 year old boy who lives in England as he tries to solve a neighborhood mystery that’s been haunting his mind. In Curious Incident, on page 20, Christopher tells us that his mother died, and we assume that’s true for quite a while–life and death are two of the most plainly real aspects of the world, and no one can doubt them. I’ll get back to this in a bit.
The first sentence of the fourth chapter is “This is a murder mystery novel,” and we’ve figured that the murder it’s referring to is the murder of Wellington, one of Christopher’s neighbor’s dogs. After reading the book, I know that this is true. However, as we get deeper and deeper into the book more mysteries are revealed once Christopher finds a box of letters addressed to him from his supposedly dead mother. With his continued detective work, he finds his (not dead) mother in London, living with her boyfriend–the husband of the neighbor whose dog got killed.
This is the kind of twist I was talking about earlier. I don’t really read a lot of mysteries, so I’m not exactly sure if this is common, but at least for me, I don’t bargain for more than one large mystery. This could just be my inexperience showing bright as day, but finding out the mother wasn’t dead, or even the acknowledgement that she might not be, was a genuine surprise for me. I have to read a synopsis before watching a movie, and I need to have a developed understanding of the full plot of a TV show before I watch it because I absolutely hate suspense.
I don’t have to do that for books, for a long series of reasons that would take too long to list out, but just be aware that I don’t like suspense. Because of this, I like twists that you don’t see coming, as there’s no suspense, so you don’t know that it’s coming. This caused me to really enjoy the book, as it did everything I wanted it to. Still, I have just completely spoiled the secret twist of the entire book, and I understand not everyone likes things to be spoiled, so that might make the book less enjoyable. Nevertheless, I haven’t told you who killed Wellington, and I realize now that I seem to have left out a giant, giant factor of this book, so if you’d like, you can read the book for that. However, if you are okay with books being spoiled, I urge you to read the book. It’s quite well written, and as someone who doesn’t love reading, and who doesn’t read very much mystery, it’s very well written and a good use of your reading time.
-Ivy
I read this book a while ago! You're right, it is very interesting. Since you noted that you left out a giant factor in the story, I am going to note that you got a minor factor wrong: at the beginning of the story, Christopher is 15 years 3 months and 2 days old.
ReplyDelete-Nibaw
I actually started this book a few years ago and just forgot about it. This has made me want to pick it up again! I think it's a really interesting note that you made that this book doesn't have very much suspense, but there are still twists and throughout. I am now even more curious to see what happens in the last half of the book, who killed Wellington and what this 'giant factor' is.
ReplyDelete-Ana
I've only read mysteries by largely known authors such as Agatha Christie and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, so the prospect of a shorter, contemporary mystery such as this one is intriguing. I really don't mind spoilers, as long as the experience of reading the book is still enjoyable overall, so I might end up giving this book a go, seeing as I haven't read any mysteries in a while. The cover design of this book sort of reminds me of a book titled "Hate That Cat" that I read a while ago too. (Not actually relevant :/)
ReplyDelete-Josh
I haven't read too many mysteries but I'm starting to gain an appreciation for them. This book sounds super cool, I love how the mystery isn't huge. It's not a mass murderer, it's not a notorious kidnapper, it's a neighborhood mystery. It shows that you really don't need to think of a huge elaborate plot for a mystery; if you have the skill you can write an interesting book. Also, unrelated but does anyone have mystery book recs? Overall, amazing review!
ReplyDeleteI don't read many mystery books, but this sounds like a must read! The twist that you were talking about really surprised me, for it must be surprised that the supposedly dead mother is alive and living with the neighbor's husband. Overall, I love your review and how it really makes the reader want to read the book. I hope to read this book sometime soon!
ReplyDelete-Alina