Mark Haddon

Well, I believe the best way to describe this book is neutral. It did not overly excite me, nor did it completely bore me. Things that I really like about this book are the raw emotions and thoughts. Here you have Angela struggling to hold on to her memory, or rather her version of it, and Dominic, trying to justify his every action. In this book you are granted the amazing ability of being able to read minds; you get to hear their inner thoughts and the arguments they have with themselves. The family drama is there to be sure and the children are not excluded. They each have their own individual struggle and for the next two weeks they will try every way to go around it or face it head on.



The one thing I did not like about this book, and the reason I would not recommend it would be the authors writing style. I have great respect for Mark Haddon, but the jumping from one set of emotional turmoil to another in each paragraph has a way of making the writer feel lost. Along with this he includes random thought or fact; rather I have no real idea what it is but it has little to do with the actual characters themselves. I found it extremely difficult to get through this book for that simple fact and I do not recommend this book to anyone. It truly was awful; and for Mark Haddon that is a terrible thing to say.

List of Characters:

Angela: Wife of Dominic/Richards sister

Dominic: Angela's husband

Richard: Angela's brother

Louisa: Richard's new wife

Alex: 17/oldest son of Angela and Dominic

Daisy: 16/ only daughter to Angela and Dominic

Benjy: 8/youngest son to Angela and Dominic

Melissa: 16/daughter of Louisa/stepdaughter to Richard

Review by Dani