A Kind of Spark

“The ocean needs all kinds of fish. Just like the world needs all kinds of minds. Just one would be really dull, wouldn't it?”

It's Autism Awareness week so I figured it was the best time to finally pick up this book.

I wasn't expecting this to touch me so profoundly in the way that it did. I was diagnosed when I was four years old and it took me a while to understand that I was viewing and experiencing the world differently from others. I went through school being ridiculed by teachers and fellow students for the way I handled things or acted in some moments and it wasn't until I was much older that I understood it was because I was different.

A Kind of Spark felt like a warm hug. I think that's the best possible way for me to articulate how this made me feel. It felt like it was healing my inner child to see someone, like Addie, like me, in a book like this. If I could go back in time and hand this book to my younger self, I would.

Reading Addie's experiences throughout this book were raw, and revealing and felt like reading my own experiences as an autistic person through a magnifying glass. The masking, overstimulation, meltdowns, hyper fixations and special interests... are just some of the things that are portrayed fantastically. Honestly, reading this book made me just want to give Mcnicoll a huge hug to say thank you.

I believe A Kind of Spark is an important read for other autistic people to feel seen and for neurotypical people to attempt to understand what life is like through our eyes.

Automatic comfort read.