The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

This novel is the story of Christopher, a British teen working to make sense of the world around him through the lens of Asperger's Syndrome. What starts as an attempt to solve the mystery of a neighborhood dog killed by a garden pitchfork culminates in Christopher's terrifying, solo journey on the train to London to reunite with his estranged mother. Christopher's is a fantastically consistent and unique voice, and the structure of the book complements it perfectly: instead of chapters arranged in traditional cardinal numbers (1, 2, 3,), each chapter is a different prime number. We also get math problems, logic puzzles, lists, maps, diagrams, and other visuals that help to illustrate Christopher's often-brilliant thought processes. What I appreciated most about Haddon's writing is that he is able to poignantly portray the emotions of Christopher's struggling family even as Christopher himself lacks the capacity to do so. While this book is classified as YA, I might reserve it for older teens–there is quite a bit of profanity, and many of the issues are heavy–and adults.