Reflections upon reading the curious incident of the dog in the night-time

When I first picked up The curious incident of the dog in the night-time a few weeks ago, I was immediately transfixed. The compelling and tragic story of an autistic child living in modern-day England was interesting enough, but the author Mark Hadden's chosen style -to narrate through the mind of the child itself- gave the book an interesting and thought-provoking twist. Because Hadden decided to narrate through the perspective of a fifteen year-old boy with autism, I -as the reader- often found myself relating to his struggles, even though I do not have autism. It might be because I was once diagnosed with ADD, but when I was younger (much younger than fifteen, however), I would find myself doing things, both physically and mentally, that were very similar to the actions and thoughts of Christopher Boone (the main character). Things such as forcing myself to only walk on certain colored tiles in the house, or flicking my eyes back and forth in patterns, or walking to certain beats in my head; these were all habits that I formed at a very young age and took me a while to break. This is why I felt a connection to Christopher, even though my habits were not nearly as pronounced or as hindering as his. These similarities that I found between an early me and Christopher made the book feel authentic; it gave me a sense of understanding of Christopher's position, no matter how small the similarities between us might have been.
While there were some noticeable similarities between my younger self and Christopher Boone, I did find that the two differed on several things, the main one being thought processes. While Christopher uses cold hard logic and numbers to solve his problems, I often thought about life and people in a much more moral way. For example; Christopher wouldn't speak with anyone until he had spent an extended time period with them and deemed them acceptable and trustworthy, while I was almost immediately trusting of a person if they were introduced in the proper manner. Also, Christopher believed solely in science and thought that everything could be explained through application of the logical scientific method. I, on the other hand, believed, and still believe, that there are some things out there that cannot be explained solely through science.
Overall, these similarities and differences that I found between an earlier Jake Villadolid and the autistic Christopher Boone made for a very engaging read. It made me think about my brain and the way my mind works in a totally new perspective, while giving me insight towards the different mind set that autistic children are blessed, and cursed with. (447)