I think I’ll have a hard time reviewing this, or really, a hard time explaining my reasons for not liking everything about the book.
Because I did like it, I did like the main character, I did like the writing, so what didn’t you like, Milla? Well, I didn’t like the last couple of pages. Oh, how I wish the author had just stopped when the love interest in the book, actually tells it like it is, or how I think it should have been..
This book is about Don, who’s a 39 year old Australian guy. You quickly figure out that he has some degree of Asperger’s disease, or some kind of mental glitch, not because he’s stupid or weird (well, he is a bit weird, but he knows that) because no, he’s very smart and a fast learner, and he knows everything there is to know about statistics and facts, but he doesn’t experience emotions. He doesn’t experience love, or feelings, he has no filter, he’s just all about facts.
And he’s great, he really is. I loved to read about his quest to find a ‘long term partner’ because he’s the kind of guy who makes a questionnaire, because he figures that if he can find the woman who answers everything correctly, he will have found his true match. Not in a love way, but just “the perfect match.”
In comes Rosie, who’s a bratty 29 year old (and everything Don doesn’t want in a “long term partner”), who’s trying to find her biological father, and so she seeks out Don, who’s an expert (of course) in the field. See, Don, is the kind of person who needs to have a schedule for every aspect in his life. He cooks the same thing every week; he wears the same thing and listens to the same music. And Rosie changes that.
But the thing is, Asperger’s is a real disease, and people living with it, can not just “snap out of it” because they meet a girl, which is kinda what this book ends up saying.
***Spoilers***
No, you cannot tell me that Don all along, knew what love felt like, when you (I’m looking at you author) told me he couldn’t, and honestly, “love” is a cure for Asperger’s? Really? I know Don wasn’t diagnosed with that in the book, but maybe he should have been?
When Rosie told Don that they couldn’t “be together” because he didn’t know what love was, I was clapping my hands, because yes! Yes, that should have been the ending. Don had had a fun time, and they could have been good and great friends even, but she should have stuck with her initial thoughts, because Don suddenly married with kids, being a “normal guy” after 40 years of living in a box, with no emotions? Yeah, I don’t buy it. At all, actually.
I would have loved that the meaning of the book was that ‘Yes, try to step out of the box sometimes, you might meet a good friend and have a good time’ instead of ‘love can cure Asperger’s disease’, because really? No, it really can’t, and authors really need to stop this whole “love can cure anything” in books, because it’s getting really, really old, and when you start saying love can cure mental illnesses I will take away a star from your review so fast, you don’t even know.
3 2 stars.
Because I did like it, I did like the main character, I did like the writing, so what didn’t you like, Milla? Well, I didn’t like the last couple of pages. Oh, how I wish the author had just stopped when the love interest in the book, actually tells it like it is, or how I think it should have been..
This book is about Don, who’s a 39 year old Australian guy. You quickly figure out that he has some degree of Asperger’s disease, or some kind of mental glitch, not because he’s stupid or weird (well, he is a bit weird, but he knows that) because no, he’s very smart and a fast learner, and he knows everything there is to know about statistics and facts, but he doesn’t experience emotions. He doesn’t experience love, or feelings, he has no filter, he’s just all about facts.
And he’s great, he really is. I loved to read about his quest to find a ‘long term partner’ because he’s the kind of guy who makes a questionnaire, because he figures that if he can find the woman who answers everything correctly, he will have found his true match. Not in a love way, but just “the perfect match.”
In comes Rosie, who’s a bratty 29 year old (and everything Don doesn’t want in a “long term partner”), who’s trying to find her biological father, and so she seeks out Don, who’s an expert (of course) in the field. See, Don, is the kind of person who needs to have a schedule for every aspect in his life. He cooks the same thing every week; he wears the same thing and listens to the same music. And Rosie changes that.
But the thing is, Asperger’s is a real disease, and people living with it, can not just “snap out of it” because they meet a girl, which is kinda what this book ends up saying.
***Spoilers***
No, you cannot tell me that Don all along, knew what love felt like, when you (I’m looking at you author) told me he couldn’t, and honestly, “love” is a cure for Asperger’s? Really? I know Don wasn’t diagnosed with that in the book, but maybe he should have been?
When Rosie told Don that they couldn’t “be together” because he didn’t know what love was, I was clapping my hands, because yes! Yes, that should have been the ending. Don had had a fun time, and they could have been good and great friends even, but she should have stuck with her initial thoughts, because Don suddenly married with kids, being a “normal guy” after 40 years of living in a box, with no emotions? Yeah, I don’t buy it. At all, actually.
I would have loved that the meaning of the book was that ‘Yes, try to step out of the box sometimes, you might meet a good friend and have a good time’ instead of ‘love can cure Asperger’s disease’, because really? No, it really can’t, and authors really need to stop this whole “love can cure anything” in books, because it’s getting really, really old, and when you start saying love can cure mental illnesses I will take away a star from your review so fast, you don’t even know.
3 2 stars.