This book is disturbing enough to warrant a review.

When I asked LL what he thought of the book when he lent it to me, he said, "I'll just say... you'll get to understand how an autistic person feels."

And as I read further, that statement kept flashing across my mind. I thought it was very appropriate and it really just about summarises the main takeaway from the book.

Common Characteristics of an autistic person

• He cringes when anyone touches him. And that applies to members of the family.
• He has practically no emotions and cannot tell emotions. E.g. He knows that you're angry only if you go red in the face and starts screaming. He cannot tell complex emotions like jealousy, frustrated, irritated, excited, etc.
• He loses control of himself when provoked. And his threshold is readily reached.
  He is obsessively particular. E.g. He doesn't like brown so he doesn't wear anything that's brown or eat anything brown, and that includes bread. ?!
• He is obsessively observant. He stores and processes every single detail he sees. E.g. he can remember the exact shape and location of all the black patches on every cow and every time he draws a cow, he will ask you which cow you're referring to and will draw the exact cow with the exact patches. ?!
• And because he stores and processes many many details, his brain is often overwhelmed by an overload of information. His brain is really like a microprocessor- The processing speed is just not fast enough to process the large amount of instructions flooding his brain all at once and when that happens, the computer hangs, and he groans to shut off all information and pukes. All over the bed, all over the wall, and all over himself.
  

Which is really disturbing. And that brings me to my next point. The emotions.

The Emotions
The author has this absurd ability to make you feel like acting a bit autistic too. I started to observe all the signs at the mrt station. I counted all the yellow and red cars that appeared in a row. I scrutinised everyone I saw - I started analysing people's moustaches, nose hair, shoes, bag and of cos manicure and makeup, if any. I was overwhelmed by all the people breathing down my neck on the mrt as I was reading the book. And then my head started spinning wildly when I read the part where he took the train. And I honestly felt like puking too.

But I made a conscious effort to look up from the book periodically and constantly reminded myself of who I am to keep myself in check. Just in case. I was like struggling not to kena brainwashed by the stupid autistic guy.

I was significantly more depressed and quiet for a few days.

The Language
Not only was the story distressing, the language was disconcerting too. The whole story was written in the first person's view and it was really very first person cos almost all the sentences began with an 'I'. So much so I had to conscientuously recall how one can vary sentence structures to make a story interesting. The book would have gotten a fat zero for language if a Singaporean teacher were to mark it.

The Story
I like the ending. My goosebumps were all standing when I came to the ending. Which is a good thing.

My Recommendation
I'll highly recommend it! Cos it's interesting. It's unique. It's different. And I love things that are different. And I love to learn and gain new insights. But it may not be the best read if you're feeling depressed or stressed up. You'll start puking. Seriously. Though you might just feel a lot better after a good puke!