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CuriousKitten
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05 May 2012, 6:18 pm

Are there any good novels that feature spectrumites?

Is there likely to be a market for such novels? say a murder mystery where the sleuth is also dealing with her cherished niece being diagnosed and realizing that diagnosis also applies to her as well?



IdahoRose
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05 May 2012, 6:29 pm

Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend by Matthew Green features a boy on the spectrum, and the story is told from the point of view of his imaginary friend. I want to read it so badly. I ordered the book several weeks ago and I'm still waiting for it to come in the mail (I had to import it from the UK as that's where the first printing of the book took place)



cyberdad
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05 May 2012, 7:10 pm

IdahoRose wrote:
Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend by Matthew Green features a boy on the spectrum, and the story is told from the point of view of his imaginary friend. I want to read it so badly. I ordered the book several weeks ago and I'm still waiting for it to come in the mail (I had to import it from the UK as that's where the first printing of the book took place)


I just read a review of this book. It's curious because one of the trait labels kids on the spectrum get is a "Lack of imaginative play"



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05 May 2012, 7:11 pm

"House Rules"-Jodi Picoult

Jacob Hunt is a teenage boy with Asperger's syndrome. He's hopeless at reading social cues or expressing himself to others, and like many children with Asperger's, Jacob has an obsessive focus on one subject - in his case, forensic analysis. He's always showing up at crime scenes, thanks to the police scanner he keeps in his room, and telling the cops what they need to do - and he's usually right. But then one day his tutor is found dead, and the police come to question him. Reluctance to make eye contact, stimulatory tics and twitches, inappropriate gestures, all these can look a lot like guilt. Suddenly, Jacob finds himself accused of murder.

I've recently read this book. It was pretty good but I found the person with Asperger's is very typical of how the media usually portrays people with Asperger's and to the extreme. It was still a pretty good read though.

I'd like to read more fiction with female protagonists who have Asperger's Syndrome.



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05 May 2012, 7:34 pm

For a more adult series, the protagonist in the Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is supposed to have Asperger's. It's not a typical portrayal of an Aspie other than she's an unconventional loner who is highly intelligent - but she's more like a superhero than she is like an actual human being. Which I suppose is the other way that media tends to go.



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05 May 2012, 8:21 pm

Dr. Malcom Decter from Rober J Sawyer's "WWW" trilogy (Wake, Watch and Wonder) has Asperger's. In fact it was the second two books of this series that made me start to realize that I had Asperger's.

http://sfwritter.com


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CuriousKitten
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05 May 2012, 9:30 pm

lostgirl1986 wrote:
"House Rules"-Jodi Picoult

Jacob Hunt is a teenage boy with Asperger's syndrome. He's hopeless at reading social cues or expressing himself to others, and like many children with Asperger's, Jacob has an obsessive focus on one subject - in his case, forensic analysis. He's always showing up at crime scenes, thanks to the police scanner he keeps in his room, and telling the cops what they need to do - and he's usually right. But then one day his tutor is found dead, and the police come to question him. Reluctance to make eye contact, stimulatory tics and twitches, inappropriate gestures, all these can look a lot like guilt. Suddenly, Jacob finds himself accused of murder.

I've recently read this book. It was pretty good but I found the person with Asperger's is very typical of how the media usually portrays people with Asperger's and to the extreme. It was still a pretty good read though.

I'd like to read more fiction with female protagonists who have Asperger's Syndrome.


I'll post if/when I ever get my mystery written and published. My sleuth is very much patterned after me -- I like rocking chairs and porch swings. Once a friend & co-worker suggested that I was more social than he -- I replied that I'm not social; I can fake it for 8 to 10 hours a day. In the wake of my niece's diagnosis, I'm exploring and troubleshooting my own Aspiness. The past 50 years are finally making sense -- only in the sleuth's case, it's more like 35 to 40 years :-)



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05 May 2012, 10:53 pm

cyberdad wrote:
IdahoRose wrote:
Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend by Matthew Green features a boy on the spectrum, and the story is told from the point of view of his imaginary friend. I want to read it so badly. I ordered the book several weeks ago and I'm still waiting for it to come in the mail (I had to import it from the UK as that's where the first printing of the book took place)


I just read a review of this book. It's curious because one of the trait labels kids on the spectrum get is a "Lack of imaginative play"

That people with AS lack imagination is a common misconception. Based on numerous threads on the topic that have come up on WrongPlanet over the years, the amount of imagination that people with AS can possess varies greatly. On one extreme, some people don't know what it's like to have an imagination at all (which is what most people commonly assume about those with AS), while at the other extreme are people like me, who can see vivid images and movies with their mind's eye and can form emotional attachments to the characters in their daydreams. It all depends on the individual.



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06 May 2012, 12:01 am

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night time by Mark Haddon is probably the one that gets talked about most


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06 May 2012, 12:01 am

"He is Your Brother" by Richard Parker - I remember this being a book for older children/teens, and it was about a teenage boy and his relationship with his autistic younger brother. ( I don't recall that the author used that exact term, only that anyone familiar with the signs of autism would pick up on this)



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06 May 2012, 1:21 am

"Speed of Dark" by Elizabeth Moon. The gravamen of this is really what a disaster it would be if there were a "cure."



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06 May 2012, 2:37 am

MudandStars wrote:
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night time by Mark Haddon is probably the one that gets talked about most


I like this one. It's written in a different style to most books - it's "from the mind of an autistic boy" style. It has lots of facts and things in it every so often, things he himself (the character) finds interesting, so I found it interesting.


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06 May 2012, 7:16 am

Martha in A Dangerous Woman by Mary McGarry Morris. She's not identified as being autistic, but I think she is. There's also a movie based on the book.
Here's a review:
http://blogcritics.org/books/article/a- ... an-almost/

I should add that it's not a particularly positive portrayal of the title character but it's not mean either. The novel was written shortly after the Asperger's diagnosis was official and I don't know that the author was even aware of it.


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06 May 2012, 7:32 am

"The Woman in the Wall"-Patrice Kindl

This is actually a teen novel that I remember reading as a teen and I really enjoyed it because I could relate to it so much. It doesn't say that the protagonist in the story is autistic but she very well could be. This is a good book to relate to if you have Asperger's Syndrome, Autism or Social Anxiety. I'd still recommend it for older readers as well.

Anna is more than shy. She is nearly invisible. At seven, terrified of school, Anna retreats within the walls of her family's enormous house, and builds a world of passageways and hidden rooms. As the years go by, people forget she ever existed. Then a mysterious note is thrust through a crack in the wall, and Anna must decide whether or not to come out of hiding. Patrice Kindl's astounding, inventive novel blends fantasy and reality -- and readers will not forget it.



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06 May 2012, 11:39 am

The Kitchen Daughter by Jael McHenry.

The Kitchen Daughter

From Publishers Weekly

Quote:
An Asperger's-afflicted woman finds the keys to life and her family history in the kitchen after her parents die in McHenry's inspired if uneven debut. Ginny Selvaggio has lived a sheltered life: unable to maintain eye contact, make friends, or finish college due to her undiagnosed condition, the 26-year-old lives in her parents' home, surfing the Internet and perfecting recipes. But after her parents die, Ginny and her sister, Amanda, disagree about what to do with the family home—Amanda wants to sell, Ginny doesn't. As they bicker about what to do with the house and the problems caused by Ginny's awkwardness, Ginny comforts herself by cooking and soon learns that the dishes she prepares can conjure spirits. The ghosts, including her grandmother, leave clues about possible family secrets, as do a box of photographs Ginny discovers tucked away. McHenry's idea of writing an Asperger's narrator works well for the most part, but the supernatural touches undermine her admirable efforts and add a silly element to what is otherwise an intelligent and moving account of an intriguing heroine's belated battle to find herself.



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06 May 2012, 11:48 am

Ames76 wrote:
The Kitchen Daughter by Jael McHenry.

The Kitchen Daughter

From Publishers Weekly
Quote:
An Asperger's-afflicted woman finds the keys to life and her family history in the kitchen after her parents die in McHenry's inspired if uneven debut. Ginny Selvaggio has lived a sheltered life: unable to maintain eye contact, make friends, or finish college due to her undiagnosed condition, the 26-year-old lives in her parents' home, surfing the Internet and perfecting recipes. But after her parents die, Ginny and her sister, Amanda, disagree about what to do with the family home—Amanda wants to sell, Ginny doesn't. As they bicker about what to do with the house and the problems caused by Ginny's awkwardness, Ginny comforts herself by cooking and soon learns that the dishes she prepares can conjure spirits. The ghosts, including her grandmother, leave clues about possible family secrets, as do a box of photographs Ginny discovers tucked away. McHenry's idea of writing an Asperger's narrator works well for the most part, but the supernatural touches undermine her admirable efforts and add a silly element to what is otherwise an intelligent and moving account of an intriguing heroine's belated battle to find herself.


Sounds good, some of these others sound interesting too.


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