History YMMV / TheCuriousIncidentOfTheDogInTheNightTime

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Are Christopher's violent, anti-social tendencies and general lack of empathy for others a symptom of his autism? Or is it more the result of the emotional and physical abuse he has suffered throughout his life?

* TheWoobie: Christopher, of course.

* TearJerker

* TheUntwist: GenreSavvy readers will pick up on certain plot revelations, such as [[spoiler: Mr. Shears' affair with Christopher's very-much-alive mother]] pretty early into the story. [[TropesAreNotBad On the other hand, part of the book's appeal is seeing Christopher piece together this information as he slowly begins to understand other people.]]

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Are Christopher's violent, anti-social tendencies and general lack of empathy for others a symptom of his autism? Or is it more the result of the emotional and physical abuse he has suffered throughout his life?

** And later, [[spoiler:his father. Even though he did kill Wellington, just look at the man; his wife leaves him, leaving him to take care Christopher by himself. Later, Chris hates him for lying about Chris's mother, and doesn't talk to him for a long time, leaving his father to ''sit on the floor next to Chris's bedroom''. This guy needs a hug for all he's been though.]]

* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy: All of the characters are jerks in some way, even the main character, making it extremely hard or near impossible to care about anyone or how the book will end.

* CriticalResearchFailure: May as well be the name of the novel, as far as autism is concerned. Possibly intentional on the part of the author, who admits to doing [[http://www.markhaddon.com/aspergers-and-autism doing no research on the subject]].

*** Or maybe the [[MoralEventHorizion real]] horror is that the novel is still commonly regarded as an accurate depiction of autism.

* CriticalResearchFailure: May as well be the name of the novel, as far as autism is concerned. Possibly intentional on the part of the author, who admits to doing [[[[http://www.markhaddon.com/aspergers-and-autism doing no research on the subject]].

*** Or maybe the [[MoralEventHorizion real]] is that the novel is still commonly regarded as an accurate depiction of autism.

* CriticalResearchFailure: May as well be the name of the novel, as far as autism is concerned. Possibly intentional on the part of the author, who admits to doing [[[[http://www.markhaddon.com/aspergers-and-autism]] doing no research on the subject]].

*** Or maybe the ''[[MoralEventHorizion real]] is that the novel is still commonly regarded as an accurate depiction of autism.''

* CriticalResearchFailure: May as well be the name of the novel, as far as autism is concerned. Possibly intentional on the part of the author, who admits to doing no research on the subject.

* Critical Research Failure: May as well be the name of the novel, as far as autism is concerned. Possibly intentional on the part of the author, who admits to doing no research on the subject.

* {{Hypocrite}}: Christopher frequently derides normal people for being illogical, although much of what he does is equally illogical. For example, he feels that it is stupid that some people randomly have bad days. He has a much more logical reason for deciding a day is bad - seeing three yellow cars on the way to school.

* UnfortunateImplications: Many real-life readers with Aspergers do '''not''' like Chris' characterization, to the point of considering him TheScrappy.

** The [[FromBadToWorse ''real'']] horror about this scene is that Christopher considers this a ''good'' dream. He is so isolated from other people that the thought of all the people he doesn't understand (and who don't understand him) dying and leaving him alone in a quiet and unintrusive world actually makes him feel happy.

** The [[ItGotWorse ''real'']] horror about this scene is that Christopher considers this a ''good'' dream. He is so isolated from other people that the thought of all the people he doesn't understand (and who don't understand him) dying and leaving him alone in a quiet and unintrusive world actually makes him feel happy.

* HighOctaneNightmareFuel: Christopher's dream. [[spoiler:To be precise, it is about a virus that spreads through certain facial expressions, spreading like a computer virus, and leaving alive only people like Chris that never look at others' faces.]]
** The [[ItGotWorse ''real'']] nightmare fuel about this scene is that Christopher considers this a ''good'' dream. He is so isolated from other people that the thought of all the people he doesn't understand (and who don't understand him) dying and leaving him alone in a quiet and unintrusive world actually makes him feel happy.

* HighOctaneNightmareFuel: Christopher's dream. [[spoiler:To be precise, it is about a virus that spreads through certain facial expressions, spreading like a computer virus, and leaving only people like Chris that never look at others' faces alive.]]

* AcceptableNationalityTargets: Among the many things Chris hates, he hates France.

* HighOctaneNightmareFuel: Christopher's dream.

[[redirect:TheCuriousIncidentOfTheDogInTheNighttime]]

* AcceptableNationalityTargets: Among the many things Chris hates, he hates France.
* HighOctaneNightmareFuel: Christopher's dream.
* TearJerker
* TheWoobie: Christopher, of course.
** And later, [[spoiler:his father. Even though he did kill Wellington, just look at the man; his wife leaves him, leaving him to take care Christopher by himself. Later, Chris hates him for lying about Chris's mother, and doesn't talk to him for a long time, leaving his father to ''sit on the floor next to Chris's bedroom''. This guy needs a hug for all he's been though.]]
*** [[KickThemWhileTheyAreDown And he'll probably never get that hug]] (at least not from Christopher, who hates touching/being touched.)
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