Summer Blog #3 - Anything but Typical

Pages Read: Finished
Prompt: Did you enjoy what you read?

Anything but Typical  is a book about Jason Blake, a boy with high-functioning autism. Jason doesn't like talking to people because of his autism. It makes it difficult for him to talk to people.

"Neurotypicals like it when you look them in the eye. Just because you are not looking at someone does not mean you are not listening. I can listen better when I am not distracted by a person's face: What are their eyes saying? Is that a frown or a smile? Why are they wrinkling their forehead or lifting their cheeks like that? What does that mean? How can you listen to all those words when you have to think about all that stuff?"

 So, he writes stories online. There, he doesn't have to worry about looking at people or people looking at him. He likes making up these stories and eventually wants to become an author. The book is mainly about Jason and a particular person that commented on a story he wrote online. It's a girl, and it turns out he really really likes talking to her. Later, Jason finds out his parents have arranged for him to go to a writing convention in Texas. Rebecca, the girl Jason has been talking to, is also going. Jason doesn't want to go anymore. He's scared that Rebecca won't like him anymore because of his autism and it's all she'll notice about him. And I'm not going to spoil if he meets Rebecca or not!

I've read two other books where the main character has high functioning autism like Jason does and all these books I find very interesting. Of course, the plots of all these books have been very interesting, but in all the books, it's been in first-person view. This is what makes them very interesting, I think. I think it's just really interesting to hear a story told from the POV of someone who has autism. People with autism understand things different that how those without do, so reading a book with a POV of someone with autism is just a whole different view on things. It's just really interesting, so I really liked this book for that.

The plot of this book was also pretty good. The big important question of whether or not Rebecca will still accept him is kind of a risky thing. It made for an interesting finale. Since Jason writes stories, we even get to see a bit of the plot of two of his stories. Both of his stories are about a character who has something about them that make people dislike the character, like how many people would dislike Jason because of his autism. As the story itself goes on, Jason keeps adding on to one of his stories in particular. It's about a dwarf who's given the opportunity to get a surgery to become the same height as everyone else. I really liked this story because it had an interesting message and just the plot itself was really neat.

Overall, I really liked this book. A lot. I really recommend it.