'Kids Like Us' by Hilary Reyl
- Pages for the People
- Nov 6, 2017
- 2 min read
Goodreads ‘Kids Like Us’ Synopsis –
‘Martin is an American teen on the autism spectrum living in France with his mom and sister for the summer. He falls for a French girl who he thinks is a real-life incarnation of a character in his favourite book.
Over time Martin comes to realize she is a real person and not a character in a novel while at the same time learning that love is not out of his reach just because he is autistic.’
(Click on Book Cover to head over to the Goodreads Page)
My ‘Kids Like Us’ Review –
I’ve finally finished it!! First of all, it only took me two days to read this novel. Quick for me but it felt like such a slow process. I must say that this was such a delightful book featuring adorable relationships between family and friends that I thought everyone could relate to.
What I enjoyed most about this narrative was the presence of autism. Throughout this novel I felt like I learned more about ASD than before. The main character, Martin, is a teenage boy struggling to make friends and interact with other people.
His relationships between his own family is so unique (one of the biggest reasons why I liked this book so much). I felt like their interactions were the definition of ‘walking on eggshells’. This is mainly because they didn’t want to upset Martin in any way that he could react either physically or emotionally.
I must say, that in the beginning, Martin’s story was a little hard to understand but I grew used to his mannerisms and language.
Why I didn’t give this novel a 5/5 stars is mainly because it took a long time for me to understand where the story was starting off. I only found out that Martin and family had moved from California two-thirds of the way through the novel.
I would have liked to understand more about the environment Martin was in and where in France he was staying.
The last thing I didn’t enjoy about this novel would have to be his referrals back to his beloved book ‘Search’. Sometimes I thought that it was a tool for him to use when trying to figure out people's behaviours and perhaps give him clues for how he should interact with others.
In saying that, I thought that this book portrayed ASD really well. The humour in the novel was used in a way that didn’t make it feel forced or cliché. Definitely give this novel a read if you are interested in easy-read contemporary novels or if you want understand autism a bit better.
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