At first this seems like yet another book about a person on the autism spectrum getting things comically wrong by being too literal – the book begins with Sally Diamond putting her adoptive father’s dead body in a trash bag and into their homestead incinerator because he had made a (we assume joking) comment to her that she should do that when he dies and she had taken him literally.
There is a lot more to this story though. We learn with Sally that her adoptive parents (her ‘mum’ had died some time ago) had kept a lot from her about her life before she has lived with them and as these secrets begin to creep out and mysteries unfold some preconceptions are turned on their heads.
The book has a lot of food for thought – how our genetics and our early experiences shape who we become as adults (the old nature versus nurture debate) and how to help children and adults to cope with what has happened to them.
**SPOILER** Don’t read on if you don’t want to be spoiled.
I really enjoyed the book, right up until the end which was such a downer. I had loved that by being part of a community and seeing a therapist, Sally had begun to grow and develop in to a happier and more functional person, but then finding out that her adopted dad had not been the good guy she thought he was, and that her brother had become like their biological father had pushed her back to maybe worse than ever. I wanted there to be an epilogue where Sally had worked through everything again and was doing better. I know life doesn’t necessarily give happy endings, but I’m a sucker for happy endings in fiction all the same.
Still, it was a good read – another one recommended to me by my daughter Becca – thanks Bex!
Sarah Wray Writer 