Asta

A very interesting story about growing up with a diagnosis that healthcare professionals don't acknowledge even though it affects every aspect of your life. The audiobook read by Patric Gagne herself was a great listen.

I was sceptical at the beginning, as the author made it sound like she was very aware of the nuances of how her mind worked as a child and teenager, rather than that she was looking at her behaviour through the lense of experience, but when I followed her into college and working life the feeling abated and I was able to enjoy the way she explored her own mind and that of those who were close to her at one point or another.

As always with autobiographies I was at times wondering how much was portrayed as it actually happened and how much was simplified for easier digestion, but Sociopath is all the same a book I would love to read again. It made me think about how I perceive myself and how it would be good for everyone (sociopath or not) to be able to like how they are and who they are. I have to admit I've never thought about sociopathy much at all, I can't even think of the word for it in my native language, and it feels like an interesting thing to look further into.

I wish Patric all the future success in deepening our understanding of the trait and on helping those who are like her.

The first half of this was on par with the first two books, even though Pip's insistence on "being fine" was just frustrating. Go to the effing doctor you idiot.

Then the last half, even the last two hours, happened and everything fell apart. There was potential for a good ending, and while I have to give Jackson points for not taking the expected route she will not get any for what she did instead. It was cringe, overly dramatic and just plain selfishness under the pretence of self-sacrifice. Was that on purpose? Was I supposed to hate Pip by the end of it all? I don't know, but I sure did!

It really feels like the author had the first two part planned very well, and then the last one was done in a hurry. There were points in the beginning, such as Josh casually mentioning a man who's watching the house???, that felt like they were put in to have meaning later in the book, but just never did. What's the point of giving someone a new character trait if it's not actually used in the plot?

There was also WAY too many conveniently empty streets. I don't know about the small towns you all lived in, but I grew up in a tiny one and there's NO WAY all that could happen without someone seeing something.

That ending made me mad, how dare you Holly Jackson.

I've listened to a few of Jackson's YA thrillers and it's clear why this is the most popular! Well paced and makes you feel closer to the characters than in others (possibly because there's less of them?) with a well built mystery. Naturally the MCs insistence of doing everything herself gets rather painful at times, but that's just the burden of the genre.

On the bad side the main character supposedly has a friend group of five, only one of which gets to have an actual personality, the "say no to drugs and alcohol" -message is very blatant but apparently littering is completely okay and doesn't deserve even a guilty conscience and some of the "suspects" keep being brought up but are never actually looked into, which makes their inclusion feel rather forced.

As a whole a good listen, but not quite worth five stars.

So. Boring.

Very confusing, not sure if it was me or the book!