Ratings3
Average rating3.7
An eighth-grade girl with Asperger's syndrome tries to befriend her new neighbor, facing many challenges along the way.
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SpoilerOK, so this book was nothing how I expected. I thought it's gonna be a soft book (even though the cover might have said otherwise) about an autistic girl and her struggles with making friends. In a way, it was also that but it was edgy and too much YA than MG. Basically, a lot of trouble happens in this, from underage drinking to bullying, to drug-making neighbors to troubled families, it was a big mess. As if being autistic isn't enough it had to be to the X-treme (get it? Imma head out sorry). I found Kiara's special interest to be cute even though I'm not into X-men but I do love comics a lot anyways! The book felt like it was set in the old days I dunno why. Like in the early 2000's something. I loved that Kiara was trying hard to do the right thing and be a friend to Chad even though he wasn't doing the same exactly and Kiara kept making a lot of trouble anyways. She just didn't seem to think things through I guess (relatable). Since the moment we met Chad I was so sure he was ADHD and the thing that they were making Methamphetamines made me more sure. But when we learned more about his crazy abusers and drug producers' parents I'm not so sure. Other kids did find him weird and he was failing but that could have been because of his terrible parents and constant stress as well. I'm not sure but an ASD girl befriending an ADHD guy looked nice to me. Anyways Brandon was very cute though. I didn't like the drinking and kids beating themselves up. I found it weird that Kyara liked hanging out with them because I can't even imagine myself doing it, it makes me feel so itchy... I didn't like that the author used the term Aspergers to describe Kyara's condition and that Kyara kept calling it a mutation of DNA and stuff. It's not like that. Aspergers is not a type of autism, it's autism spectrum disorder itself. And also why wasn't Kyara sensitive to the loud noises, like the police and firefighter sirens, the explosion, people shouting and beating each other up, seeing people all burned and stuff. I'm sure I would have died if I was in her place. And failing tests on purpose was a pretty bold move. Also making her be a genius at all subjects didn't seem realistic to me, autism isn't like that. I don't know if the author is ASD herself but some stuff didn't feel right to me. It did keep me very interested in it tho, I hyperfocused and read it in a few hours. I'd say maybe such bold books aren't for me, I dunno. I do hope Kyara lives happily with her mom and her new brothers though. I mean they deserve a good family but am not sure Kyara's parents are the ones. They didn't seem to understand their autistic daughter much and now they have a possible ADHD kid and one small cutie bean too. Yeah, Imma head out! If you're into these kinda stories, give it a go. I won't stop ya! Oh, and I liked Kyara's google searching, I do that too, not sure if it helped tho... And I liked that Kyara was not a typical girl but a tomboy, I liked that! Good book for those who love bold and pretty YA books with troubled characters!