BOOK REVIEW: Thinner by Richard Bachman (Stephen King)

2/5 Stars Blurb: Billy Halleck, good husband and loving father, is both beneficiary and victim of the American good life: He has an expensive home, a nice family, and a rewarding career as a lawyer...but he is also fifty pounds overweight and edging into heart attack country. Review: I didn't even finish this book, because quite frankly, it was boring me, and there were more interesting things to spend my time reading.  Stephen King is regarded as one of the greatest horror writers of all time. I don't doubt that he has an excellent imagination, but I have something to say that will probably be considered controversial. I don't think I enjoy Stephen King books. He is great at ideas, yes, but the actual reading of his books bores me and I think I've just thought of why.  I don't relate to any of his characters. They haven't done anything for me to care about them or root for them. I didn't sit there reading thinner thinking 'aww I hope Billy Halleck doesn't die, I love him' or anything to that sentiment. I'm reading because I'm curious about the gypsy curse and if it's real and if it is, whether it will kill him.  If he does die, fair enough. I don't care enough about him to be devastated about it, and I think that's a sign of a bad book. Readers are supposed to care about the characters and I just don't. At this point someone just telling me the ending in bullet points would satisfy me, hence why I closed it and decided to read something else.

BOOK REVIEW: Twirling Naked in the Streets and No One Noticed: Growing Up With Undiagnosed Autism by Jeannie Davide-Rivera

5/5 Stars

Blurb: 

Jeannie grew up with autism, but no one around her knew it. Twirling Naked in the Streets will take you on a journey into the mind of a child on the autism spectrum; a child who grows into an adolescent, an adult, and becomes a wife, mother, student, and writer with autism. 

This is a gripping memoir of a quirky, weird, but gifted child who grows up never quite finding her niche. It took 38 years to discover that all the issues, problems, and weirdness she experienced were because she had Asperger's Syndrome (AS), a form of high-functioning autism.

Review: 

I read this book in a day and a half. I don't think I've ever read a book so quickly in my life! While I suppose it could be partly due to having a new Kindle, it is also definitely the book itself. 

I have worked with people with Autism in my professional life, and so I wasn't completely unaware of the classic symptoms and traits. However, to see these come to life from a perspective of somebody with Autism, it was insightful. 

Jeannie grew up not knowing about Autism. It was a time when it wasn't widely known or diagnosed and she was seen, even by her own parents, as naughty, or spoilt, or a 'princess'. They didn't understand her stimming behaviours, the need to smell her food before she ate it, or why she was so choosy about which materials her clothes were made out of. 

Even when she was an adult, Jeannie was misdiagnosed with depression and anxiety, even Bipolar, before they came to the conclusion that she in fact, has Asperger's Syndrome. She was failed by society and her parents as a child, and then failed by her doctors as an adult. 

I can't imagine how difficult life must have been for Jeannie not understanding her own behaviours and finding the world confusing with no answers. I teared up toward the end of the book when she finally got her diagnosis, because finally she had some answers. 

I loved this book, because it's one thing to know about Autism but it's another to see it from the eyes of an Autistic person. Insight is useful to us all. 

Watty's Award and Facebook Page

I was absolutely shocked to hear I won a Watty award this year. Over 80,000 titles were entered so to come away with one is absolutely amazing. I love my Wattpad readers!

The award was a hot genre award for Urban fiction. I always considered my book to have a secondary sub genre of urban fiction, leaving the overriding story to romance, but I guess it can really be both. Either way, I'm thrilled. I even got a sticker put onto my existing cover (below)

In other news, I have a new author page on Facebook. If you get a spare second, please like the page to show your support. Many thanks.

P.S - Hope everyone is ready for Christmas!

https://www.facebook.com/GeorgiaPayneAuthor