The Speed of Dark

At once near-future page-turner and philosophical treatise, The Speed of Dark had me in its grips from start to finish. From the first page, I was completely taken with the narrator, an autistic man who is first commanded and then offered a chance at an experimental cure. It's not surprising that his voice sounds so real, or that I liked him immediately—the author is the mother of an autistic teenager. Her love and understanding shine throughout.

Journeying with Lou as he grapples with this important decision brought me to consider huge questions like what is “normal?” what is self? will Lou still be Lou if he becomes “normal?” I hoped so. We think of autistics as lacking some basic human social or emotional connection. Not true. Sometimes Lou's way makes a lot more sense than mine. Walking through the world inside his brain for a little while, I see the whole place a little differently.