Review: This Aspie Approves
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 12 21, 2012
Debora Geary proves yet again that she is one of the best modern fantasy writers. Once again her community and characters feel like real people-- individuals with strengths, flaws, and believable dialogues. (And lots of really yummy sounding junk food!) In this installment of the Modern Witch series, Geary touches on a subject often shunned by writers-- an adult on the autism spectrum, specifically with Asperger's (high functioning autism). She doesn't sugar coat it, romanticize it, or condemn it-- she addresses it realistically and has a broad spectrum of reactions to this individual within this community. As an adult with Asperger's I felt she handled this subject matter well. Her character is not precisely like me, though we overlap on some things, but she also is careful to point out that no two cases are the same in regards to autism. I did at times feel like the character was almost falling into some of the stereotypes of people with autism, but she managed not quite to slip into that (such as the photographic memory for maps and OCD behaviors that are what most people recognize as autism, but is not always the case in real life.) The subject matter was handled beautifully, and the story itself is one about love, tolerance, seeing people's strengths, and learning to understand ones own weaknesses-- especially for those used to being strong.