Haddon (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime) had much to live up to with A Spot of Bother, and I don't think he lived up to expectations. The Hall family is stereotypical and kind of dull. They each have their problems and one goes from siding with George to Jean to Katie to Jamie to even Ray. By the end it's hard to tell who you should care the most about, or weather you should care about any of them at all. With that being said, this was by no means a terrible book, just mediocre, and that, I think, is the real crime in this novel. Nothing specatular happens, but it's good for a rainy day read. ( )

Great book, so pleased I didn't read it when it first came out, it is so different to Curious Incident. I loved everything about it, it was funny and sad and he gets right inside the mind of his characters so well. I also like how he makes you feel just a little uncomfortable as you are reading. Damn good book. ( )

I liked it. Prefer his first book more. See my full review here: http://amusedbybooks.blogspot.com/200... ( )

Haddon, of course, is the author of 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time', which was so brilliant and unique. With this book, one realizes just how good Haddon is at expressing the internal machinations of the human mind. He represents the perspectives of his delineated cast of characters vividly and faithfully, and the collective brush with insanity that they all experience -- especially the central character, of course -- is so literary and at the same time so real that the reader feels quite caught up in all the bother, so to speak. This is not to say that one feels insane -- there have been other books where I have felt in as worse a shape as the characters, but this has a lighter touch -- but when one surfaces out of this book, from time to time, there is no choice but to be impressed with the language, with the characterization, and with the sheer power of emotion that pervades it.

I don't know if it is "as good" as his previous work -- we have a little bit of apples and oranges here, in many senses -- but I will definitely be reading more of Mark Haddon.

Loved this book! The characters are hilarious. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. ( )