Little Alien is a character who goes straight to the heart of the reader. The world around her is a confusing place and the narrator (an older version of herself) is attempting to explain it with the benefit of her years of experience. Whilst similar characters in other books have been praised and fallen in love with, in my opinion, it takes a very special fictional creation to really highlight the genuine difficulties faced by some people whilst simultaneously forging a genuine feeling of empathy. The first one I came across was on television and watching his friends explain 'it's a social convention, you have to do it' to make him understand why he had to do something he found utterly incomprehensible, was enlightening. Little Alien has exactly the same effect. Reading her older self explain the illogicality of something was both moving and educational. Personal experience has led me to try to learn more about how neuro-divergent brains operate in a bid to try to help make it easier for someone to navigate the world and learn to control their impulses and work out socially acceptable behaviour and conversations. To see in print the progress Little Alien makes in her understanding was heartwarming.
Some of the asides she makes are genuinely comical and I can completely understand why she finds certain things baffling. However, what I found most interesting was the hyperfocus on the Voynich Manuscript. This was the thing which rang most true to my own experience and consequently, was the bit I was most intrigued by. I find myself getting drawn into particular areas of research, but rarely to this extent. However, I know people who do get fixated on things and know well the alarming level of detail they are sometimes able to recall.
The other thing I liked was the role books can play in helping us understand a world where very little makes sense. The additions of a reading list to each chapter was a nice touch.
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