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A review by literarystrawberry
Paige Not Found by Jen Wilde
1.75
I liked the representation of autistic experiences like stimming and meltdowns, and showing both the positives (like the joy of engaging with a special interest) and difficulties (like sensory overload) of being autistic. All that seemed to ring true.
Unfortunately, not much else did. The characters felt more like mouthpieces to teach about autism and disability activism than real people. Autistic and neurotypical characters alike all used just the right language and knew precisely how to articulate how they were feeling and why they did the things they did. When there /was/ miscommunication for conflict reasons it was clarified later in heart-to-hearts where the characters spelled out exactly what they had really been thinking and feeling. (Not saying you should never have those scenes where characters communicate those things to each other, but it just felt like /everything/ was spelled out with no room for nuance or complexity.)
The other thing that pulled me out of the story was that the stakes when they "broke into" the Nucleus headquarters were practically non-existent. I know it's a middle grade novel, and you need to be willing to suspend your disbelief to /some/ extent, but everything about this section was so laughably easy (I spent most of the time going "WHERE ARE THE SECURITY CAMERAS") that there was no real tension. //Every single// worker just happens to be at a big meeting so there's no one to see them walk into the (unlocked, unguarded) labs? Because Kelsey knows how to get around the parental controls on her mom's laptop she's able to effortlessly hack into a high security billionaire's laptop with super secret files?? That one lady scientist sees them and doesn't react at all but just lets them keep doing what they're doing despite having no context for why they're there?? (I get that she was already having some second thoughts about the company, but she doesn't know what they're doing, why isn't her first reaction just "Hey, what are these kids doing here?") And then when she /does/ confront them later she decides to quit her job and help them after talking to them for like five minutes?? And why was she the only one at first to be guarding/keeping track of the captured kids, where on earth were all the security guards at this point? (At the big meeting, I guess???) And while the bad guy was a complete "evil billionaire" caricature, they established no stakes for what he might do if he caught them. They kept /saying/ they were risking so much, but nothing ever happened to make me believe they were actually in danger.
So yeah. I'm grateful that we're getting more representation of autism and other disabilities/neurodivergencies in fiction, especially those written by people who have first-hand experience. I just hope that we'll also start to see an increase in the quality of the stories that carry that representation.
Unfortunately, not much else did. The characters felt more like mouthpieces to teach about autism and disability activism than real people. Autistic and neurotypical characters alike all used just the right language and knew precisely how to articulate how they were feeling and why they did the things they did. When there /was/ miscommunication for conflict reasons it was clarified later in heart-to-hearts where the characters spelled out exactly what they had really been thinking and feeling. (Not saying you should never have those scenes where characters communicate those things to each other, but it just felt like /everything/ was spelled out with no room for nuance or complexity.)
The other thing that pulled me out of the story was that the stakes when they "broke into" the Nucleus headquarters were practically non-existent. I know it's a middle grade novel, and you need to be willing to suspend your disbelief to /some/ extent, but everything about this section was so laughably easy (I spent most of the time going "WHERE ARE THE SECURITY CAMERAS") that there was no real tension.
So yeah. I'm grateful that we're getting more representation of autism and other disabilities/neurodivergencies in fiction, especially those written by people who have first-hand experience. I just hope that we'll also start to see an increase in the quality of the stories that carry that representation.