Disappointing

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Two and a half stars.

The first of half of Swenson's memoir of parenting a child who is severely autistic is told in a linear and straight-forward manner. It was interesting, if dry at points. As the book progresses, Swenson becomes very repetitive and loses focus on her target audience. At times, she wants those unfamiliar with autism to understand her "secret world." I've been extremely familiar with autism for decades, and while Swenson wasn't familiar with autism until after 2011, when her son was born, I think she does not give enough credit to this portion of her audience. Given the extremely high rate of diagnosis today (some estimates as high as 1 in 49) many, maybe most, people have at least a passing familiarity with autism. At other points in the memoir, Swenson addresses parents of the newly diagnosed child and shares advice and encouragement.

The second half of the memoir feels poorly edited - I'm not sure if Swenson copied blog posts for these chapters or rushed through them - she repeats her thoughts and philosophies, defines the same terms multiple times, and no longer follows a linear progression. She sweeps past major milestone moments and contradicts herself at times. As interested as I am in autism, and her son's story is compelling, I lost interest as the memoir progressed. I don't follow her blog so I can't say if this will be a good read for that audience or not, but in general this memoir lacks a clear focus. Swenson is most likely used to writing short-form articles/blogs, and I think a professional co-author would have been really beneficial here.