Good Different by Meg Eden Kuyatt | Book Review

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After an incident, an autistic girl tries to find herself again.

Selah, a 13-year-old girl, has always followed her “normal person” rules so she could not stick out at her school—things like not talking about her particular interest, dragons, too much. Only outside of school, she can be herself. But one day, when one of the girls was bothering her, she snapped and punched the girl squarely on the nose. Now, the way people look at Selah is never the same again after her suspension. What will this mean for Selah, and how can she fix it?

This is a beautiful novel-in-verse that celebrates being Good Different.

Thank you, @avainbookland, for sending me this book! I truly enjoyed reading more books about autistic kids (like me), and I even took some notes from the book. Here are the things I quote that resonated with me: “Autism is a word I’ve heard before, but it’s never been said like it’s a good thing.” Some people in middle school made some mean jokes about the word Autism. It’s rarely said like it’s a good thing.
“They love repetition, routines, and special interests.” I have a lot of particular interests: reading, history, etc.

Selah is a very passionate and relatable character. She’s also a fantastic poet. Her friend, Noelle, is a loyal friend and Lord of the Rings fan. Addie (the girl) is a complicated and slightly annoying character (though I’m not saying she deserves to be hit in the face because it is wrong to do that, autistic or not).

I highly recommend this book to anyone, neurodivergent or not, that loves a moving story with passion.

My rating