Kerri’s answer to “Did this book make you guys think about autism and mental health in the world?” > Likes and Comments

I have Asperger's Syndrome and think the author did a pretty poor job. Christopher is a walking stereotype of a kid on the Autism spectrum. He has no personality outside of having the disorder. Every quirk or like of his is just another stereotype. Everything he does is Asperger's related. You know, there is more to children with Asperger's than being Asperger. They may like reading. Is it because they are a savant who excels at reading? No, they just like reading.
Also, kids with Asperger's have a dissociation with emotions and have trouble feeling them sometimes. They still feel and can learn to understand emotions though. From what I gathered from Christopher: He didn't once empathize with another human being besides himself and he never ever understood what others felt and had no interest in knowing.
Christopher also shows signs of narcissism. Besides the above, he lives in his own world where no one is important but himself and those he deems worthy, which only consist of mathematicians. Not his father who raised him and worked so hard to make everything in his life right. The kid also fails to realize how his actions affect others. For example, I understand that being touched may freak him out but he makes no acknowledgement that it probably wasn't an appropriate response. He just says, "A man touched my arm. I screamed and hit him. The man let go of my arm and walked off." I mean, he should at least understand that his reactions aren't normal but he can't even see that. Most Autistic kids can see that. Not understanding how it affects others besides himself shows a complete dissociation with the world around him.
He is just... ugh! I hated him so much. I can't even begin to fathom why people like the book, much less the character who only "good quality" is his quirks.

Fair enough.

Yeah, this book was super gross....

Just because a book portrays *a characte with autism* a certain way doesn't mean Hammond is saying 'all autistic people are like this'. You could literally level this criticism at any character with autism ever.