According to amazon, the author of this book encouraged a social media pile-ons towards someone who left a negative review of it, so, please don't do that to me, OK? I know you have RSD but this isn't a personal attack, just an objective opinion of the book.

Firstly, the good. As mentioned earlier, the author has RSD (Rejection Sensitivity Disorder). Me too! And the section about that was well worth a read, it helped me understand myself better and would be helpful to show other people, I think. Secondly, there is a section about rethinking our own perspectives around disability and having a disabled child, and that was also well worth a read.

Neutral point - there was a lot here that I personally have already read and thought about. Perhaps if you are newer to reading/learning/thinking about autism then you will get more from it than I did - clearly a lot of people love it.

Now to the negative. I was so disappointed by how short and shallow the book is. Luckily I only paid £1 for it or I'd be demanding a refund! I read the whole thing in about an hour. It's told very much from the author's POV (which, fair enough, is her experience, but there was nothing to stop her including detailed case histories and suchlike) and there's very little in the way of practical advice. Also, she is the parent of a child who was diagnosed privately as a teenager after basically sailing through primary school - if you have a child whose issues were much more apparent from a much younger age and who has been through the NHS assessment process, you're not going to find a lot here to relate to, as the book is very centred around her and her child's experience. Another element I didn't like was that the author comes across as quite combative towards professionals, assuming that they're not going to help and will just blame parents for everything. Quite aside from the fact that this may put people off seeking support, it doesn't tie in with my experiences at all. Have I felt judgement from "family" and "friends"? Yes. From professionals? No. Again, this is just my experience, but there was very little about how socially isolating parenting a child with SEN can be and what to do when people you know personally are judgemental about their behaviour. Back to the professional angle - the author seemed to have a very "us vs. them" approach and completely ignored the fact that there may even be people who work in education or social care and have ND children/are ND themselves. Professionals don't *want* to not help (OK there will be the odd rogue person but generally) - often their hands are tied as to what they can do due to lack of resources and so on.

Overall the book felt like a series of blog or facebook posts rather than, well, a book. Obviously a lot of people have really enjoyed it but I was just left feeling disappointed and that I hadn't read anything deep enough to qualify as a book. An easy way to add to my Goodreads annual total I guess.