Brian Conaghan

Funny, clever, poignant, rude and absolutely brilliant. Brian Conaghan's gobsmackingly original novel does for Tourette's what The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time did for Asperger's.

When Mr. Dog Bites

Terri Arnold

While 'When Mr Dog Bites' is an interesting and enjoyable read, it is often hard to follow the narrative due to the style of writing that was chosen to make you feel like inside the setting of the novel, much how a time piece may use Elizabethan language. Because of this, When Mr Dog Bites makes it hard to follow and almost an effort to read. The highlight of the novel however is the characters, especially that of Dylan Mint and Amir, they are humorous consistently, often making me laugh out loud, and are a joy to read and go on their journey with. That being said, the journey is somewhat lacking, it is almost as if the plot were sacrificed to accommodate the dialogue and characters. Within the novel the plot is subpar, almost as if to work around the "plot twist" later in the story. If anything this "twist" is mediocre and could have easily been a smaller plot within the story that later led up to something more exciting and with more of a climax. Having wanting to read this book for a while now, and thanks to receiving it in a Goodreads win (thanks!!) I was slightly disappointed by the story. Ideally, I would give this book 3.5 stars, but despite the lacking story the characters are the true stars of the piece and make this book something I would recommend again and again because I did honestly have a good time reading it. If I could have my own way I would order countless more books, or even a sitcom TV series, of The Adventures of Dylan Mint that I could sit down to at the end of each day and laugh until my face is sore while I'm eating my dinner. Overall, this a hilarious book that even with a lacklustre plot I would still gladly recommend to anyone wanting a good laugh.

When Mr. Dog Bites

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