I think it's safe to say I have officially found the worst book I've read so far in 2021. I know it sounds weird, surely a wholesome story about an autistic boy and a cat can't be so bad? Well, brace yourselves. Huge trigger warning for ableism and a mention of suicidal thoughts.
When Fraser met Billy details the real-life story of the author's disabled autistic son Fraser and his immensely strong bond to their cat Billy. Booth tells us about the ups and downs of dealing with an autistic son in the first five years of his life.
My Mom got me this book as a present for completing my first two years of my current college course. I had no idea it would be this bad, but it would be.
Full disclosure: the stuff about the boy and the cat is all good and wholesome. They do share a genuine bond and Billy does seem to bring out the best in Fraser. But that's where my praise for this book ends.
Booth herself turns out to be a huge ableist, which is incredibly painful since we're reading her perspective. Also, in case you didn't get the memo: I am autistic.
Particularly the first 150 pages or so is basically just Booth complaining about how "hard" her life is because of her son and how much she wishes she could hide his autism and he would just be normal. She's very obviously ashamed of her son's condition and there are literal sentences where she says she doesn't like her own son and at one point she even contemplates suicide because she doesn't want to deal with him. What. The. Fuck.
So, yeah, this book that I expected to be cute and wholesome was instead mostly (particularly at first) just a (pardon my language) cunt complaining about how hard her life has become since her disabled autistic son has been born. And the fact that this book seems to be getting a ton of 4 or 5 star reviews from people who are very obviously neurotypical makes it all the worse. I think this is one of the times I've been the most angry at a book.
I've never said this about an author before, but fuck Louise Booth. I hope she does some serious self reflecting on all of this and thinks about the messages this book is sending. Because, as an autistic person, all I'm getting from this is that people like Fraser and me are a burden on society and worthy of being ashamed of.
Rating: 0.25/5
Thank you so much for your review. I just started reading this book and was already done with the mom after 10 pages. Hate it so much. I saw your review on StoryGraph, so looked up this review. And again, thank you. I also have autism and felt the same as you. The mom being super ableist and feeling sorry for herself. Hate it. I own the book and going to actually throw it away, don't want anyone to read this.
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