Strong Female Character

I thought this book very insightful into how the mind of an autistic woman would work. She really explained her lived experience of trying to understand why she keeps on getting overwhelmed, the bizarre tendencies which have not benefitted her in blending in at all, and particularly interesting in hearing how she perceives language. I continue to be a bit upset about the whole diagnosing criteria being based on studied male subjects only, and how many times she was laughed out of the idea of being autistic by professionals due to very ridiculous nominal reasons. This definitely needs updating to allow women and girls to get more of the support and help and insight into how to best cope in this world which is not very autistic-friendly.
I thought it quite straightforward and how direct, as I'm sure her brain works, including how she has internalised the social norms and expectations for women. Despite the pushback for more acceptance of every size and type of body, this is not really something that is reflected in the media and equal opportunities unfortunately. Sometimes that fresh perspective of one who takes everything literally can show how messed up this is indeed.

To me this feels like a book written by someone who is processing her own life and fairly late diagnosis with autism and sharing with us in real time. It's interesting to process it with her, although I might have enjoyed reading a more reflective work that comes later more. Maybe that will come later! There's also a lot of overlap in content with her standup, which makes sense—we have but one life to draw from.

Some specifics about why it didn't fully land for me: - Memoirs where people give a lot of detail to childhood events that are hard to believe anyone remembering in such detail always rub me the wrong way. - It felt like each story in the book was forced to tie into to her late autism diagnosis from a narrative standpoint, and I wish there was more space to just learn about her and her experience without the heavy hand.

I'd recommend if you like her comedy work or are interested in the book description, though!

A brutally honest report on growing up autistic and female in the central belt of Scotland.
It's a difficult book to write about, as there are ways our lives overlap which is what drew me to it, but the divergences and the extent of the trauma she seems to have suffered make any personal comparison irrelevant. The reading experience was a familiar background and setting, into which jarring and bizarre events are inserted, and occasional info dumps about aspects of autism that are used to cap off some chapters.
Her humor cuts through to counterpoint the horror, but the bitter, acerbic assessment of many of the people she's met often leaves a sour taste.
I wonder what this book might have been like with a little more time to reflect and refine, but it's probably better that we have it now to lift a mirror to the ongoing crisis autistic women are suffering through.