Almost DNF, it was interesting at first but then it just lost me. I would say about halfway through I just couldn’t wait for it to be over. It was like watching a car accident in slow motion, I couldn’t look away but it was bad. I hoped it would get better, but it didn’t. I’ve read other books from a child’s perspective, and they were better than this one. The spelling errors were really annoying to read, it took longer to figure out what was really being said. I’m not sure what the point of this book was, what is the take away? Was it about mental illness? It certainly doesn’t end well. Any who, I surprised I finished this one.

Also, I’m frustrated that anyone would compare this book to the curious incident, because in my mind there is no comparison.

Our narrator, 9-year-old Lawrence, lives with his mother Hannah and sister Jemima in England. His father, who lives in Scotland, has been bothering Lawrence's mother so she decides to pack up the kids and go on a little vacation — to Rome, in the middle of the school year. They try to live a moderately normal life while being shuffled from house to house among Hannah's old friends and hoping that their father doesn't find them.
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If you can get past the (intentional) grammatical errors, this is a good book. Tells the story of Hanna (the mom), Lawrence (the 9 year old narrator) and Jemima (the 3 year old little sister) and the trip they take to Rome in search of safety (from their estranged father) and the carefree life their mom had enjoyed there as a young adult. Soon we discover that there is much more going on than originally thought. The book kind of sucks you in and drags you along on the trip, dropping clues which we view from Lawrence's perspective...a child who believes in and trusts his mom.

Powerful and effective narrative voice -- with the exception of the intentional yet inconsistent misspellings throughout. Yes, this is the perspective of a nine-year-old boy (authentically and engagingly rendered), but he's telling the story, not writing it. A few false notes in plotting are struck, but overall an interesting story due solely to the point of view.

[in response to blurb comments: I agree that the comparison to Christopher in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is appropriate, but parallels to Scout Finch are way out of this league]

The narration is spot on, but the story itself could’ve have been better. An excellent story nonetheless
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The adventure of the road trip gives way to the unease and fear of being on the run in this beautiful, harrowing story of a British boy’s journey to Italy and back.
The story is old from the point of view of 9-year-old Lawrence — a tricky prospect but one that the author finesses seemingly without effort.
The boy, his 3-year-old sister Jemima and his hamster, Hermann, have been whisked to Rome by the children’s mother, who is convinced that their father is stalking them and trying to kill them. Their mother still has friends in Italy from when she taught there years before, and the family bounces from apartment to apartment and drama to drama.
As they run out of money and Lawrence’s mother slides in and out of depression and paranoia — at one point shutting off the water line into the apartment because she is convinced that her former husband has put poison into it — Lawrence is confused and torn between his desire to help his mother and his fears as he realizes something more is going on.
Kneale’s prose could easily have gone off the rails, sentimentalizing or patronizing the young boy at the heart of this story. But the voice he gives Lawrence is pitch-perfect: artless, guileless, hungry for knowledge and wanting to please. He has just enough knowledge to think he knows what’s going on, without having a clue until near the end. But as adults, we readers can see what’s happening, and we ache in advance for the boy who will find out only too soon.

The ultimate unreliable narrator, a little boy whose world is filtered not just through his own perceptions, but through those of the people around him.

I enjoyed it, and the spelling errors, particularly his idea of how the Italian was spelled, worked fine for me,

This book may have a great story in it but I couldn't get past the gimmick. It's told first person from the point of view of a 9 year old, complete with 9 year old spelling.