As an autistic woman, I felt so much frustration reading this book. While I found Molly to be a very likable character and a woman with whom I would most likely enjoy being friends, I felt that the author made Molly out to be too much of a caricature of an autistic woman. It is not directly said that Molly is autistic; still, she clearly aligns with all of the DSM characteristics of ASD, and she significantly reminds me of both myself when I was younger as well as my husband, who is also autistic.

The aspect of the book that bothered me the most was how Molly's autistic characteristics were presented as character flaws. The author put ableist words into Molly's mouth, peppering the text with negative comments about Molly, both from her own mouth and the mouths of others. Here are some examples:

"I felt horrible, like a complete fool." - Molly about herself, page 58
"Molly the Mutant. Roomba the Robot. The formality freak." - Molly listing nicknames her coworkers have given her, page 171
"But even as I say it, I realize I'm a fool." - Molly about herself, page 258

This large number of comments of this sort felt insulting to me as a member of her neurodivergent audience, especially considering that this was written by an author who has not revealed herself to be neurodivergent. The book was clearly written with a neurotypical audience in mind, seemingly at the expense of her neurodivergent audience. It made me wonder if she wrote Molly's character to express her own ableist opinions. I am all for autistic representation in books, and I'm not entirely against non-autistic people writing autistic characters, but I just don't think this was done right. Another reviewer (https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8LyMDBA/) mentioned that this felt very 'othering,' and I must agree with her.

Sally Hepworth's The Good Sister is another book with an autistic main character, written by a neurotypical author but in a way that didn't perpetuate negative stereotypes. The Good Sister even has similar themes of an autistic person being taken advantage of by someone they trust, but it handles this theme in a way that seems much more respectful to the book's autistic audience.

Honestly, I do not understand why this book has so many positive reviews calling it a cozy book. Reading the first two-thirds of this book felt physically painful, and I considered DNFing it several times. I just felt an abundance of pain for Molly and all of the horrible things she went through, thinking both back to my own related experiences in my youth or thinking about how something like this could happen to my autistic loved ones. The book got better around the two-thirds mark because it started presenting Molly in less of a negative light, but it still contained themes reinforcing harmful stereotypes about ASD. For example, after only one day of having new friends, Molly thought, "I will recognize the expression instantly. I will know it means fear because I'm getting better at this—understanding the subtle cues, the body language that expresses emotional states." That's just not how neurodivergence works, and it was frustrating to read.

Despite this book's harmful qualities, it does have some good things going for it. For the most part, the kind characters are fairly loveable and well thought-out, the story is well-written, and the plot kept me wanting to see things turn out for Molly. As a lover of slow-paced, character-centered plots, I found this book to be paced wonderfully. The book's final third was highly engaging and interesting, and the twists differed a bit from my initial assumptions. I also appreciated that it had a well-resolved and satisfying ending.

Overall, I did not find this an enjoyable read, but I can see how it might be a pleasant read for people who don't notice all the ableism. I'm glad I only borrowed this book from the library because I don't anticipate rereading this, recommending this book to others, or reading the rest of this series by this author. There's a lot of disability activism that's left to be done to improve autistic representation in media. Still, unfortunately, I do not recommend this book to anyone seeking more authentic ASD representation.