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Odd Girl Out
- An Autistic Woman in a Neurotypical World
- Narrated by: Louiza Patikas
- Length: 8 hrs and 18 mins
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Summary
What do you do when you wake up in your mid-40s and realize you've been living a lie your whole life? Do you tell? Or do you keep it to yourself?
Laura James found out that she was autistic as an adult, after she had forged a career for herself, married twice and raised four children. Odd Girl Out tracks the year of Laura's life after she receives a definitive diagnosis from her doctor, as she learns that 'different' doesn't need to mean 'less' and how there is a place for all of us, and it's never too late to find it.
Laura draws on her professional and personal experiences and reflects on her life in the light of her diagnosis, which for her explains some of her differences; why, as a child, she felt happier spinning in circles than standing still and why she has always found it difficult to work in places with a lot of ambient noise.
Although this is a personal story, the book has a wider focus, too, exploring reasons for the lower rate of diagnosed autism in women and a wide range of topics including eating disorders and autism, marriage and motherhood.
This memoir gives a timely account from a woman negotiating the autistic spectrum, from a poignant and personal perspective.
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What listeners say about Odd Girl Out
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- Mamalina
- 26-04-21
Insightful and educational
Amazing book. It gives invaluable insight in how life on spectrum feels for the author. I found to be very educational and interesting.
Narration was good, but I found it odd that narrator decided to give different voices and accents to quotes from scientific literature or actual interviews with professionals. To me it felt as though narrator was mocking them.
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- Sally
- 05-02-23
Fascinating and Important
Thank you for an honest look at your own experience. It has made me cry, widen my eyes in recognition and feel immense relief. This will be so helpful to everyone, regardless of background. Brilliant.
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- Allie
- 19-02-23
A well narrated personal account of late diagnosed autism
I thought this was an insightful and interesting account of female autism. While everyone is different, there will be much of Laura’s story that will resonate.
I enjoyed the narration - beautiful pronunciation and variation in tone with different people voices differently.
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- Anya
- 12-08-18
priceless
so grateful to the Author for writing, sharing and being herself. above all it's a very entertaining read.
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- BrigFin
- 16-05-17
Brilliant
Where does Odd Girl Out rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
Best Ever.
What did you like best about this story?
So many similarities to my life. Found it quite comforting and unsettling both at the same time.
Which scene did you most enjoy?
Too many to write about.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
Definately
Any additional comments?
I loved this book. Thank you Laura James. I now need to pluck up the courage to get a diagnosis myself.
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- J. C. Wright
- 07-12-22
A beautiful book and a lovely story
The author was inspiring and gave a good account of an autistic life what would be called highly functioning autism nowadays but was very lucky at the same time being able to have a husband and children that she had successfully brought up , in addition to a successful Career and a lovely home -some more extreme cases on the spectrum would not be able to manage anything like this, but a pleasant read nevertheless.
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- BusyLizzie
- 22-01-24
Devoured it
Very engaging, well written and narrated, such that it was so easy to devour it and listen within a week or so (family life being the limiting factor!). It felt more like a novel than a non-fiction book, A very useful, real, insight into being a late diagnosed autistic woman. Thank you Laura.
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- R590
- 13-08-21
really enjoyed this recommend to everyone
Perfectly read by Louiza Patikas, and very interesting. Things are explained so well by the author. I recommend.
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- Dr A Wilcock
- 01-11-22
good and relatable to life as an autistic person
really enjoyed this - it resonated a lot with my experiences as an autistic person and what I went through when I was diagnosed.
the naration is easy to listen to, the intonation suggests to me the narator is not autistic; this would probably liven it up a bit for a non autistic audience - but for me as an autistic person it felt slightly inauthentic in terms of how and when different elements of intonation were applied to express emotions when the author wasn't likely to express them in that way, which unbalanced it a bit for me but I think it would appeal to a neurotypical listener.
in terms of understanding the experience of living 40+ years as an undiagnosed autistic person and being unaware of why so many things in life are so hard - the book does an excellent job. the author explains the transition through the assessment process and her own transition from trying to hide the autism to accepting who she is.
I'm not so keen on the reliance of the psychologist Tony Attwood; a lot of his work (and perspectives about autism) is out of date and in professional spaces he frequently mocks autistic people to make points about "autistic deficits" but this is somewhat toned down in the book by the way it read and by not having him laughing repeated.
overall a great book for anyone exploring what it might like for themselves or a loved one as they transition through a diagnstic process and move on with their life into a space of self acceptance and undoing the life time of damage that is common for autistic people.
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- F.K.
- 16-10-21
Love the book, hate the accents and voices
Why does the narrator use different voices and accents? It annoyed me so much.
I loved the story, and it offers a perspective of the life of an autistic woman.
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