Odd Girl Out
An Autistic Woman in a Neurotypical World
Failed to add items
Add to basket failed.
Add to wishlist failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 3 months for £0.99/mo
Odd Girl Out
Buy Now for £10.99
-
Narrated by:
-
Louiza Patikas
-
By:
-
Laura James
About this listen
What do you do when you wake up in your mid-forties 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.
The memoir, Odd Girl Out, gives a timely account from a woman negotiating the autistic spectrum, from a poignant and personal perspective.
Listeners also enjoyed...
Critic reviews
A must read. giving hope for autistic adults.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
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.
good and relatable to life as an autistic person
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Great
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
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.
Insightful and educational
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
relatable
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.