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Odd Girl Out

An Autistic Woman in a Neurotypical World

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Odd Girl Out

By: Laura James
Narrated by: Louiza Patikas
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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.

©2017 Laura James (P)2017 Macmillan Digital Audio Children's Health Mental Health People with Disabilities Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Relationships Autism Inspiring Thought-Provoking

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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.

Insightful and educational

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She is honest and open. Formsomeone undergoing the assessment for autism herself, there have been things that resonate and things that very much don't. as they say, when you've met one autistic person, you've met one autistic person.
This book is very well written, so easy to listen to and reassuring for those that are still working in identifying their neurodiversity.
Highly recommended.

A wonderful insight into one woman's neurodiversity

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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.

Fascinating and Important

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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.

A well narrated personal account of late diagnosed autism

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as a self diagnosed 40 year old waiting for my assessment, all I kept saying was" that's like me " I loved every word best book I have listened to during my current intense interest lol of autism. thank you it has helped me very much xx

sooo comforting

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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.

Love the book, hate the accents and voices

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if you're autistic, know someone who is our are just interested in broadening your understanding of neurodivergent minds, this book is perfect. I absolutely loved it. it's so human and relatable. highly recommend. I'll miss listening to it.

wonderful. made me feel understood

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A great life affirming story of the importance of understanding and accepting yourself, whatever your neurology.

Fascinating and warm.

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I devoured this book in two sittings. It was a hard listen, not because of the story but because I felt like i could have been written about me. So much resonated. I cried many fat shuddering tears, some moments felt like being punched in the stomach with awareness. People often bandy the phrase “life changing book” around but in this case, and for me, it felt like a watershed listen.

Wow

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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.

good and relatable to life as an autistic person

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