A Boy Made Of Blocks by Keith Stuart #BlogTour

Book Description:

Discover a unique, funny and moving debut that will make you laugh, cry and smile.

Meet thirtysomething dad, Alex
He loves his wife Jody, but has forgotten how to show it. He loves his son Sam, but doesn’t understand him. Something has to change. And he needs to start with himself.

Meet eight-year-old Sam
Beautiful, surprising, autistic. To him the world is a puzzle he can’t solve on his own.

But when Sam starts to play Minecraft, it opens up a place where Alex and Sam begin to rediscover both themselves and each other . . .

Can one fragmented family put themselves back together, one piece at a time?

Inspired by the author’s experiences with his own son, A Boy Made of Blocks is an astonishingly authentic story of love, family and autism.

My Thoughts:

A Boy Made of Blocks is a fiction story based on real life experiences with the authors own son.

Alex has been trying to do the best for his family by investing his time in his work and providing for the family. Sadly he has been neglecting his wife and son to a certain extent and Jody his wife has had enough.

Being a parent can be trying at the best of times but Sam being autistic, at times, makes their experience even more trying which is leaving them both exhausted. Jody has had enough and asks Alex to move out until he sorts himself out and gets his priorities right.

Alex to start with I thought was a bit selfish. I know he is doing his best to provide for his family but when Sam’s behaviour was getting hard to handle he would walk away and leave his wife to deal with it. The death of his brother when they were children seems to have a big impact on Alex and it’s something that is also affecting the relationship with his son.

Your heart can’t help but go out to Alex and Jody though. They have friends with children and as much as they love Sam they crave that connection which doesn’t happen all that often with him. Through an electronic game, Mine Craft, Alex starts to understand more about how Sam sees the world and a connection starts to grow between the two.

What I loved about this book is that it gave me so much more of an understanding for what it must be like to live in a world with autism. Sam is just to adorable for words. As he seems to progress through playing Mine Craft, I felt every bit as proud as Alex and Jody. When it came to the Mine Craft competition I was in absolute floods of tears. I felt very much part of the family as I was so wrapped up in the whole story.

There are so many wonderful characters in this novel. Alex’s network of friends are truly brilliant. His family may be very quirky but you can’t help fall in love with his sister and his mum.

There has been so much hype about this book and I have to say after reading it I totally get why. A Boy Made Of Blocks is a heart warming and emotional roller coaster of a read. It’s a story that reaches into your heart, grabs hold and stays there. Absolutely loved it!

My thanks to Netgalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK for a copy of this book. All opinions are my own and not biased in anyway.

Goodreads rating 5/5 stars.

A Boy Made of Blocks is out now in all formats and available to purchase from Amazon.