I was excited whenever he appeared because I looked forward to further exploring his character or his tight, lifelong friendship with Isla, but was disappointed nearly every time-despite knowing that that’s to be expected when reading specifically for a secondary character. They appear when they plot calls for it and are in large part defined by their relationship with the protagonist. In Isla, this is very much the case for Kurt. That means that reviewing the portrayal of autism in books like New York Times bestselling YA romance Isla and the Happily Ever After, in which the titular character’s best friend Kurt is autistic, can be complicated.īy their very nature, secondary characters are, well, secondary. Many autistic portrayals-whether in fiction or news media-are problematic because they sideline autistic people, who become important only in how they affect others.
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