(A note about language: the words used to describe autistic people is a conversation that appears in this book. For the purposes of this review, I am going with "autistic" rather than "person with autism" because that is the language that the autistic people I know overwhelmingly prefer for themselves, as well as the language that most of the characters in the book who are talking about themselves rather than others use. If I meet a person who wants to be described as having autism, I'll respect their wishes when talking about them, but outside of those specific circumstances I'm going with the average.)
It has been about eleven years since The Rosie Effect, Don and Rosie have moved back to Australia, and their son, Hudson, is having some trouble at school. With a video that went viral causing some problems for Don at work as well, he decides to take a leave of absence that will allow Rosie to work full time while he focuses on The Hudson Project, including putting together a panel of experts from among his friends to teach his son the lessons Don deems important for somebody growing up different. School administrators with significantly less expertise in the area than one would want suggest that Hudson may be on the autism spectrum, which raises the question of whether a diagnosis would be beneficial to him or cause others to try to keep him in a box- and which also raises long ignored questions for Don about himself.
Objectively, I recognize that this is probably not as good a book as The Rosie Project. Neither of the sequels is as successful on a purely comedic level as the first, and the first did establish what the series was trying to be. However, The Rosie Result has become my favorite book in the series. It has moved away from the lightly sketched, quirky-but-not-officially-named depictions of autistic people a la Sheldon in The Big Bang Theory to an insightful, nuanced depiction of many different ways of thinking, perceiving the world, and forming community. In addition to the ongoing adventures of Don and Rosie and the beginning of Hudson's coming of age, I very much enjoyed revisiting Don's old friends and learning more about his family of origin, and I would love to visit his bar. This isn't as good a comedic romp as The Rosie Project, but it's satisfying in a way that the beginning of the series never suggested.
Overall: A
The Rosie Result will be available May 28.