Free Marcus Katz: A Curated Collection of Yelp Reviews, by Howard Marc Chesley

 

Free Marcus Katz!!! is about a man with autism who is fighting for custody of himself. After the death of his mother, Marcus just wants to live by himself and his dog, writing Yelp reviews and enjoying life. However, his sister is after his inheritance money and wants to trap him in a conservatorship, which would suck the money out of his account. Instead of sacrificing his freedom and independence, Marcus runs away in search of a friend he made on Yelp. However, he is framed in a car accident, so he must evade the police, his court-appointed lawyer, and his sister to find freedom.

 This entire book is written in Yelp reviews, so there was kind of a lot of filler material. Otherwise, the format was new and refreshing. I liked the Aspie representation that portrayed Marcus as neither a crazy, unstable person nor a pitiful child who needs constant attention. Instead, he was just a person with ups and downs like everyone else. the book showed both positive and negative portrayals of autism, which was nice. However, one thing that was weird was that the book itself said it was nonfiction, but none of the yelp reviews were real. It seemed like Marcus Katz and his struggles as an autistic person were autobiographical, but he was just fiction. I couldn't find whether the real author was autistic, but it was weird to say the book was written by Marcus Katz, a person with autism, when it wasn't.

Reviewed by LL, Grade 11

Glendale Central LIbrary