Genre

and
Form

The book contains a dizzying array of generic forms

and literary techniques that work together to both
delight and bamboozle the reader.

Some of the devices that Haddon uses includes:

Pictures
Equations
Digressions
Letters
Candid asides
Typography
The reader is always kept busy and at times as
confused as Christopher, whose condition means that
he is often overwhelmed with sounds and images.

Genre is important not only in the way that the

information in the novel is presented to and
processed by the audience but also in the way the
conventions of genre allow Christopher a means to
make sense of his experiences

The manipulation of the detective genre has a two-pronged effect in Curious:

1. The tropes/conventions of genre act as a guide for readers who would
recognise the elements of crime fiction and make assumptions about the
journey of detection they are about to undertake.
2. The rules of genre also work for Christopher, as the Sherlock Holmes-loving
boy applies his knowledge of the formalised, logical nature of the detective
thriller genre as a way to make sense of his quest to find the dogs murderer
and later to relocate the mother he thought was dead.