I loved this book. It really gave a heartwarming insight into life with an autistic child. I enjoyed the developing relationships and also the link with the minecraft game.

I loved this book. A truly heart warming read about a young boy with autism. Keith shows the highs and the lows, the unblemished truth of living with a child with autism.

I really loved this story. Alex's eight year old son Sam is diagnosed with autism, and his behavioural difficulties create stress in the house and so Alex spends a lot of his time in the office. Of course because of this his relationship suffers. After moving out to live with an old friend, the reality kicks in and how big the changes are that he needs to make. Alex faces haunts from his past and his current situation of a son needing extra care and attention, as well as balancing a healthy relationship.

The author tells this realistic story of the up and downs of life, and what makes his writing more enjoyable is learning that he has a child on the autism scale. Although this book is not about his son, its great to see an author discussing these situations from a personal perspective. The understanding is there and it really is a wonderfully honest book.

I’m going to be honest, I’d been dying to read A Boy Made of Blocks ever since I received an email from the publisher telling me about it. It was about a topic that I didn’t know much about and that I hadn’t read about before and I was intrigued, majorly. I couldn’t wait to be educated and enter a world that I had no clue about.

A Boy Made of Blocks is about thirtysomething Alex, who is struggling. Struggling to keep his marriage to wife, Jody together, struggling to get his life on track and struggling to understand and bond with his son, Sam, who is autistic. After separating from Jody on a trial separation, he moves in with best friend Dan and is soon on a mission to right all his wrongs. Top of the list, is understanding Sam. As Sam introduces Alex to the game Minecraft, it soon starts bringing them closer and maybe this broken family can get back together.

First of all I’m going to say that this book took me on an emotional journey! It evoked all sorts of emotions within me. One moment I was happy, the next angry, the next confused and then the next I was sobbing. It really does tug on your heartstrings. For someone who didn’t know a lot about Autism it really did open my eyes to how hard it can be for both children and their parents and also what to look out for and how to learn how to deal with children on the spectrum. Although it was fiction, I was taken on an educated journey.

I’m not a big gamer, and to be honest I’ve never even played Minecraft but I loved how it was woven into the storyline and became a huge part of it. I enjoyed reading about how Alex and Sam bonded over it and how ultimately it helped them understand each other. It was really unique and something that I hadn’t read about in any book before. When they were playing it it was like they were in their own little world and no one could enter and break what they had. It was really heartwarming to read about. In my opinion it goes to show that things like games can bring people together and change lives, despite the negative press that they sometimes get.

Alex, as a character was quite hard to understand at first. At the beginning you don’t get much of his backstory and why he acts the way he does. However, as the book progresses you get to know him inside out and that’s when you start to realise why he is the way he is. I felt quite sorry for him at times and just wanted to help him sort his life out. Sam, oh my god I loved him! Whenever he was a part of the story it was like I could imagine him as a real person. He was very realistic. Yes, he had times when he wasn’t the best but you gradually start to understand him and I just found him to be really cute! He is a real sweetheart and in the end in my opinion he is the hero of the story.

A Boy Made of Blocks was an outstanding read! It was eye-opening, heartwarming and educational. I literally couldn’t stop reading it. The storyline was unique and unlike anything I’d read before and the themes throughout kept me intrigued and hooked. I also love how it was based of the author’s own experiences with his autistic son. This added to the realism of the book and is probably why the theme of autism was explained in a detailed, exceptional way.

This had been on my TBR pile for quite a while. I have no idea why I hadn't moved it up but WOW what a read. Yet again not my usual genre but feel I need to give these other books a go now and then. I'm so glad I did. This is a huge roller coaster of emotions. I started off not liking Alex, the father of an Autistic son but also plagued by other problems. I ended up loving him and all the other characters. The tears wear rolling throughout and I really didn't want it to end. Highly recommend this FIVE star read

On reading the press release for this upcoming release, I was immediately taken in by the early comments such as “very funny, incredibly poignant and full of insight. Awesome” from author Jenny Colgan. Inspired by the author’s real life experience, I had high hopes for Keith Stuart’s debut.

Focused on the relationship between Alex and his eight-year-old son Sam, it’s the story of how a father comes to understand his son’s complex mind and be the husband and father his family needs. At the beginning of the book, we know that Alex and his wife Jody are experiencing marital problems and Alex moves in with his friend Dan. However, he still sees autistic Sam on a regular basis and throws all of his energy into being there for him. When Sam develops an obsession with Minecraft, Alex joins in and together they build an entire world both on and off the screen.

There is a lot of insight into autism and I learnt so much about the condition through reading it. Alex reads many books on the subject to help him gain access into Sam’s mind and I really enjoyed learning with him. Stuart did a great job of making the autistic mind understandable rather than a tangle of confusion.

Alex also has demons from his past to battle and come to terms with. As a child, his brother was killed in a car accident which Alex feels responsible for. There is as much about him working through this as there is about Sam’s struggles and the parallels between their mental situations become apparent. It’s through this that their mutual need for Minecraft as an escape becomes obvious.

One scene that really stood out for me was the part where Alex visits his mum and they discuss their shared grief. His mother talks about how she learned to cope with the fact she had lost a son. At this point in the book, Alex’s guilt is eating away at him and he is very preoccupied with what happened years before. It’s the turning point of the story. After gaining this wisdom from his mother, Alex starts to deal with his feelings in a healthy way. It’s a wonderful idea that everyone should remember when dealing with loss of a loved one.

There are several points in the book that deliver a real and important message. Even as an adult, Alex is still learning as much as Sam is, which is something that many adults and parents either relate to fully or should take on board. No matter how old you are or how much life experience you have, there will always be things you know nothing about. Whether that’s because you’ve never had to deal with it or because there are whole perspectives you’ve never explored, there will always be plenty to learn.

It’s equal parts funny, poignant and informative with a relatable protagonist, relationships you root for and a loveable cast of supporting characters. I’m sure it will be a very successful debut and I look forward to reading more from Keith Stuart!

As the blurb says, heartwarming indeed. A touching story, depicting the struggle of Alex, the dad, who is estranged from his wife and autistic son. At first he seems like a selfish idiot, but as the story unfolds we see his growing understanding of how to communicate with and understand his son Sam. I found this well written, moving and a really good read which brought tears to my eyes at one point.
Many thanks to the publisher for a review copy.

This was a very emotional book with some difficult topics in it. I thought it dealt with them in a wonderful way.

I loved the relationships within this book. All of them. Things were often difficult between the characters for a whole range of reasons but there was always love present, which was beautiful to read about.

The journey of Sam and his dad really touched me. It was lovely to see the effort go in and pay off for them both.

Only when Alex is asked to leave his family home, does he really start to reflect on the life he could have had. His eight-year-old son Sam was born with autism and to pay the bills and keep a home over their head he had knuckled down in a job he never wanted. His wife was left to care for their son. Only she knew how to handle the tantrums, the hysterical crying, the violent rages. Only she stayed calm during the constant repetitive questions or embarrassing outbursts, But as he sleeps on the floor of his best friends painfully modern apartment he realises he never gave Sam a chance, he only ever walked away from his son when he needed him. His own paralysing fear of damaging his family had become a self fulfilling prophecy.

After a couple of weeks wallowing in self pity, getting drunk and generally regressing, Alex pulls himself together. The one thing that had made his son open up recently was a computer game, he'd become obsessed with the world of Minecraft. The Swedish computer game gave his son a chance to create, build and explore, all within the safety of his own home and at his own speed. With a new found desire to genuinely connect with his son, he starts to play that game himself. The game helps him see the world through his sons eyes and not only does he get to know Sam but starts to truly love and appreciate him.


At first it's hard to feel for Alex, a thirty-something man who has managed to avoid the responsibilities a child with autism brings. But as the story unfolds you're given glimpses into a tragic event in his past that has moulded the way he thinks. His history explains some of his actions and as you follow his genuine efforts to change, you warm to him more and more. His efforts don't always run smoothly and his anxiety and stress don't help him become the father he wants to be but he learns from his mistakes and keeps going.

What seeps through every page is an unwavering honesty about the situation. When his fears are selfish or he doubts his sons ability to cope, he admits this openly. Keith Stuart is writing from experience with this story and it shows. Both his own sons are on the autism spectrum and it is the relationship they have through computer games that inspired this novel. It is hugely refreshing to read a novel (or anything mainstream for that matter!) which represents computer games in such a positive light, uniting families instead of diving them.

Both a story of redemption with an unlikely hero and a heart-warming tale that will make you chuckle and tear-up in equal measures, A Boy Made of Blocks is an outstanding debut.

I don’t mind telling you that I liked this book a whole lot.

I also don’t mind telling you that actually I was a tiny bit unsure that I would, at first. I don’t really know why that is, because let’s be real here: look at the blurb. It is entirely up my street. But I was dubious. I think perhaps it was the title? I don’t know. And it doesn’t matter really because I read it and I liked it a whole lot and that’s the best ever isn’t it? When you love something that you kind of really didn’t think you would?

‘Daddy, what are you doing?’‘What do you mean?’‘Sometimes I am stuck on a thought and I can’t get off it, not for a long time. It stays and stays. Are you stuck on a thought?’ I stop walking.

It’s OK, don’t mind me, there’s just a branch in my eye. Keep on doing your thing.

It’s just…it’s so damn lovely OK? It’s really kind of special. And it’s a bit of a thing isn’t it, Autism. There’s a lot of people writing a lot of books with a protagonist the places somewhere on the spectrum and it’s important – of course it is – but it’s also important not to get samey, not to write about something just because it’s ‘of the moment’ you know?
Too much relevance can make a thing irrelevant. Does that make any sense? It makes all the sense in my head. It’s about bandwagons and not jumping on them, about not making something into a trope.

Which this book does not, in case you wondered if that’s where I was going. I’m absolutely not going there. I am going in the other direction entirely. A direction where there is not a bandwagon in sight. A bandwagon free zone, as it were.

This book is refreshing and honest and all kinds of wonderful, actually. And it left me with ALL THE FEELS. Here I am, feeling all the things and wanting to do it justice and write an intelligent and thought provoking review but unable to come up with much other than THIS BOOK MADE ME MELTY AND I WANNA PLAY MINECRAFT WITH ALEX AND SAM.

OK, let’s back up. Let’s at least try to write a proper review here.

Actually no. Let’s not. I’m just not really that person I'm sorry. I just want to tell you how much I liked it so that’s what I’m going to do, okay?

I LIKED IT.

I LIKED IT SO HARD.

In a nutshell it’s about this guy called Alex (thirtysomething, like me. High five Alex,) and his relationship with both his wife Jody and his 8 year old son Sam, who is Autistic.

Alex is estranged from his wife which is super sad times because he loves her and he doesn’t really get Sam, doesn’t know how to relate to him, and actually if we’re going to be blunt here is pretty much shit scared of the kid. Also super sad times because he loves him.

The thing about leaving (or being pushed from) the family home and becoming a ‘weekend Dad’ is that he’s kind of forced to deal with Sam on a deeper level; he has to handle the things that Jody would usually deal with. He has to actually see past the epic meltdowns and work out who Sam actually is and watching him do that, watching him learn about this little boy who lives in a world that is sometimes so overwhelming that he doesn’t know how to do anything other than hide from it, it’s all kind of tortuous and wonderful. I swear, watching these two play Minecraft together in separate houses, these two people who love each other so fucking fiercely but have never had the ability to show it, finding a way to actually really communicate is simultaneously the most wonderful and most heart-hurty thing I have read this year. It’s lush writing, absolutely lush.

(& it really makes you want to play Minecraft.)

Heart-hurty. That’s what this book was. It made my chest so tight so many times but in the most wonderful and uplifting of ways. Happysad. Which is totally an actual emotion. This book made me so very happysad. & I loved that it’s based on Keith Stuart’s own experiences with his own children, with Autism (and with Minecraft.) It shone through the pages, that love; that frustration; that whole extreme of feeling, from joy at each milestone to agony when you just can’t reach past the walls.
It felt honest to me, and whilst I wanted to reach into the pages to hug Sam and Alex SO FREAKING HARD YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW, I also wanted to reach past them to hug Keith. Not out of pity but out of….I dunno. Solidarity? No. That’s not right? Maybe not for any reason other than to say ‘thank-you, for this.’

I have absolutely no expectations that he’ll ever read this review but just in case he does: thank-you Mr Stuart for putting your heart on your proverbial sleeve and sending this book out into the world.


A Boy Made of Blocks is a delight. It’s an absolute delight and I LIKED IT.

A very special story of a father learning how to reach out to his son. The child is autistic and the father needs to move well out of his own comfort zone to understand and to see the world from a different perspective. Perhaps the disintegration of his own home life and lack of a cosy routine helps the adult to do this. Perhaps it's his desperate love which makes him see past the myriad practical and social problems and strictures to the real needs and feelings of his son. The message is one of love and of hope and of respect - but it is not in the least cloying despite the sentimentality of my description!

I don't have much knowledge of Minecraft except that it's a computer games based on blocks and it's quite popular with pre-teens. In this novel I learned a lot about Minecraft and how it allowed for the relationship between a Dad and his autistic son to develop and grow through a shared interest.

In the novel the relationship between the boy's parents is struggling, partly because of their son's autism, and partly because the Dad is spending time working to support the family. The parents decide to have some time apart and when the Dad finds himself made redundant and with a lot more time on his hands he also finds himself in a position where he is in charge of his son, without the aid of his wife. An introduction to Minecraft is enough to unlock a world for his son, and for the Dad to find a shared passion.

This story is fictional but the author is a Dad of a son with autism and therefore has first hand experience of parenting a child on the spectrum. This is evident from the novel and the references to behaviour patterns. I found it a fascinating read from that point of view, but also a heartwarming read and a lovely portrayal of father and son relationships and shared passions.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

A touching story of a father trying to bond with her autistic son over Minecraft.

This book for me was such a whirlwind of emotions and I also think probably the most important book I'll read this year so so important to me and it just had such an emotional impact on me I found myself sitting reading at 11pm crying my eyes out not with sadness but with joy.

I really connected quickly with Sam mainly because my 5 year old son is also autistic like Sam, although not on the same scale but there was so many moments throughout this book that I saw the same sort of traits in Sam as my little boy has. It was just so moving to find a book that speaks about autism and it's affects how it moulds a family life, this story is just so unique. Keith Stuart does a fantastic job of portraying what autism can be like.

I have to admit I didn't like Alex at first he was quick tempered he had no time for Sam or patience to stand back and just try and learn how things might be for him. But as the story progresses you start to see him change. There is a few other threads to this story about other characters which really just added more to the story I honestly just wholeheartedly loved this book it just touched my heart.

This book captures so much into 416 pages it was so heartwarming I couldn't recommend this book enough I highlighted so many parts it's a book filled with so much emotion I cried, I laughed, and beamed with pride and joy with Alex, Sam and Jody because I truly do believe that life is an adventure, not a walk. That's why it's difficult.

My thanks to the publishers who gave me a copy of this book via netgalley as part of the book blog tour in exchange for a honest review.

A well researched and thought provoking book. The characters are genuine, honest and I particularly loved how it dealt with the dad's perception of ASD. It is going to be a classic!

Brilliant book, from start to finish I didn't want to put it down.

Being the type of mother who, at times feels like the worst parent in the world, it’s so easy to identify with Alex in A Boy Made of Blocks. Children seem to be able to make even the most competent adult feel like a total failure in the blink of an eye, so I’ve no idea how that must be amplified when the child and parent are navigating their way around the effects of autism.

Keith Stuart is really very clever in the book, in making Alex quite unlikeable in the beginning. He’s a seemingly shallow man who is unprepared for having to care for an autistic child, selfish in wanting more of his wife’s attention and actually a bit of a shit for walking out with zero appreciation for how his fears are magnified tenfold in his wife, Jody. This is what makes it so much more rewarding when Alex begins to slowly understand his son, Sam, and build a relationship with him. You can see that Alex had to leave to be able to see his own family from the outside – but that doesn’t make walking out any less of a shitty thing to do!

Alongside this initial act, and the serious tone of the book relating to Alex, the book is also littered with humour. Sam’s honest reactions to his world and the people in it are written so well – I can only assume from Keith Stuart’s own experience of having an autistic child – and are sometimes so much what we as adults would wish to say, but would never dare!

The experience of this family is heartbreaking and, eventually, hugely rewarding and I felt like I gained a real insight into a family that includes an autistic child. I felt that sometimes there is such stigma surrounding a diagnosis of autism, that it is refreshing to read a story that emphasises the many wonderful things and experiences these special children can have.

A well written heartwarming father and son story cataloging the difficulties faced by the family of an autistic child. It was funny in places and made me cry at the end. Bringing up children for anyone is fraught with hard decisions and difficulties and these are magnified when you have a child on the autistic spectrum. This book covered many of these issues and I do hope Alex and Jody sorted out theirs for the sake of their son. Thank you to Netgalley and the author for the chance to read this book.

There's something special about picking up a book based on a true story that you, the reader, have lived, and know inside out; not the author's exact life of course, but the overwhelmingly accurate depiction of a family unit struggling to stay together in the face of the rollercoaster of ups and downs that living with autism brings. This wasn't just a good read; for me it was an emotional read. The strength of the story is in its warts and all simplicity; I can almost see Keith Stuart shrugging his shoulders and saying 'this is just how it is.' Yet despite the difficulties, the battles, not only within the family, but also with the authorities, the great love and protection Keith feels for his nine year old son, for his estranged wife, for the people he is close to flows from his pen into the very words on the page. What we see in the development of the story, is this love of a parent for his son growing into love not just for his son, but for his son as a little person in his own right, autism and all.
A lovely heartwarming story of real life.