Noah Sadler an Abdi Mahad are best friends and have been inseparable for years. They play chess, they laugh, they are typical teenage boys. Until the night that Noah is found floating in the local canal and Abdi is left speechless by the event. He refuses to speak about the events that have left Noah fighting for his life. An eyewitness has come forward to say that she saw Abdi push his best friend into the canal. As a Somalian refugee Abdi and his family are thrust into the spotlight with some in the media trying to make it out to be some sort of terrorist event. Social tensions in Bristol are rising. Detective, Jim Clemmo tries to get to the bottom of what happened, before things explode out of control. What he uncovers are some dark family secrets that will shatter a family, but did Abdi really push his best friend in the canal?
Odd Child Out is one of those books that has more than one story to tell. Not only do you have the mystery of what really happened at the canal, but you also have the social commentary that comes along with the family of Somalian refugees. I am one that does not usually enjoy social commentary in my mysteries, buy I was really okay with Odd Child Out. In this book you have three stories, the Sadler's story, the Mahad's story, and the detective's story. I wasn't too fond of the Sadler's to be honest. Noah's mother appeared to be a very racist woman who was willing to fuel the flames of "terrorism". But yI am not sure if it was racism or fear over her son's fate that made her that way. Noah's dad seemed to be a self-serving artist who was willing to exploit the suffering of others for financial gain. The Mahad family was happy to be living in a country where they did not to live in fear, even if they had to struggle to make ends meet. I really liked Abdi's sister, she was the bridge between her parents and the world in England. I wasn't all that surprised by the end, but it really wasn't a "edge of your seat" kind of book - and it didn't have to be -- CLICK HERE FOR SPOILERS
Bottom line - Odd Child Out is one of the most relevant books for this day and age. I thoroughly enjoyed the story that Gilly Macmillan had to tell and it wasn't just a mystery.
Details:
- Odd Child Out by Gilly Macmillan
- On Facebook
- Pages: 432
- Publisher: HarperCollins
- Publication Date: 10/2/2017
- Buy it Here!
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