‘An Unusual Boy’ by Fiona Higgins is a story not unlike something Jodi Picoult would write. A story that takes something so simple and twists and turns it into almost a moral dilemma for the reader.
Jackson Curtis is an eleven-year-old boy, but, as the title states, he is an ‘unusual boy’. This is due to being a Neurodiverse boy. The problem he suffers with is not a simple one, to begin with, never mind explaining it. His behaviour is simply ‘not quite right’, as his mother, Julia explains, but his memory is staggeringly excellent. He has older siblings, a brother and sister and his dad works away quite frequently. This leaves his mother at the end of her tether and I haven’t even mentioned her mother-in-law, work or even the house that requires renovating yet. I take my hat off to this woman, all this going on and her husbands works away?! How she must be feeling.
These characters, Fiona Higgins has brought to life brilliantly and made them seem real, even minor characters within the story feel as developed as major ones. We see Julia and her husband Andy struggling with the issues that they have in their own ways and this reflects many marriages that are under pressure in these days from various things so it makes it easy to imagine.
The narrators of this book are Julia and Jackson himself, which works well as this story unfolds before our eyes. This is a story that all at once changes direction and you never see it coming. This is one of those moments, the ones you never want to have to deal with. It creates questions within your mind and heart, what is right or wrong? which one is the victim? All these questions that make you delve deep into yourself and they cause a wealth of emotion, everyone is dragged out of you in this heartfelt story. I find Jodi Picoult does this as I mentioned previously and Fiona Higgins has written a story that is more than reminiscent of Picoult, and as good as her as well, I might add!
Thank you to Rachel’s Random Resources and Fiona Higgins for allowing me a copy of this touching book for my review today.
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