The first thing I want to say about this book before I post my review is that it is a non fiction book. I normally don't read works of non fiction very often but this is still a story and I didn't even know it was non fiction until almost the end, so no worries if you don't like non fiction either. This is also a book that has very mature content in it, and it is also very, very sad, heart wrenching and very disturbing in some parts. so if you cannot handle reading things like that then this book is not for you. Now on to my review!
Although Jodie is only eight years old, she is violent, aggressive, and has already been through numerous foster families. Her last hope is Cathy Glass. At the Social Services office, Cathy (an experienced foster carer) is pressured into taking Jodie as a new placement. Jodie's challenging behaviour has seen off five carers in four months. Despite her reservations, Cathy decides to accept Jodie to protect her from being placed in an institution. Jodie arrives, and her first act is to soil herself, and then wipe it on her face, grinning wickedly. Jodie meets Cathy's teenage children, and greets them with a sharp kick to the shins. That night, Cathy finds Jodie covered in blood, having cut her own wrist, and smeared the blood over her face. As Jodie begins to trust Cathy her behaviour improves. Over time, with childish honesty, she reveals details of her abuse at the hands of her parents and others. It becomes clear that Jodie's parents were involved in a sickening paedophile ring, with neighbours and Social Services not seeing what should have been obvious signs. Unfortunately Jodie becomes increasingly withdrawn, and it's clear she needs psychiatric therapy. Cathy urges the Social Services to provide funding, but instead they decide to take Jodie away from her, and place her in a residential unit. Although the paedophile ring is investigated and brought to justice, Jodie's future is still up in the air. Cathy promises that she will stand by her no matter what -- her love for the abandoned Jodie is unbreakable.I decided to read this book because anything that has to due with psychological issues is an interest to me so I'm usually drawn to books about it. As you can see from the description, this book is about a foster mom named Cathy, who takes in a very disturbed child that has very unusual and bad behavior. Jodie is 8 years old but doesn't have the mentality of an 8 year old at all. Her learning and motor skills aren't developed, and she is very violent towards herself and others. This is all due to the physical, sexual and mental abuse that she went though. This book was very interesting but like I said before, there is a lot of mature content in it and it is sad and disturbing. I wasn't expecting this book to be as i depth as it was. The details of the sexual abuse that Jodie went though was almost too much for me to read. It made me sick to my stomach and I thought to myself a few times "I can't read this". I did finish this book despite all of the graphic details because I wanted to know what was going to happen to Jodie. Once we got more into the psychological aspect of the book I enjoyed it a lot more. We get to learn about the split personality disorder that Jodie develops, and also why she acts the way that she does, and why she does the certain things that she does. Also like it says in the description, Jodie is eventually placed into a residential unit for children with psychological problems who have suffered from abuse. I was slightly disappointed in the end because (possible spoiler!) we never really got to know what happened to Jodie down the road and how she turned out when she grew up. Being that this was a true story, I was really interested to find out these details. None the less, this was a great book and I really enjoyed reading it. It's a quick read and I gave it 5/5 stars on good reads. Cathy Glass has written many other books and some of them are based on true stories as well and I look forward to reading them in the future!
Thank you all for reading and I hope you enjoyed my review! I am currently reading Beautiful Redemption by Kami Garcia which is the 4th and final book in the Caster Chronicals series! Expect a review coming on this book soon along with my November Wrap up post!
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