Throwaway Girl

Throwaway Girl by Kristine Scarrow

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

Title: Throwaway Girl

Author: Kristine Scarrow

ISBN: 9781459714083

Release Date: September 29th 2014
Publisher: Dundurn Group

Source: Dundurn & Netgalley

Summary (via Dundurn Website)

Andy Burton knows a thing or two about survival. Since she was removed from her mother's home and placed in foster care when she was nine, she's had to deal with abuse, hunger, and homelessness. But now that she's eighteen, she's about to leave Haywood House, the group home for girls where she's lived for the past four years, and the closest thing to a real home she's ever known.
Will Andy be able to carve out a better life for herself and find the happiness she is searching for?

Review

I don't know how I feel about this book. It's almost like it wasn't really as story at all, at least not in the traditional sense where it has a beginning, middle and end. Throwaway Girl was more like a concession of events, and in a way it make it more real - it made Andy more real. But once I had read the last page I had these niggling thought - what was the point? 

The book follows Andy as she leaves Haywood House. Imagine much grittier version of Annie, just without the billionaire and the happily ever after. The plot swaps between Andy's life now and how she got there, with every other chapter giving you a little bit more of her story. These chapters where heartbreaking. I've always shied away from books that focus on abuse and this is exactly why. It was hard to read and the hardest part was knowing that even though this might be fiction, there are way too many people - children - in very similar situations to Andy's. 

I don't really have an awful lot to say about this book. It's a relatively short story that covers a lot of serious issues, maybe too many for the amount of pages this book has. It was tragic and definitely not something I would take on holiday with me. I don't know about you but when I read a book it's because I want to escape. Andy's world isn't one I'd ever want to escape to. It was interesting and my heart aches for her but I don't think I'll be reading this again any time soon.

If there was one this that I did get from this was that I definitely appreciate my mother more. I think the second I finished this book I sent her a text telling her I loved her. 

**I received this book as an ARC from Netgalley to read & review. This is a 100% honest review.*