Throwaway Girl by Kristine Scarrow
Contemporary Fiction/YA
E book, 224 pages
October 18, 2014
Dundurn
Reviewed by Tori
Favorite Quote: “…We are ‘Throwaway girls,’ kids that are too old to be cute and cuddled, too set in our ways, and too old to be saved because the damage has already been done…”
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? (Goodreads)
Throwaway Girl is a bittersweet story of a young girl who is “thrown away” by everyone she has ever loved. In a dispassionate abet sweet voice, Andy (Bernice) Burton begins her story at age 6. Abused by her drug addicted mother, Andy is taken away and placed with a series of foster families where a diet of drugs and alcohol ultimately take their toll in a climatic event that leads her to the Haywood Home.
In Haywood Home, a group home for troubled girls who are unable to be placed with foster families, Andy finds the security and comfort she has always longed for. Knowing she will be forced to leave in a few weeks, Andy reminiscences back on the events that led her to the home and struggles with her new found freedom.
Scarrow’s easy going and poignant voice quickly lulls the reader into a sense of complacency as the protagonist tells her story; alternating between the past and the present. Though I expected a more tragedy laced dramatic tale, it is obviously written for a young audience. The steady pacing, short chapters, and straightforward deliverance reveals a pain filled life without the darkness and in depth descriptions one might find in a more adult or mature YA. Scarrow introduces such topics such as self harming, drugs, alcohol, and rape; incorporating them in to the storyline without actually addressing them beyond a cursory acknowledgement.
An easy read over all, I did feel the short length and journal-like aspect of the story doesn’t really allow the reader to connect with Andy or the issues presented on a personal level. We hear what has happened but I never felt we really experienced how Andy felt during those times. We see an evolution in Andy’s character development but not for those she interacted with. I was left with questions concerning some of the people in her life and the reasons behind their actions. Her lack of curiosity at times was disconcerting.
Though I wasn’t blown away by Throwaway Girl, it does offer some interesting insights into the lives of children who are forced to run the gauntlet know as the foster care system.
RATING: C
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