A vicious cow of a woman gets the vicious bastard of a boyfriend she deserves, only it's not as clear-cut as that, for of course she was a teenaged mother, and her young daughter is only going to suffer from the mix of violence, drinking and hatred spilling around the family's flat. Everyone else knows the girl is being abused, but nothing is ever done. This is a hard-hitting, dark, dark book, and it's by way of portraying that that I called the adults a cow and a bastard. It's also to show the piece is a thickly-drawn one, with the broadest of strokes, figuratively if not literally, given to the stereotypes involved. Still, stereotypes or not, it's an issue we have to face, and it's certainly evoked most strongly here. Whether that makes it your kind of entertainment or not will be up to you. I also had a few big question marks about the framing devices used around the story.

An emotional read. Not for the faint-hearted. A graphic equivalent of A Child Called It or Where Children Run.

ISBN13 9791032805800
Rating: 4.0/5

Plot
Life isn't easy for little Brenda, whose single teenage mom is immature, selfish, and prone to violent mood swings. Brenda takes care of her as best she can, missing out on many childhood joys to be her mother’s Little Mama. Sadly, her already challenging existence gets even worse when her mom’s abusive boyfriend moves in. Brenda loves having a new baby brother, but her home life soon turns into pure living hell. Finally she reaches her breaking point, and has to find the courage to save herself and embark on the difficult road towards recovery. A heartbreaking and inspiring tale of abuse and survival.
How I got this Book
I got to read this book through Netgalley.
The Positives
 The emotion portrayed in this book is real and raw. This causes you to feel the pain that the main character, Brenda, feels as she tells her story.
 This was a short read, I read it in less than 30 minutes. This would be a great read for someone who wanted something that was fairly quick.
 The book brings into play some very important things that many people don’t think of when it comes to social services. Politics play a big role in being able to help children, and many times children are left in situations that aren’t the best for them in any way. The human services professionals are unable to remove the children from danger. This book, in such a short amount of time, shows how difficult and dangerous it is not only for the child in an abusive situation, but also for the worker who wants to help them and can’t.
The Negatives
The hardest part of this review is writing the negatives. This book’s description really didn’t prepare me for everything that was going to happen in the book. I knew based on the description that there would be abuse, but I wasn’t sure at the time what the abuse was going to be. The story was heartbreaking, especially with a part that happened towards the end, and there was not enough warning. The pacing was weird at times, and it was hard to follow how much time had passed between each break.
Overall
Overall, this was a story of heartbreak and abuse that I feel needed to be told. It was emotional, but it didn’t get too deep where the person reading it had to stop for fear of what could happen to them emotionally. I would recommend this to anyone who wants to read a story that shows what happens when someone loses themselves to abuse, and then finds forgiveness for who they were.


Happy reading!