I believe I had the wrong impression of the book. I was expecting more of a dystopian, sci-fi fantasy read. What I got was a difficult to read (partly due to the use of Scottish slang), depressing narrative on the evils of the Scottish (or any countries)foster care system.

The novel\\\'s protagonist, Anais Hendricks, had no redeeming quality. I felt bad feeling that way because she is obviously a victim of an ill managed system in which she didn\\\'t really have any chance of coming out on top. The young girl is a drug addicted, potentially dangerous, apathetic teenager. Would she have turned out this way if she was in a stable, loving environment? Who knows and honestly I didn\\\'t care.

I was also put off by the amount of profanity in the novel. Without exaggeration every page I had read of the novel had at least 2 instances of the \\\"f\\\" word in it. I\\\'m no prude, but feel profanity should be used as a means of enhancing an emotional part of a dialogue. The author\\\'s liberal use of this type of language should give the reader an indication of the type of book they are reading.

The novel is infused with anger, violence and hopelessness. Yes Jenni Fagan creates a realistic, cautionary tale of the injustices suffered by these young victims. However, the subject matter just was not what I was looking for.