Sunday 18 September 2016

Review: Can I Let You Go?


Image result for can i let you go cathy glass
image: harpercollins.co.uk
Cathy Glass is a foster carer, having fostered over 150 children and teenagers for over 25 years. This time she about take on a far different kind of person in need altogether. Faye is 24 years old and she lives with her grandparents. Due to her mothers alcoholism whilst pregnant, Faye has Foetal Alcohol Syndrome and gives her the mental ability to that of an 8 year old. Faye is also pregnant. It's unknown how she became- whether she gave her consent, or even if she understood what was happening at the time- and no one knows who the father is but one thing everyone is sure of, is that Faye is not able to raise a baby.... Or is she?

This is a far different kind of story to what you might have normally read from Cathy Glass. I so far have read 5 other Cathy Glass books and the stories she tells, based on the true stories of the children she fosters, can be utterly heartbreaking and harrowing at times. This is not like that. If you're thinking of easing yourself into reading foster books this may be a good place to start. It doesn't have anything particularly shocking or harrowing although it will tug on your heart strings in a lot of places

As per usual. I enjoyed this Cathy Glass book. Since this is the 6th book I  have read by her I am accustomed to her writing. She doesn't really stray away from her style and sometimes it can be repetitive. Sometimes she'll leave a little crumb trail "I tell the story of this child in my book... xxxxxx" for instance. Sometimes I feel that that kind of takes me out of the story when she does those sort of things. I don't want to be reminded or think about another story, I just want to concentrate on this one.
I did find myself skimming through a few sections of this book- normally I would read every single line as- typical in a Cathy Glass book- you could easily miss something very important that she might mention once but it doesn't go any further till much later in the story. There were a lot of moments in this story where what she was writing about didn't have much to do with what was happening with the "child" in question and for me when I read a Cathy Glass book. I'm only interested in reading about that child and what is going on but the nature of this story is not the same as her others so you're not dealing with an out of control child, or abusive parents trying find out where Cathy lives and the like. It's not full with as much 'drama' as her other stories- this is far more an emotional journey and she did a very good job handling the situation as delicately as she could
Overall despite my skimming sections I really enjoyed this book. There was so much about Faye to learn and you were really rooting for her with Cathy

I gave the book 4 out of 5 stars on good reads

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