Cuckoo in the Nest, by Fran Hill
Fourteen-year-old Jacky barely survives under the ‘care’ of her dissolute alcoholic father. So Social Services move her to a first-time foster family. Their daughter, Amanda, of similar age, resents her presence and does her level best to get rid of her.
Fran Hill seems to speak from experience. She, too, was a foster child. Perhaps that is why she is able to portray the character and feelings of the clashing teenagers so vividly through ostensibly innocuous actions and remarks. Amanda, jealous of Jacky’s poetic talent and good school performance, takes revenge through dishonest, decadent behaviour.
Jacky’s father is imprisoned for a violent attack. As a result, it looks as if she will have to stay with the foster family until she is eighteen. Will she cope? Will Amanda let her? On a prison visit, Jacky discovers her father was partly responsible for her mother’s death. Can she love such a man? Can she accept affection from her foster parents and call them Aunt and Uncle? How will the hostility from Amanda be resolved? And how will the budding romance with her best friend’s brother develop?
We soon discover that the foster parents have their own skeletons in the cupboard, and their little world is in danger of being torn apart.
Not all the loose ends are tied, but the reader feels drawn into the complicated family atmosphere. The book is excellently written and very readable.