Abandoned: The True Story of a Little Girl Who Didn't Belong - Anya Peters

Advantages: Compelling
Disadvantages: N/A

This is the first book I've read from Anya Peters, my daughter-in-law gave it to me to read. Through reading it all my emotions surfaced, parts of it shocked me, other parts amused me and it also made me cry, but I couldn't stop reading it although I was sickened by events in the book. Anya Peters has captured what it was like to be an outcast and to not belong to a family unit, although she suffered mental and physical abuse from her cousins, who ...
...loved them and wanted to be a part of their family, but she was never really accepted. This book is not for the faint hearted and if you don't like to read of cruelty, deprivation and hate then you had better leave it alone because this is real life, Anya's real life and it wasn't pretty. She was abused by her Uncle in a very depraved way and this book tells it as it was in sickening detail, it also deals with a family's shame about what has happened ... Read review

Advantages: Hard hitting- educational but tear jerking at the same time
Disadvantages: none

In short- an amazing book. The sort of book that needs to be read when you have a couple of days off work, as you won't be able to put it down when you have read it. I recognised so many incidents that I have witnessed throughout life that it made me cringe many times, thinking of lost opportunites for "rescuing" people in the same situation as Anya. The story of a young girl, born in secret, "fostered" by her aunt until during her teenage years ...
...not knowing who she could trust, she leaves home, and faces what could potentially be a lifetime of further abuse. However Anya demonstrates her personal courage and survival instincts by maintaining her own moral and ethical standards, finding the strength to leave the life that has occured through no fault of her own, living in her car, travelling from town to town, and maintaining her anonomynity as a means of self preservation. Many will recognise ... Read review