Maria Landon

A horrifying account of Maria's life, whose mother (abused and forced into prostitution by her husband, Maria's father) left the family when Maria was four, and which time her father began abusing her. Before she's ten, she's addicted to drugs, drinking and her father is sexually molesting her and preparing her to sell herself on the streets. She goes out "on the game" when she's eleven and continues into her late teens.

It's a terrible story to have to read, and the almost lackadaisical way social services treats her is shocking, but believable. She's forgotten about.

Some parts of it bugged me from the perspective she had given us. I feel like this would have been both terribly cathartic and painful for Maria to write about, to let everyone know what her early life was like and how she was treated by her own family. There are points though where I feel like she's not being honest with herself.

For example, she claims "I wasn't a bully at all myself" yet mentions at least a dozen times that she beat people up to make herself "hard" and was always being pulled out of schools for fighting, including one situation where she and another girl throw hot tea on each other. It's quite clear reading her story that she WAS a bully, even if she doesn't like to think herself that way.

Similarly, while talking about how often she took drugs and, in particular, Speed, she claims "I guess it was just luck that I didn't become dependent on it like most girls on the street." With everything she has told us up until this point, and what she goes on to do even after she her her son, it's hard to believe this statement she makes and has me wondering if she is just talking herself out of what really happened for fear of what she might find if she digs into that portion of her life. However she is open and clear with every other aspect so it would be odd, but this just stuck out to me as a reader. But I am reviewing this as a reader, not as any sort of doctor or therapist and I have no experience in the life that she lead, so my views are clearly of a biased nature.

There's also a distasteful conclusion where Maria becomes focused on having a child so she has something to care for. When she has her son and goes back to drugs, drinking and prostitution; social services maintain she is a good mother and leave the baby in her care. It just seems horrible, yet I suppose it's the same mistake social services made with her mother when Maria was a baby. They let her stay in an abusive environment despite clear warning signs.

All in all it's a moving and memorable novel, and one I am glad Maria was given the chance to tell. Recommended!… (más)

I have read a few Martina Coles novels, and recently (as you will see in a review) other books on East End's notorious crime world, but to read it in a bio was particularly disturbing, especially when the main plot surrounds a young girl abused by a drunk father, and then forced into tricks on the street by him as well when just thirteen...and this being known by ll and sundry, including the constabulary.

The blurb on the back cover sets the scene....

This story is hard to put down, yet very hard to hold on to as you follow this young girl's plight coming from a family many of us could never dream existed, and then her brave battle to escape the life on the streets, and ultimately the fight to stop loving her dad altogether. Yep, you heard right, despite everything he did, Maria loved her dad, and this book (seemingly the second she wrote) tells of the battle she endured to sever permanently the love and respect she had for him.

We often hear of 'vicious cycles' within these dysfunctional family groups and this book is confirmation of the issues society faces in breaking them, starting with a blind eye from social services and the Police, through to friends and acquaintances who don't step up, but only make it worst. Maria herself seemed to drift from one shitty relationship to another, in the process producing a couple of kids herself, however it is a tribute to her that she did sort of break away from history to put her kids above everything else...

I won't give to much away on this one, it should be read to believe it, and in fact you should read her first book first (which I will soon) "Daddy's Little Earner" which in the title alone sends a chill through you. From a negative point of view the book is poorly written, or narrated at times which becomes a distraction as my mounting frustration at her constant reminding us of her past (OK! We get it, it is not something we will forget) as well as touching on her self-blame and blame aimed at others. Yes, she has a right to do so, but it felt like every bloody paragraph ended with "if only my mum hadn't walked out", or "if only dad hadn't abused me", or "if only I had been stronger"...yes, while we are traumatised as much as you, your obvious attempts at fishing for sympathy are annoying...

Good book, but not in a good way.… (más)