Control Freak: Diary of a care leaver

Since this is a campaigning novel published by BAAF, you’d be forgiven for expecting tick-list content and issues to be the basic fare. However, it succeeds in looking in a well-rounded way at the whole situation of someone trying to leave the care system behind and live independently. It takes a realistic, considered view of all involved parties. I’ve fostered; I know.

Holly is no victim of the system. She is totally focused and single-minded about how life will be when she leaves foster care. Unfortunately life and people cannot be as controlled as Holly would like and the dream becomes the nightmare, partly due to her own inflexibility and partly due to events that she cannot, in fact, influence and control.

BAAF seems to see this as a fictionalised manual but it is in fact an unputdownable account told by Holly herself, which many teenagers, fostered or not, will find entertaining and revealing. There is an adult content warning on the cover.