The Girl in Between
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- £4.99
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- £4.99
Publisher Description
I know the mill has a story cos there’s something strange going on. I heard something. I’ve decided that I’m going to find out what it is later today when Ma leaves. Cos even if it is scary, we live here and we’re never leaving. So if there’s something going on, I need to know.
In an old, abandoned mill, a girl and her ma take shelter from their memories of life on the streets. To the girl it’s home, her safe place, the Castle. But as her ma spins out of control and the Authorities move ever closer, the girl finds herself trapped – stuck in the crumbling mill with only the ghosts of the past for company.
Can she move on before it’s too late?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Carroll's poignant and unsentimental debut, about an unnamed homeless girl and her alcoholic Ma, offers an unfiltered glimpse into the daily realities of life on the streets and, for much of the book, in an abandoned mill the twosome dub the "Castle." The protagonist holds fond memories of the comforting routines of Gran's house, where she and Ma once lived, going to school, sleeping in her own bed, and never being hungry; Ma's drinking only minimally affected her. That secure life ends when Ma, for an unrevealed reason, fights with Gran and takes off with her daughter. Living in constant fear of run-ins with the "Authorities" who will take her away from Ma, and of a ghost she is sure haunts the Castle, the girl spends much of her time observing other people's lives with a pair of cast-off binoculars and drawing on the Castle walls. Carroll is especially perceptive about the mix of deep love and anger a child bears for an abusive parent. The unsettling story's chronological jumps make for an ambiguous, though moving, ending. Ages 12 up.
