Ava's Story

LoveReading Says

Published under the banner of the bestselling Thrown Away Children series, Ava’s Story is a boldly-written biography of a girl who lost her parents and grandparents in a fatal car collision at the age of three, only to face rejection, and worse, in the foster care system.

Playing out like an emotional family drama TV show, the stage is set with Ava’s parents, Katy and Jonathan, embarking on an around-the-world trip of a lifetime, with Jonathan, a naval medical officer, sharing that he’d “known straight away that he would marry [Katy]”, who was “fit and healthy, she took care of herself, unlike the majority of the other students who seemed hell-bent on self-destruction and drinking themselves into oblivion.” Having “thoroughly enjoyed their adventure”, the couple return “ready for the next stage. Babies”. While their road to parenthood is anything but plain sailing, after eight years, twins Ava and Tom are born, and life couldn’t be better. 

And it’s into this idyllic set-up that the worst happens when Katy, Jonathan, and Jonathan’s parents are killed in a car crash when the twins are three. With Katy’s elderly mother unable to care for them, Ava and Tom fall under the remit of social services and are soon fostered by Cath and Mike.

But as things turn out, an alternative foster family has to be found for Ava. When a report concludes, “They function better separated; he thrives without her emotional demands”, Ava is separated from her twin and placed with Louise and Lloyd, with the social worker’s inexperience highlighted as she delivers a “character assassination of poor Ava”.

After settling in with her new foster family, Ava starts to share disturbing truths through her narrative memory.

With its arresting present-tense narrative thrusting readers into the here-and-now of every episode (the book’s style is pitched for readers to feel as if they really know the people presented within its pages), Ava’s Story brims with details of everyday life that make it all the more engaging, and moving.

Reviewed by Joanne Owen
Joanne Owen’s lifelong love of reading and writing began when she was growing up in Pembrokeshire, and very much wished that witches (and Mrs Pepperpot) were real.
More reviews by Joanne Owen

About Ava's Story

Ava's Story is the fourteenth instalment in the popular Thrown Away Children paperback series.

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