Marnie and Nelly have just buried their parents in the garden behind the Glasgow housing development where they live. Their father, Gene, was a drug addict attracted to young girls. Their mother, Izzy, was a boozer who paid little attention to the care and safety of her daughters. Gene died of dubious causes, and Izzy killed herself in grief. The girls are better off without their parents, and they know it. The challenge is to stay out of the way of the authorities for a year until Marnie turns 16 and will be legally able to take guardianship of her sister. Their nosy neighbor, Lennie, a homosexual whose partner has recently died, leaving him bereft and at loose ends, provides their only stability. But Lennie is curious about the whereabouts of their parents. As awful as he knows them to be, they can’t really have abandoned their daughters for an extended vacation in Turkey, can they? That’s what the girls tell him and anyone else who asks, until their secrets start to unravel.

A good debut novel. I liked the characters, and felt like I knew them. I felt for those girls, having to deal with deadbeat parents and grow up with so little love and their needs not being met. I'm glad they had Lennie, and eventually Vlado, to take care of them. What an amazing person Lennie turned out to be.

Gritty and dark - don't read this if you're wanting fancy writing and a happy ending for everyone.

Shared with Secretariat at our meetup today.

I apologize for not journaling this right away. I looked in the first book you gave me and there was no label, so i thought none were labeled. Just realized my error.

This book, which had looked familiar when you offered it to me, is actually a duplicate. No wonder it looked familiar - I bought my own copy awhile back. I'll release it for one of the challenges.

Released for the 2016 Never Judge a Book By Its Cover Release Challenge, Week 14, A Person Walking.

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