“Amelia’s Story: A Childhood Lost” by D. G. Torrens
This book is a true story about a child brought up in the welfare system in Great Britain. It covers the little girl’s life for sixteen years in and out of foster homes and abusive situations. While the story is heartbreaking and is told fairly well by the author it was hard for me to stay connected to this character because of the many problems with writing. Frankly, I am amazed the book went to print with so many grammatical and punctuation errors. I thought there were editors for that! These shortcomings ruined what could have been an interesting read.
Surprisingly for me, this is the first in a book series by this writer. That makes me think the problem was me, but I’m not convinced and I’m still trying to understand how average writing, multiple repetitions, and terrible editing resulted in selling books! This is not a book I can recommend for those reasons.
Someone asked me, if I were stranded on a desert island what book would I bring… ‘How to Build a Boat.’ Steven Wright
Crooked Creek by Sue Mattingly 
Your review made me curious, so I checked on Amazon and see that other readers have the same complaint. “Needs an editor.” Those who ignored the editing issues thought the story itself was good. Readers do seem to prefer hard-scrabble, heart-breaking tales and this one got a lot of stars.
My sister, not so sober, called one night wanting me to write her life story. Knock-down-drag-out fights at home. Pregnant and married at fifteen to an abusive drunk, fleeing the marriage rather than being murdered. Men, welfare, alcoholism, Al-Anon, losing a child to cancer. I told her, “It will sell well.” But readers usually want some sort of “I made it out.”
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Thank you for your interest Christine. I agree that the story in “Amelia” was interesting. I take it you did not decide to write about your sister’s very unfortunate life?
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I’ve considered it. The story has definitely been heartbreaking. Like her son in handcuffs at his sister’s funeral or the other sons in police custody at Mom’s, then Dad’s funerals , respectively. Death of a partner. Just a few of the sorrows, but is “sad” enough?
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Probably “sad” is not enough without some mystery, lesson or revelation . . . It may be there and you just have to “see” it. Don’t give up.
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