As it is told from the perspective of a fifteen year old it does make the writing easily digestible, but the contents do cover heavier topics such as female autonomy, post natal depression, consent, abortion, drugs and alcohol. Written through Bess’s eyes, this book easily evokes memories of teenage angst and first love. Their unconditional friendship is very much the heart-warming center of this story, and Eshal remains as Bess’s constant throughout in a novel littered with questionable adults. This is very much a coming of age story, not only for Bess, but for her best friend Eshal as her own story runs parallel to Bess’s in this novel. And to help people understand that people who have grown up in care are not defined by what happened to them.’ Capes in an interview with Grazia puts it perfectly ‘For me, it was just so important to tell this very human, very real story, and to be as truthful to that as possible. It is Capes’ hope that this book will challenge the stigma of being in care and help to dismantle the ideas portrayed in the media that a background in the care system is only used when needed to reason with an audience as to why a character is now a bad person. Like Bess, Capes was also taken into the care system at the age of two in Shepperton where she had one short-term placement and then one long term, until leaving the care system at twenty-three. Capes is a care leaver herself, and has recently completed her PhD in female centric care narratives in contemporary fiction, supervised by the brilliant Bernardine Evaristo. Narratives about children in care aren’t easy to come by, and it is likely the only other novel familiar to you is Tracy Beaker by Jacqueline Wilson. Kirsty Capes focus on bringing the care system into fiction, mixed with some British dry wit, and set amongst the back drop of 1999, make for an outstanding debut. At the heart of this story is Bess’s journey navigating whether she herself is ready to care for someone. And even though she is in a long care placement, her relationship with her foster mum is on a rocky path.
Boy, the father is a nineteen-year-old Tesco’s worker who she meets when he crashes a stolen car into the side of a church before steeling her bike and fleeing. Carless is the story of fifteen-year-old Bess, who we first meet in a kebab shop, in Shepperton, with a positive pregnancy test in hand.
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