The Abandoned Girl is a women’s fiction, coming of age, story. In fact, it is two coming of age stories: The first, of ten-year-old Robin and the second, of sixteen-year-old, Katharine.
Ten-year-old Robin has been taking care of her sister, five-year-old Annie, for quite some time. With only occasional phone calls, and next to no support from their father, their mother is either at work or out on a date with one of their temporary “Uncles”. When she fails to come home after several days, Child protective Services steps in and Robin and Annie find themselves on their way to their grandparent’s house in Colorado. It seems their father and his new wife are expecting a child and have neither room, nor money, to take them in.
Upon their arrival, Robin is branded as a wild child, stupid and a bad influence. So, the sister she has always protected is shipped off to San Diego to live with their father’s sister. Robin soon learns that nothing she does will ever please her grandmother and her grandfather dishes out the physical punishment to go with her grandmother’s constant verbal berating. This, added to a “no contact with your sister” edict and “your father is too busy with his new family to be bothered with you” forces Robin to believe in, and rely on, only herself. By fifteen, she has finally had enough and runs away to start a new life.
Sixteen-year-old Katherine comes from a very strict family and discovers she is pregnant. After sneaking out of the house to elope with her boyfriend Steve, he ends up leaving her in a truck stop diner to fend for herself. With just enough money for a bus ticket to Oklahoma City, she arrives there to start a new life and, shortly afterward, loses the baby.
Some two years, and a string of bad and going nowhere affairs, she meets Roy who wants to start his own independent trucking business. The two fall in love and Roy starts his business, with Katherine keeping the books and doing all the administrative work. Ten years of him seldom being home, and two kids later, Roy serves notice that he wants a divorce and once again, Katherine is on her own.
Eventually, the paths of Robin and Katherine cross, and both of their lives are changed forever.
I struggled with giving The Abandoned Girl a five-star rating for two reasons. First because of a somewhat predictable plot and second because of a meaningful but soft ending. However, my love of the story and its characters, especially Robin, won out.
The Abandoned Girl will tear at your heart strings because of how real Diane has made her characters. She’ll have you loving and rooting for Robin, questioning why mom never came home, and hating dear old dad and his entire family. Likewise, Katherines struggles will have you thankful when she finally finds Roy, then hating him, when he too abandons her.
A good and slightly complex story, with great characters, The Abandoned Girl kept me interested from cover to cover, and up past my bedtime several nights.
Definitely recommended to add to your “must read” list.