AIBU to assume that Cathy Glass books are fiction?

1000% fake. I can tell just from the way she writes characters of various minorities (when she bothers to write about them). The Child Bride was about a Bengali (no, sorry, she said ASIAN, because according to her Asians are all monolith) girl who was forced into a child marriage. That was her absolute worst out of all I read. She painted herself as the white savior who rescued a young Asian girl from her backwards culture - and also makes it sound as if the protagonist hates every aspect of her culture, which I find hard to believe. If these were real stories, then she would have had more than 1 gender non-conforming child stay with her - but all except for 1 are either about straight/cis children or (in the case the child is very young) don't mention sexuality at all. The stories are just so unrealistic, plus it is obvious Cathy does not actually know anything about people of different backgrounds.

Edit: also she doesn't write which year things happened

Tiddleztheelephant. Yes I so know where your are coming from. Think just noticed more things after reading this thread

I believe Torey Hayden was quite open that her books were composite characters.

Yes when I read them I hope they're not real. I also think they are mainly comfort reading to help us all believe that if we can just put a fresh duvet cover on and cook a hot meal, abused and neglected children will be fine with us.

She explained her log not me

Back again. I just read two that I had already downloaded ages ago. It was when her daughter was having baby. Cant believe she explained that pregnant woman wee a lot and also they have contractions when give birth!! Also we explained her log about 4 times. Made her daughter a casserole and had a sandwich and soup lunch.

The snark about her exh is probably the one realistic part of the books. Only because who would write a fictional character like that!

And I've always wondered about the timeline of these books. Can't remember what it was but something didn't add up with the ages of her kids and how long she'd been fostering.

Yes the timeline doesn't make sense unless she is aged 120, she has fostered seemingly hundreds of kids, each for a year or more yet.

I'm not sure where she is going to go from here, her first books were about stories that (allegedly) happened years ago but the books have now caught up to the present day. I'm guessing she may "remember" some from the past.

Most of them claim to be true stories but I am confused as to how she can be allowed to write in such detail about real children and often real cases of child abuse. I used to enjoy these books but now I feel really uneasy about real people having their personal stories commercialised like this, especially since when you look at the updates on her website, she hasn't been in contact with some of the children since they left her care, so how can she have asked their permission to write about them? Perhaps people are more likely to buy them when they're presented as true stories, but I'd feel a lot better about it if they were definitely fiction.

They are very detailed for stories that supposedly happened years ago, so if they're true I can only assume she takes lots of artistic license in padding them out with details.

"My ex husband John left me for a younger woman when my children were little. Painful then, but history now"

😅

I have to admit I do love her books!
I read them really quickly
Don't ruin it by saying it's not true!

But what people have put her do make me laugh
It is true that there's a lot of every day routines included
And I have certainly thought before many a time that her children seem very suspiciously perfect!! (That, to me, is the wierdest thing about them all to be honest!)
And yes sometimes she does come across a bit superior (and judgemental in some cases)
I know one book I thought she's judging this child's mother for not being able to control this child's behaviour (and bearing in mind she's supposed to have lots of experience of children and parents like this) and then it turns out Cathy couldn't either I thought mmmm. No word of her admitting this though
And yes it is mentioned a lot that she's doing it by herself etc
But I really like the books!
There was at least one ages ago that didn't have a happy ending - maybe that was Damaged?
I think there was another one too?

Yes to the casseroles thing, and the constant mentioning about her ex leaving her for a younger woman!

I still got 3 of her books on my kindle to read. All 99p. I be noticing loads of things now !

@starrynight468 But what she writes is changed. The afro hair and the rich dad are probably different kids. The 'Afrcan dad' could be a white American grandmother ""

No @a8mint - she does a massive charade about learning to do afro hair, how he seems so well brought up and then bam a rich dad recues him and takes him back to his home country. Thats very outing if it happened in a small middle class town that she gives the impression she lives in. Have you ever done any information governance/data protection training in children who are looked after? The hoops i had to go through when I did my dissertation around care leavers from the council was ridiculous, I couldn't have included that sort of story. That wasn't from the uni, that was from the LA information governance dept.

Anyway, from being in care and now working with looked after young people I call bullshit on the stories. There's no way that information could be put into the public. Data protection rules are so tight for children's info.

she has said that the stories are composites of several of the hundreds of children she has fostered

One was a story about a boy who reunited with his African dad and went back to Nigeria with him. Ok it could have been a different African country but it's still an African country and someone would recognise that unusual story.

you are joking!( Like Mners who think their perfectly mundane tale will be 'outing'.) There are 100,000 children in care each year in UK and she has been forstering 20+ years.That is 20 million cases and each one will have key details changed

She makes me sick with her self appointed sainthood.

Was going to come on to mention the sandwich lunch reference which comes up all the time in her books! But I see it has already been mentioned

‘Presently’
‘My heart went out to her’

I think I read one,and it was obviously heartbreaking, but I couldn't read anymore. I have such massive respect for foster carers. Our family have tried to foster, but as we have a child with special needs we couldn't be approved.
I think she may base her story's on her foster children, she has so many books. I do think even if she's changed names, country's etc, it's sort of exploitive but maybe they could be a comfort to some that have been in foster care? Honestly have no idea what the plot or gripping twists. I have respect for anyone that can write and publish a novel, but not really with titles like 'daddy's little secret ' or 'the child with no home'.
I've read a few Lucinda Berry books and she was a child psychologist/ psychiatrist, maybe she still is,?.I enjoyed a couple of her books but Saving Noah I just couldn't read again. But I do believe her books are from various cases she's studied.

Oh she is so fucking irritating. I read one where perfect Paula, then aged 3, said 'of course mummy' and skipped off to another room while Compassionate Cathy dealt with a dreadful trauma (alone of course because as she rreminds us IN EVERY BOOK,ex husband John left her for a younger woman
Good move John)