white oleander - janet fitch review

truly my favourite book since i read it in grade 11 (2024). the premise is astrids (main character) mother ingrid gets arrested for murdering her boyfriend, therefore ending up prison and astrid sent into the foster system until she's 18. the book follows the different families she lived with and coping with her mother gone and father a mystery to her. her mother is a very constant character within the story despite being in jail, she writes to astrid constantly. she gained admirers when in prison. through each house, astrid changes more and more. i'm not too great at explaining myself in words ha-. overall this book meant a lot to me at the time of reading, i simply couldn't put it down. all my free time was spent reading it which isn't common for me. even two years later i still think about it so often. i even chose astrid as my character choice for a psychology project.