4☆ A Raw, Thought Provoking, Gritty & Enthralling YA Read. A Page Turner!

Wow I finished reading this book 2 days ago and after processing the book I feel ready to write my thoughts on this wonderful and heart-rending story.

First of all I want to start by saying this book is very much a story of two halves. The first being a young teenager who falls in love and her story on meeting "The Boy" then the Second half is where I became completely Enthralled and this book for me became a page turner!

The second half is the story of Bess, and how she deals with the aftermath of finding out she's pregnant, to the fraught relationship she has with her Foster Mum and how she grows up and takes charge of her life.

Lucky for Bess she has best friend Eshal by her side, who has her back the whole time. As does Bess when Eshal's parents try and persuade her to have an arranged married.

This book has many trigger warnings, mild drug use, Foster care, abortion,  attempted home abortion, rape, racism,  arranged marriage and cultural difference.

The first half of the book felt very much like I was reading a teen YA read, the language and characters all very fitting to the theme. Bess being just 15 when she met "The Boy" who was a good few years older,  it wasn't exactly a love story, but at 15 you fall in love quick and your whole world revolves around the boy you love.
The story is told by Bess and how she meets him and how she ends up pregnant.

Careless really isn't your typical YA read it's Raw and Poignant and deals with difficult subjects.
To be honest it took me by surprise just how much this book effected me.
My heart went out to Bess so much. Those who were supposed to love and protect her (her Foster Mum), turned on her and that really got my blood boiling. I was elated when she finally got a social care worker who respected and cares for her.

As I said before the second half of the book was thought provoking, raw, emotional, yet somehow triumphant.

If you like reading very gritty, hard hitting, raw, emotional YA Books, with well written complex characters and important issues addressed then I highly recommend you pick up a copy now!

As they say... don't judge a book by it's cover...but for me it was more the case of.... don't judge a book by it's first half!

Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this excellent book. It was so well written. Bess is an incredibly well written character. Her experiences in this book are like reading a real life story. You can't help but fall in love with her. This book will make you laugh and cry. It's a stunning book and is one not to miss

An interesting story about troubled teenage years. The main character, a foster child, finds that's she pregnant by a feckless boyfriend. She has little family support or social support.

The main topics are dealt with in a careful manner, and as someone who left their teenage years a long time ago, bought back memories of the strength of the feelings that are experienced in the hormone-driven and oft turbulent years for young girls especially.

I think this would be a good read for teenagers and young adults. I found that about half way through I had had enough of reliving my teenage years. That's a personal criticism though. I just don't think that in my late 50's I am the ideal audience for this novel.

Although it was good I didn't feel that it lived up to the expectations created by the publishers blurb.

Fifteen year old Bess is pregnant. As if that wasn’t difficult enough she’s been living in a foster home since the age of 4 after her mentally ill mother tried to kill her, her boyfriend is a 19 year old loser and she’s just about to sit her GCSEs which should have been her passport to a better life. As if that wasn’t enough her best friend is Bangladeshi and once her brother is married it will be her turn for an appointment with the matchmaker. Lots of issues in this coming of age story centring round the girls’ right to consent, whether that be the future of the baby, the choice of a marriage partner or even whether to have sex with a boyfriend when you’re definitely not in the mood. Some of them are glossed over or solved a little too easily but somehow the pace of the story and the compelling voice of the narrator meant I was too caught up in the story to worry. My only criticism is that every male character is weak and help for the girls seems to only come from women. Teen fans of Non Pratt will love this!

I did not like the beginning of this book and almost gave up - I thought it was going to be too raw for me. Then I got into the story and enjoyed it. Bess is a lovely strong character who deserved more in life. She is particularly let down by her mother, the social system, her boyfriend and her foster mother, who is like a wicked step mother. Luckily, her friend Esh, who has her own difficulties, and a new social worker give her hope. The story is well-written except that Bess's every gesture, observation and feeling is over-described, her hairs prickle, she sweats, her eyes blink, she fiddles with her clothing, she notices details and smells around her, etc. Too much! I like the setting in time, before social media and texting set in. Bess has to actually go out and meet people instead of messaging them!

Bess is 15 and lives with her Foster family. The story follows her over a year or so dealing with a pregnancy and the fall out from that.
Its set in 1999 and the character is just a few years younger than me, it really took me back to that time. There wasn't much description of the wider world, a few references to the eclipse and millennium, but the feel of it was definitely late 90s for me.
All of the characters were pretty well rounded and the interactions between them seemed very realistic.

Bess is 15, a foster child and pregnant by an older teenager who isn’t interested in a full-time relationship. But this book is about so much more. Above all, it’s about friendship, resilience and that tricky time of being a teenager and feeling like the world is against you. In Bess’s case, she has more obstacles to overcome than most teenagers, but she faces them with wry humour, bucket-loads of grit and her best friend by her side. The author was in care herself and keen to widen the narrative around children in care. She’s succeeded.

An original and moving lock at life in the care system for newly pregnant 15 year-old Bess and a thought-provoking look at what 'family' really means. Highly recommended

A truly remarkable story that I couldn’t put down. It was refreshing to meet a protagonist who was at that crossroads in life when you feel like a grown up but you’re not treated or respected like one. I loved how Kirsty Capes wrote about Bess in such a tender but honest way. It reminded me of how John Hughes shared teen stories and issues in such a truthful way on screen.

Careless is full of heavy topics that are dealt with in such a sensitive but eye-opening way. A book that takes those complicated and intense teenage years seriously and makes the reader see just how privileged they are. Trickled with nostalgia, the most beautiful friendship and a sense that no matter what happens in life you will always find the right people to raise you up when you’ve fallen down.

What an absolute gem of a novel. Bess is 15. She lives outside of London, dreams of being a film maker and her best friend is Bengali. She’s also pregnant and in care.

I started and finished within the same evening, and I can’t wait to get my hands on a printed copy.

Genuinely beautiful. Thanks to NetGalley and Orion!

Thanks to Orion for letting me read Careless by Kirsty Capes in advance. Careless is about fifteen-year-old Bess, in foster care and newly pregnant. She's been sleeping with her semi-boyfriend, nineteen-year-old Boy, and she doesn't know what to do.
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This story dipped a bit in the middle for me, but the second half of this book was SO good, I would recommend it to everyone. Careless is set in the summer of 1999, in the undistinguished Surrey town of Shepparton. The boredom and rebellion of teenage suburban life is really well documented, as are the people who float through this book. Bess is such an understandable and well-crafted character, going through the usual teenage angst as well as dealing with the reality of being in care and the conditional love given to her by her foster parents. The friendship between Bess and her best friend Eshal is so lovely, and honestly filled me with such hope. 4 🌟 and I think it is a book that will stay with me!

This book is full of humour, laughter, sorrow and laugh out loud moments. As a 24-year-old, I still feel able to relate to everything that goes on in this book. Being an adult is hard, and this book encapsulates all of those feelings. The cover is colourful, eyecatching and I would pick it up on a bookshelf out of interest. Well written and I would recommend it.

I loved this book, and the characters of Bess and Eshal will warm the coldest of hearts.

Careless is the story of 15 year old Bess, who has lived in foster care from the age of 4. The realities of the emotional baggage this leaves someone with despite on the face of it being placed in a long term “happy family” are laid bare. Never truly belonging, not in the family photographs around the house, the receipts that stack up for expenses to be claimed....

But Beth has a true friend in Eshal and together they navigate the world of being a teenager in the late 90s. Eshal has her own family issues in. Bangladeshi household that believes in arranged marriages. But when Bess meets Boy and wants to spend all her time with him their friendship is threatened.

Bess’s relationship with Boy, a much older teenager, who has his own issues, threatens to break apart friendships and already shaky families.

The voice of Beth is so authentic and honest. I was swept into the nostalgia of the late 90s and how it felt to be a teenager in love for the first time with a totally unsuitable partner and the power of female friendship. The author captures this brilliantly, And although Beth is a flawed character we warm to her from Day 1, it is a subtle yet powerful insight into the care system which will not leave me. And so you have a story that not only entertains but educates, and that kind of author voice in the world is vital.