My vote is girls in love and double actI’ve chosen some that are mentioned on here, we could read? If everyone, who wants to join in on the reading, pick their top 2 favourites and can narrow it down to the most popular?
• Girls in love (book 1 of the series)
• Lola rose
• Bad girls
• Double act
• The diamond girls
• Secrets
my votes are Lola rose and girls in love xx
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• Girls in love (book 1 of the series) - 2
• Lola rose - 1
• Bad girls
• Double act - 2
• The diamond girls - 1
• Secrets
^ the votes so far
whoever wants to join in the book club please vote on which book you’d like x
@Realitybites @mochibean @MidnightAura @LaBlonde
• Lola rose - 1
• Bad girls
• Double act - 2
• The diamond girls - 1
• Secrets
^ the votes so far
whoever wants to join in the book club please vote on which book you’d like x@Realitybites @mochibean @MidnightAura @LaBlonde
girls in love for me please!• Girls in love (book 1 of the series) - 2
• Lola rose - 1
• Bad girls
• Double act - 2
• The diamond girls - 1
• Secrets
^ the votes so far
@Realitybites @mochibean @MidnightAura @LaBlonde
Girls In Love for me too!
My sister Jodie traumatised me as a child 
loved JW since a child, wasn’t allowed to watch tracey beaker though my mum banned it because it made me and my sister naughty shouted bog off at my dad and got grounded
I’m 30 this year and read a lot of her books again and when I was pregnant in 2018
loved JW since a child, wasn’t allowed to watch tracey beaker though my mum banned it because it made me and my sister naughty
shouted bog off at my dad and got grounded I’m 30 this year and read a lot of her books again and when I was pregnant in 2018
I think most people are happy with “girls in love”! 
sounds good to me I’m gonna go off and search for the book online, I made the mistake years ago of selling all my JW books, wish I still had them 
sounds good to me I’m gonna go off and search for the book online, I made the mistake years ago of selling all my JW books, wish I still had them 
The first one is called Falling Apart and the second is The Power of the Shade
And another one I just remembered: When a blind girl snuck out of her house to go to the shop by herself when she wasn’t allowed, gets caught up in an armed robbery, kidnapped and taken to the burglars house where she is kept captive!
love lessons was actually based on one of her earlier books (i think it was called waiting for the sky to fall?) - though i never read it so can’t say what the plot points were. if it was darker than love lessons though then i dread to think!
I was always a big fan, every birthday/Christmas I would be updated with her books.
Until I read this thread I never actually realised how dark the books were. I guess rereading as an adult would open my mind.
The lottie project and girls in loves were always my favourites.
Until I read this thread I never actually realised how dark the books were. I guess rereading as an adult would open my mind.
The lottie project and girls in loves were always my favourites.
Take a Good Look - that one was aimed at younger children but parts of it were very disturbing
Yep, first one is Falling Apart and the second is The Power of the Shade (there is also a very disturbing scene where the teacher's "hold" over her ends after she has a psychotic break and hallucinates that she set fire to his house or something.) I think the third one also happened in Falling Apart
I remember a few of her older novels for teenagers and they are indeed quite dark, these are the ones I remember (spoilers)
- Waiting For the Sky to Fall: a girl gets a secret boyfriend and starts having sex with him over the summer, while worried about what her emotionally abusive father will do to her if she fails her GCSEs. At the climax of the novel her sister, who is suggested to be mentally disabled, is missing/late home and everyone panics, thinking this creepy guy kidnapped her. Wilson basically re-used these characters for Love Lessons, the parents/protagonist/sister/boyfriend characters were all extremely similar. I think Love Lessons is actually darker due to the element of grooming by the teacher, at least in this book the heroine's boyfriend is about the same age? However the abusive dad is around for the whole book and, yeah, the "kidnapping" thing is actually quite grim
- Deep Blue: a girl has a father who aggressively pushes her to become a diving champion in the Olympics. She hits her head at the pool and gets a concussion, then pretends the injury is worse than it actually is as an excuse to quit diving so she can have a "normal" teenage life and date boys, etc. Then her father has some kind of heart attack or stroke and she's devastated because his dream was to see her win a medal for diving
- The Other Side: a girl's mother has a nervous breakdown and goes into hospital indefinitely so she has to live with her dad and new stepfamily. She's under a huge amount of stress and begins imagining that she can astrally project. This leads to a scene where she believes she can fly off the roof and actually tries to jump, her father thinks she attempted suicide but basically yells at her and calls her an attention-seeker. Things improve somewhat by the end of the novel, but she's still in much the same situation and mum is still in hospital.
- This Girl: a girl gets a job as a nanny at a beautiful Victorian mansion for a yuppie couple. She starts an affair with the dad, who is fairly young (late twenties-early thirties) but still much older than she. She also befriends a poor single mum from the council estate who gives a long speech against abortion at one point! Eventually, the wife discovers the girl's affair and kicks her out whereupon she moves in with her friend who is suggested to now be her girlfriend
- The Dream Palace: a girl whose father has died is fixated on a memory of him taking her for tea at a posh hotel which has since become disused and overrun by squatters. She "falls in love" with an older guy living in the squat and he takes her to a funfair (this scene is similar to the bit in The Illustrated Mum where Mickey takes Dolphin and Star to a funfair.) Then he stabs her stepfather and the two of them go on the run together, with the boyfriend trying to pimp her out - she is about 15! Eventually she hands him over to the police so she can go back to her old life.
- Amber: teenage girl lives in a hippy commune with her mum who is an aging rock groupie. The heroine is upset at how irresponsible her mother is, and just wants a normal life. She has affairs with two brothers and then thinks one or both of them got her pregnant, and refuses to get out of bed for weeks on end. Her mother's old boyfriend wants to marry her and raise the child with her, but then it turns out she's not pregnant and he just kind of vanishes. She is on better terms with her mother by the end.
She also wrote a couple of disturbing crime novels back in the 70s - early 80s
Even the Girls series comes across a bit suspect now as Magda and Nadine are always saying they "don't like schoolboys" and want to date a grown man!
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OMG you brought back memories for me reading your descriptions! I definitely read Waiting for the Sky to Fall and The Dream Palace and the plots of Deep Blue and The Other Side sound very familiar too.
i still have mine but they're totally wrecked! i wish id taken good care of them but at least they've been loved lolI think most people are happy with “girls in love”!
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its so interesting that she started off with much darker books, i want to read them lol
Oh my god!!! I know the book you’re talking about. Wasn’t she obsessed with horses as well? She escapes out the bathroom window
My mum used to threaten to put me into care amd would say to me 'it's not like it is on Tracey bleeping beaker'I loved her books. Still read them now when I come across them. My mum was convinced my behaviour was terrible because I loved Tracy Beaker. Spent many a day telling my mum to Bog off
Do we have the same mumMy mum used to threaten to put me into care amd would say to me 'it's not like it is on Tracey bleeping beaker'
i vote for these two!
I re-bought a few in charity shops and on eBay last year. I also loved the books growing up. I think Candyfloss was the most recent book I read.
Faves:
The Bed and Breakfast Star
Double Act
Lola Rose
Bad Girls
The Lottie Project
Glubbslyme
Some parts of the books stayed with me all these years due to the dark themes...
Faves:
The Bed and Breakfast Star
Double Act
Lola Rose
Bad Girls
The Lottie Project
Glubbslyme
Some parts of the books stayed with me all these years due to the dark themes...
The Diamond Girls - the neighbour who was abusing her daughter.
Dustbin Baby - When April's adoptive mother killed herself.
Love Lessons - the creepy teacher and abusive dad
The Suitcase Kid - the step sister who didn't want to sleep because she was scared of dying
The Illustrated Mum - when the mum has a breakdown and pours paint on herself
Clean Break - when the Dad leaves the family for another woman
Dustbin Baby - When April's adoptive mother killed herself.
Love Lessons - the creepy teacher and abusive dad
The Suitcase Kid - the step sister who didn't want to sleep because she was scared of dying
The Illustrated Mum - when the mum has a breakdown and pours paint on herself
Clean Break - when the Dad leaves the family for another woman
Voting for Girls in Love!
Remember when I was in primary school she did a book signing in the book shop in my town and I was SO jealous when a girl in my class came in with a signed copy of Vicky Angel!
Remember when I was in primary school she did a book signing in the book shop in my town and I was SO jealous when a girl in my class came in with a signed copy of Vicky Angel!
the part in diamond girls where mary's mum cuts her nails back always stuck with me for some reason
Most votes for girls in love! I bought the online version and I’m excited to start reading tonight!
I bought the online version and I’m excited to start reading tonight!