Cruel to Be Kind
Saying No Can Save a Child's Life
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Cruel to Be Kind
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Narrated by:
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DeNica Fairman
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Written by:
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Cathy Glass
About this listen
Cruel To Be Kind is the true story of Max, aged 6. He is fostered by Cathy while his mother is in hospital with complications from type 2 diabetes.
Cruel To Be Kind is the true story of Max, aged 6. He is fostered by Cathy while his mother is in hospital with complications from type 2 diabetes. Fostering Max gets off to a bad start when his mother, Caz, complains and threatens Cathy even before Max has moved in. Cathy and her family are shocked when they first meet Max. But his social worker isn’t the only one in denial; his whole family are too.
©2017 Cathy Glass (P)2017 HarperCollins PublishersWhat listeners say about Cruel to Be Kind
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Heather
- 2018-04-25
Loved it.
Another great read by Cathy Glass and Denika Fairman read it perfectly. Couldn't stop listening.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- rhonda imoo
- 2020-01-11
Another wonderful book by Cathy!
Great story and as always, DeNica's storytelling is superb! I can't wait for the next!
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Charlie Belleville
- 2024-09-01
Some of the best of Glass
This was my first book from Cathy Glass, and now that I’ve read almost two dozen, I feel I can declare it one of the very best with some authority.
Max may be a pseudonym, but it’s a sadly well-chosen one for the boy at the center of this book. He’s a boy experiencing a very particular kind of abuse - one not done with intent, but out of ignorance. Despite his corpulence, Max is clearly a wonderful child, and one who’s stuck with me. I know you shouldn’t pick favourites, but he’s one of mine.
Some of Glass’ usually frustrating writing problems are here - her tendency to repeat everything constantly, to proselytize from the pulpit about her beliefs about child rearing and health (not just as herself, but puppeting other characters in the story to repeat her words over and over to grant them even more authority) - but it’s not as bad as other books, which seem to assume you have severe brain damage with their amount of constant recapping. There’s actually some nice writing here and there, good turns of phrase, and most importantly, the shine of humanity emanating from just about every character who lingers in the pages. There’s some keen observation and rueful tragedy that Glass illuminates, often very loudly, but occasionally with a touch of subtlety. Danica Fairman also brings a lot to the performance - what at first could seem gross caricatures soon become heartbreaking and real, and the caricature revealed to be put-on shell that the real person needed to construct to survive.
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