White Oleander by Janet Fitch

The book starts off with Astrid, who is raised by her single mother Ingrid. Astrid is 12 years old, and her mom is a poet. Ingrid is very picky about men and she goes out with a man Barry, who is not her typical man. I think there will be problems with the boyfriend, since Ingrid seems very opinionated. Of course, she ends up leaving him. Problems escalade and she murders Barry. Ingrid now has life in prison, and Astrid has to live in foster homes. The book is very hard to read, since Ingrid does not treat Astrid with the love and care she deserves. Ingrid is very self centered and uncaring. Its somewhat hard to follow the book right now because the dialogue is confusing. At each foster home, Astrid has a hard time adapting to it because she has lived with such a loose, carefree mom. She has been raised with a very open mind so when Astrid is at strict homes it is very difficult for her. It seems that Astrid has a struggle finding out who she is because she is around so many people, she doesn't know where she fits. I wonder what is going to happen next to Astrid.