Ranking Jacqueline Wilson’s most disturbing books

Everyone’s favourite children’s author, we probably all read a Jacqueline Wilson book or two before we really should have done. From divorce to abusive parents to death, Wilson never shied away from discussing controversial topics, but which of her books were the most disturbing? I’ve ranked them here, but feel free to let me know if I’m wrong!

15. The Lottie Project [1997]

For once, the protagonist, Charlie, is one of the popular kids, but she struggles to adjust when her mother falls for a guy with a weedy young son, Robin. She closes herself off to them all, and this results in Robin and his toy Birdie running away and getting lost — Robin duly gets pneumonia, but recovers quickly.

Meanwhile, Charlie gets overly-engrossed in a school history project, in which she envisages a Victorian version of herself, Lottie. The often-dark nature of the ‘Lottie’ chapters is a precursor of sorts to the Hetty Feather world, while Charlie’s real life is hardly full of shits and giggles either, but compared to some of Wilson’s other output, it’s fucking Teletubbies.

14. The Suitcase Kid [1992]

Okay, so divorce might not be the darkest subject matter in the world of JW, but the way Andy shuffled between her mother and her father week after week made it difficult not to feel sympathy. At her dad’s, there were two young step-siblings and more on the way, while at her mother’s there was the step-sister from hell and the standard shit stepdad — at least she had her rabbit mascot with her, though.

13. The Worry Website [2003]

A collection of interconnected short stories rather than a standalone novel, The Worry Website varied in tone and emotion throughout the book. Some stories were darker than others, but Lisa’s in particular was heartbreaking, as she told a story of domestic abuse, before deciding against putting this into the school’s Worry Website. Instead, she wrote that she’s starting to get spots.

12. The Story of Tracy Beaker [1991]

The one that propelled Wilson to superstardom, and spawned numerous memes through the wildly-popular TV spin-offs, TSOTB was bloody depressing in its own right. We have a 10-year-old girl stuck in the ‘Dumping Ground’ after a succession of inept or downright abusive foster parents and care-workers, including the corporal punishment-loving Auntie Peggy and the couple who took Tracy back once they found out that they could conceive — how good of them! She might be difficult, but it’s hard not to feel sorry for Tracy throughout the book.

11. Bad Girls [1996]

The teasing Mandy is subjected to is pretty cruel — she’s nearly hit by a bus running away from her bullies — and she clearly struggled with having older parents. The mother is in her mid-fifties and the father is 62, so they’re hardly about to get a card from the fucking Queen, but nonetheless, Mandy fantasises about having young, trendy parents.

She befriends the cool, older Tanya from a nearby foster home, who has had a difficult upbringing and encourages Mandy to go shoplifting with her. Of course, they get caught and can’t remain friends.

10. The Cat Mummy [2001]

I think this was one of the books aimed at slightly younger readers, but my god that would only be in terms of length, not subject matter. Verity, a typical Wilson protagonist, already has to manoeuvre growing up without her mother, who died when she was little. And then she finds her elderly cat dead.

After doing a unit on Ancient Egypt at school, she decides to mummify the bloody thing, almost killing her grandmother too when she finds it in the cupboard.

9. My Sister Jodie [2008]

A family upping sticks and moving to a boarding school for a new job doesn’t sound too horrific on the face of it, but this is Jacqueline Wilson we’re talking about here. Protagonist Pearl is going into Year Six at this new school and seems to settle in well, but older sister Jodie is a different matter.

Mother-daughter friction is a key theme in the novel, as Jodie struggles to adapt to her new life, and she ends up falling to her death in a pretty fucking traumatic ending to the novel. Extra depresso points go to the three little kids (we’re talking five-year-olds, here) who are effectively abandoned at the boarding school over the summer holiday by their parents.

8. Vicky Angel [2000]

I mean, it starts off with the protagonist’s best friend being killed by a car. For the rest of the story, Jade continues to talk to the dearly-departed Vicky, but is she actually a ghost? Is Jade going mad with grief? Who knows. I also faintly remember Jade’s father making some rather perverted comments about his daughter’s now-dead bestie too, which is just downright gross.

7. Lola Rose [2003]

I mean, bloody hell, this was a Wilson extravaganza, wasn’t it? Dysfunctional family, check. Parentification, check. Introverted protagonist, check. Jayni, her mother Nikki, and her younger brother Kenny escape their abusive father Jay and all change their names, Jayni becoming the titular Lola Rose. The drama doesn’t end there, however, as Nikki is diagnosed with breast cancer, and Jay is able to track them down. Luckily, she’s able to recover, but not before this family go through hell.

6. Secrets [2002]

Often overlooked when people discuss their favourite Wilson books, Secrets is a good read but nonetheless gets extremely dark in parts. With Treasure and India’s respective lives this book feels like a precursor to that ‘Rich House, Poor House’ TV show — the former lives on a council estate with her nan, her nan’s kids, and her niece after her stepfather assaulted her with a belt, while the latter has a comfortable upbringing, but her parents don’t give a fuck about her. At one point, Treasure hides in India’s attic (and is duly reported missing) in a bid to emulate India’s idol Anne Frank and escape her abusive stepfather. Shit’s wild.

5. The Bed and Breakfast Star [1994]

Though it was published almost thirty years ago, The Bed and Breakfast Star has something of the contemporary Tory Britain about it. Young Elsa is made homeless and has to live in a B&B with her mother, two younger half-siblings, and abusive stepfather Mack the Smack.

With a stepfather who hits her, bureaucratic management, and people who continually look down their nose at her, it’s a wonder Elsa stays as positive as she does, constantly cracking jokes, but then there’s a bloody fire in the hotel. It ends on a positive note, however, as the family gets moved to a new hotel that’s a hell of a lot more pleasant.

4. Dustbin Baby [2001]

14-year-old April was abandoned in a dustbin as a newborn, and it doesn’t really look up much from there. We travel back through April’s life, seeing her adoptive mother ending her life, a fellow child in a foster home bullying her (including trying to drown her in the bath) to the point where April pushes her down the stairs, and an older girl in a children’s home making her assist in burgling homes. Lovely!

3. The Illustrated Mum [1999]

This one didn’t really affect me that much when I read it as a kid in the noughties, but looking back… Jesus. Sisters Dolphin and Star essentially have to parent themselves as their heavily-tattooed mother Marigold struggles with her mental health. Dolphin also gets rejected by her biological father and gets bullied at school by both her classmates and the teacher, who in all honesty should have been nowhere near a primary school. It all comes to a head when Marigold covers herself in white paint and has to go to hospital, while the girls end up in foster care.

2. Love Lessons [2005]

I’ll admit, I never actually read this one myself. However, it always comes up in these kinds of discussions, so I had to give it a mention. From what I can gather, a teenage girl falls in love with her art teacher, who is quite clearly grooming her. They kiss, but once they’re caught, he gets let-off scot-free, keeping his job. The girl, on the other hand, is forced to move to another school. What the fuck?

1. Midnight [2003]

Looking back, it’s a wonder that this was considered a children’s book. Featuring one of Wilson’s most dysfunctional families (which is saying A Lot) the book was a ride from start to finish. Violet and Will are siblings, but it comes out that Will is adopted, causing him to withdraw from the family. Their sibling relationship feels incredibly unsettling, with Will being an incredibly disturbing character, and the parents are downright useless too. Near the end of the story, we find out that the original Will died as a baby, making the second Will a replacement of sorts for the parent.

While this perhaps explains the (no less fucked up) family dynamics this is a tough one to get through. If it was real, Violet would definitely have been on the cover of Take a Break magazine by now.