The main girl is taken from a loving home to be neglected and manipulated, and then later she is sent to a boarding school where she is emotionally abused to the point of severe depression.
A child becomes severely depressed and stops taking care of herself, but she is rescued from the situation causing the depression and recovers. Mentioned as happening in the past, another child was in the same situation and didn't survive.
There's a group of Romani people who are referred to as "g*psy", and while the antagonists of the book look down on them and disparage them, they are portrayed in a positive way and the main character has great respect for them.
Doesn’t take place during the story, but a girl has just recently died at a boarding school. Also, an awful character falls down a flight of stairs and it seems like she might have died but she survives with injuries.
It is described how a dog lost his leg and tail from being abused by a boy before the story starts. During the book the dog is in the loving care of someone else.