Alcock's interest in social and family tensions can be found in The Haunting of Cassie Palmer an d The Stonewalkers.

Although these novels contain supernatural elements not found in the realistic The Cuckoo Sister, the problem of flawed mothers is explored in both.

Cassie Palmer is alienated by the expectations of her mother, an impoverished medium who turns to fraud.

Poppy of The Stonewalkers is an attention-seeking liar whose hardworking, widowed mother is cold and unfeeling.

The themes of reconciliation and maturation through friendship and love typify the books.