Good Me Bad Me

In my opinion...

This disturbing,dark novel had me hooked from the start, and I was unable to put it down.

It is written in the first person, in the present, which allows the reader access to everything Milly is thinking, or almost everything...

The style is short, sharp, and very easy to read. Milly's descriptions are sensory and visual, frequently starting off as normal observations, and then with a twist there is an horrific memory, or a chilling comment which pulls you up short. That is a shock,you do not really know your narrator at all.

Having gone to the police about her mother, you would hope that Annie, whose name is changed to Milly, would have a better quality of life, but instead she has to face horrific bullying, as well as the mental stresses of preparing for a trial where she is the witness, all while housed in a foster home which is itself dysfunctional.

Milly’s mother is ever present through the novel, with Milly continually speaking to her in her head, revealing her dilemma of fear versus love. This novel raises so many questions; is a murderer loveable? Why did she give up her mother to the police? What was the final straw? Can Milly truly be good?

Ali Land has written an amazing first novel, I read in an interview that she was a children’s mental health nurse for ten years, so is well qualified to write about young people’s issues.In doing so she provokes discussion around how to care for children who have been damaged by their pasts

I raced through this novel, and have no doubt that it will, deservedly, be an huge success in 2017.

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin UK -Michael Joseph for this ARC

Want to know more?

StartFragmentAnnie's mother is a serial killer.

The only way she can make it stop is to hand her in to the police.

But out of sight is not out of mind. As her mother's trial looms, the secrets of her past won't let Annie sleep, even with a new foster family and name - Milly.

A fresh start. Now, surely, she can be whoever she wants to be.

But Milly's mother is a serial killer. And blood is thicker than water.

Good me, bad me.

She is, after all, her mother's daughter... EndFragment

My rating...

An extraordinary five glasses- read it and make up your own mind!