Good Me Bad Me

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From the beginning I felt a great deal of sympathy for Milly. This young teen, who had so much to forget, had already been through so much, witnessed something beyond terrible, who now just wanted to be normal, and in a home where people cared about her in a healthy way. A therapist household sounds ideal but there was more going on here, making this a less than healthy environment for a troubled young girl. Utterly compelling, extraordinary, breath-taking' Joanna Cannon, author of The Trouble with Goats and Sheep I used to tell the kids I looked after, ‘Just do your best and don’t forget to breathe,’ and that’s what’s next for me as I begin the journey of writing the difficult second novel. It’s a thriller set on a scarcely inhabited Scottish island where young twins – who have grown up in complete isolation – become fascinated by a group of newcomers on a training expedition. There are secrets aplenty, and as the end of summer looms a dark undercurrent threatens to rise, shattering the idyll of island life forever. A teenage girl with a very troubled past reports her mum to the police for the terrible things she has done, and is fostered by her psychologist. Is that even allowed? I would have thought you would be placed in temporary foster care and provided with a separate psychologist. With doctor patient confidentiality, I just can’t get my head around a teenage girl opening up to her psychologist who also happens to be her foster dad. Perhaps this is perfectly acceptable practice, I don’t claim to be an expert in this matter, but did personally find it a little hard to find this situation believable.

While Norma was listening to this story and was lost in the unstable mind of Milly and her thoughts the rest of us were overwhelmed with the constant bullying from the mean girls which left us feeling exhausted and really sad at how mean they really were. There is a lot going on within this story and many topics touched on here that for us overshadowed the creepiness and distracted us from the struggles going on in Milly’s mind. For the Twisted Sister Norma it was a very different experience as she really got into the minds of the characters as the narrator of the audiobook was absolutely brilliant and really showed how creepy and disturbing these characters really were. I read this book in one compulsive gulp over two days and absolutely loved it. It's raw, superbly controlled and it chills to the bone' Richard Skinner As Milly awaits her mother’s trial, where she is set to testify in person, despite her age, she sits through therapy sessions with Mike, befriends another girl, a fellow outcast named Morgan, and endured horrific bullying from Phoebe and her minions, all the while struggling with the side of her that favors her mother’s tendencies.Land coolly ratchets up tension and takes the reader into a damaged mind, exploring the question of nature versus nurture, and the possibility of redemption. Good Me Bad Me is a heartbreaking, breathtaking chill of a book.” At school, Phoebe takes bullying to a new level. Phoebe and her best friends, Clondine and Izzy, send her abusive messages and tease her relentlessly. They follow her, taunting her, and Milly doesn’t know what to do. She doesn’t want to hurt them, because that would mean she’s just like her mother. On the other hand, she hates feeling like a pushover. When Annie hands her mother over to the police she hopes for a new start in life - but can we ever escape our past? This is an excellent edgy psychological thriller. The style of writing lends itself well to the sharp pacey storyline and keeps you wondering what will happen next. Yes, the story can be uncomfortable in places but thankfully it’s not graphic about the child murders and the abuse they would have suffered. The focus is more on the mindset of Milly and how those past events are shaping her thinking and actions to those around her.

Her new foster family. Her foster dad, Mike is a psychologist, an expert in trauma. Saskia, her foster-mother just wants to make her feel at home. The Newmonts look like a fantastic family and are they very welcoming..... Honestly, I understand this book may not be for everyone. Some things may be triggering for some people. The subject matter is dark and went a bit deeper than I expected. At the same time I didn't feel like the author overdid it with descriptions of what happened and I appreciated that. This is one of those plots where you find yourself second guessing yourself as you read and make predictions of where the book is going only to change your mind a few chapters later. It's very engaging, the writing is tight and the pace is gripping. If you love to get into the headspace of dark, damaged and complex characters you will really enjoy this book. This book is full of suspense and Ali Land who has quite a different style of writing succeeds in gripping the reader and encourages them to read just one more chapter again and again. But Milly has secrets, and life at her new home becomes complicated. As her mother’s trial looms, with Milly as the star witness, Milly starts to wonder how much of her is nature, how much of her is nurture, and whether she is doomed to turn out like her mother after all.Thank you to Netgalley & Penguin UK Michael Joseph for my ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review* I told the story again. And again. Same story. Different faces watched, different ears listened. I told them everything. His hand—I noticed a slight tremor as it reached for the telephone. Come now, he said. You need to hear this. The silent waiting for his superior to arrive. Bearable for me. Less so for him. A hundred questions beat a drum in his head. Is she telling the truth? Can’t be. That many? Dead? Surely not. Unfortunately, I feel completely confused by my experience of this book, as my experience seems to have been somewhat different from most other reviewers. It is described as:

The story is based around Annie who has changed her name to Milly and is now living a new life with a new family after her mother goes on trial for murdering young children. All the newspapers are covering her mother's story and Milly is desperate not to be like her mother and be good, but she is the daughter of a murderess. As her mother's trial looms, the secrets of her past won't let Annie sleep, even with a new foster family and her new name Milly she is struggling to conform. Can she realise the fresh start she wants and be good or is her serial killer mother going to make her bad. I think the first half of the book was a little slower than the second half, hence the 4 star review. However, the second half more than made up for the first half. I felt as if I was on a roller coaster of the best kind. Up, down, and around. You just never know what is going to happen. I really, really enjoyed this book and I am anxious to see what the author will write next. His “peak” scores in friendly and submissive style represent who he’d learned to be. They became self-personifying ways of behaving, welcomed by his parents and teachers, and by employers. They defined his “Good Me,” [2] an accommodating style with self-limiting consequences. He learned that it was “not nice” to express the anger, frustration, or intense disagreement he might feel. Beautiful, pure things make me feel ugly. Tarnished. I remember asking you when I was three, maybe four, where I came from. I waited for you to sweep me up, rub our noses together in an Eskimo kiss and reply, you came for me, you belong with me, I love you. But you didn't respond, you walked out of the kitchen left me standing there alone"Good Me Bad Me is an astonishing debut - technically sophisticated and emotionally heart wrenching. So many things are done well - the status jungle of girls school, the psychological dissonance of a dysfunctional family, the internal machinery of damaged children. I thought it was wonderful.” As promised, this is a very controversial novel, one that really set my teeth on edge, and made my stomach churn with apprehension, really making me squirm. The kind of unreliable narrator who has fascinated readers of The Girl on the Train and other such novels....A gripping tale in the cutting voice of a teen antiheroine.”