It took me a while to get into the style of writing but I enjoyed the story even if somewhat predictable.

Annie grows up in a truly nightmarish situation. Her mother is a serial killer, her young victims brought to the family home where they are murdered. When Annie can stand by no more she takes the most decisive step of her life and goes to the police. This is where the story starts.

Whilst waiting to attend her mother’s trial Annie is protected with a new identity, a foster family and a new name, Millie. But nothing is easy for Millie, her new school, the well-meaning though already dysfunctional family who take her in and her past, never very far from her thoughts.

As the date of the trial draws nears tensions arise, at home, at school, even with the one new friend Annie has made. Her ‘step’- sister, Phoebe is certainly not her friend, making life at school and at home almost intolerable with her name calling and taunts.

The title of the book, Good Me Bad Me, is a tantalising one. Has Annie/Millie told the entire truth about what happened in that house of horrors? Perhaps not. Having shown her strength in going to the police, is she her own person or a chip off the old block?

After reading the book I have concluded a little of each. Surely we are all a product of our upbringing to some extent? When that upbringing is bad an individual may be consumed by that badness and become part of it but many break away, taking with them the scars, perhaps even benefiting from them as a reminder of what they do not wish to be.

At the heart of the story is a young teenager desperately seeking the stability of family life. moral dilemmas and extreme actions scream to be justified but, of course, they can’t be.

The writing style of this addictive read is short and choppy, sometimes effective, sometimes not so for me, but I always wanted to read on and the ending, the way paved throughout the narrative, was expected but surprisingly executed.

A fast and effective read!

Not bad for what I assume is a first novel. I found the writing initially difficult to read but soon got to grips and then grew to like it. The author's tricks made the story flow well.
I read through fairly quickly and the twists were well handled. This I think is a book for new serious readers - possibly teenagers (I am not being patronising ) but for those used to more graphic tales it falls short of the Millenium series.

This is a great thriller which is modern and fast paced. The story is narrated by Milly (Annie) who is 15. Milly's mother has been killing young children and abusing Milly for many years. When the 9th child is killed, Milly reports her mother to the police. Initially Milly is disbelieved. Then the bodies are discovered. Milly is put in a foster home with John her psychologist and coach for her mother's upcoming trial. He has a wife, Saskia and a 16 year old daughter, Phoebe. Phoebe sets out to bully Milly. All Milly wants to do is forget about her mother and lead a quiet life. Will she get her wish? Read on!

NetGalley granted me permission to read Good Me Bad Me, and review it for you guys! I'm pleased to say that I enjoyed this. This book doesn't release until September 2017, according to Goodreads so add it to your TBR's if it sounds like something you might want to read.

TRIGGER WARNING: Good Me Bad Me explores the character of an abuse victim and how that abuse both mental and physical impacts on a family, ultimately.

3.5 Stars!

Good Me Bad Me tells the story of a girl who has lost her mother through crime. Her mum has killed 10 other children, whilst in her job as a nurse. Annie, or Milly as the girl is known to her new family has to move in with a new family and try to get on as best she can. Mike, Milly's foster father is like her councillor and the one to go to for advice. Saskia, the foster mother was a pretty rubbish mother figure, even to her own daughter, Phoebe. She was more concerned with her own life that that of her daughter and Milly. Mike is the only one who really sees the trauma of what Milly has gone through, throughout the book.

Milly does make a friend about half way through the book. However, she hurts that friend physically because she doesn't know how to really fiction around others. Milly gets bullied a lot at school. The bullies are named, all of which are in her class. Her foster sister is the main bully who gives Milly a hard time though.

We see 15 year old Milly go to court as a witness against her mother. This was interesting to read as I've only read one book that partly takes place in a court setting and it wasn't directly about the family of the accused, like this one was.

The story is told in first person narrative from Milly's POV. However, she refers to "you" as her mother a lot. Her mother is the only known criminal of the book so if you're put off by this, maybe steer clear of Good Me, Bad Me because the "you" mother reference happens a lot.

The ending of Good Me Bad Me was the only thing that I didn't like so much as I thought that it came about quite abruptly. I thought the author could have maybe explored another couple of points before she gave us that ending. I don't want to spoil it here but as I said one second it wasn't there, and the next it was, I felt. It also would have been good to see Milly in a few other situations as I thought we just got a minimum of scenes with her dealing with her own mental health.

I'm unsure if this will have a sequel. I feel it could but at the same time, the author mainly writes stand alone a, I believe so it's doubtful. I would be interested to read more about Milly, as we only saw snippets of her behaviour.

I'm giving Good Me Bad Me 3.5 stars because I ultimately enjoyed it. It was unlike anything I've ever read before. The only thing I disliked, as I said above was the abruptness of the ending. If you think about it, it's kind of obvious what kind of ending Good Me, Bad Me will have. I just wish there had been a few more happier scenes than just the mostly negative scenes. It does all play into the story, however..

Really good book with an unusual story. I did think it maybe more appropriate for young adults though due to the amount of school related interactions and events.

I heard so much about this book, and I was a bit reticent to read it as everyone was saying how dark and twisty it was. The weren't kidding, this book grabs you from the beginning and drags you down into the dark, and you wonder how you'll ever recover. It was gripping, and I couldn't stop reading!! Very good book.

Sinks its hooks into your guts and tugs you along...

The eternal question of nature vs. nurture is one that has always facsinated me. In Good Me Bad Me we get up close and personal with an antihero who battles both sides of this coin. Born to a female child murderer, abused by her own mother - Millie betrays her flesh and blood to start a new life. But the darkness is already part of her, it nourishes her through trials and tribulations - one must read on to discover which side of the coin the toss is weighted on.

Milly's mother is a serial killer, and when she finally finds the strength to report her, Milly can finally hope to build a new life. But her mother's influence is still strong, and they are connected by blood-can Milly ever escape her past?
Some good ideas here, but I found the writing patchy, the characters unlikeable and the crimes deeply unpleasant. The nature vs nurture debate was interesting but could have been developed more and I didn't really engage with Milly on any level.
Not for me.

Wow this book packs a punch. I was gripped from the first page.

okay what i liked about this book is that it is told through the eye's of the main character MILLY (ANNIE) and that makes you (me) think that the story is being told to you and that makes it a bit creepy, the story is about a young teenage girl Milly (Annie) who witnessed her mother kill young children mainly boys so after seeing her kill the last boy Daniel, Milly goes to the police and is put in to foster care with a family called mike and saskia and there teenage daughter phoebe who is bullying Milly, phoebe across as a Spoilt little girl who wants her parents to herself and resents the foster kids her parents take in, from the moment Milly walks in to the house Phoebe goes out of her way to make life hell for milly in a mean girl fashion but we also see that she can be cruel to her own friends, With milly as she has alot of guilt about what her mother did to the children an also the abuse that she did to Milly.

even though what her mother did was wrong you kind of get the idea that shes is fighting her feeling's for her mother her mother comes in to her thoughts at times plays on her mind... as a talented artist she uses her mothers face in her work but makes little changes so you cant see that it's her mother.. in this time she makes a new friend morgan, your left on edge a lot of the time because you never know if shes her mothers daughter who is like her in every way possible or is just a scared innocent girl who all she want's is to be loved and fit in with this new family.. as the court trial comes near you get to know more about milly know that she can hold back the truth at times with some twist's and turns that i did not see coming! GOOD ME BAD ME is a highly addictive and compulsive book that is unputdownable and also creepy at times that will keep you up late at night!! its also a book that ive heard a lot about and could not wait to read! thank you to the publishers and Netgalley for my copy of the book! 5 star read

I requested this book due to the hype I had read bout in the media, however for me I didn't feel like it quite lived up to expectations.
To say there was no suspense would be a lie however you could still work out what was going to happen before hand, was too predictable for me. I did like that everything was written as if in Milly's head and this added to the psychological aspect of the book but at times I felt I was reading an article on the psychological effects of childhood trauma. Interesting at times but not what I wanted from this book.
The last 10% of this book was probably the !most exciting but even then you could still work out what was coming.
Not enough suspense and mystery for me in a book. However I could see this as a part drama on tele and the suspense being built apon.

Superb Engrossing Psychological Thriller written from a Child's Perspective
This is a superb psychological thriller written from a child's perspective. Milly is a 15 year old who suffered at the hands of her mother on trial as a Child serial killer. It was Milly who reported her mother to the police after years of cruel psychological torture.
Milly (real name Annie but she has been provided with a complete new identity to. Protect her) is a poor tortured soul suffering from trauma. She is also the key prosecution witness in her mum's upcoming trial at the Old Bailey.
Placed in the foster care of a Psychologist and his family it appears initially that she will settle down albeit that she faces the ordeal of testifying against her mother.
But she soon finds that dysfunctional families are not restricted to just her own.
This is a compelling novel reminiscent of Fiona Barton's "The Widow" as it explores the effects of being the daughter of a murderer. And especially the psychological effects. It features lighter moments as Milly gets her own back in justifiable retribution on school children who bully her. Indeed the author gets us on Milly's side throughout.
Narrated from Milly's perspective throughout you are dependent on a child's way of looking at life. The number of characters is kept to a minimum and the use of social media as a means of bullying made me uncomfortable with the realisation that this is actually happening in our current world. So the book raises issues of concern to parents.
But like all masterful thrillers you have to finish the book to learn the full story. I found the very start of the book a little hard to get into but after the arrest of Milly's Mum the book takes off. A must read book in my opinion written from an original perspective and a story line which keeps you on tenterhooks right to the end.

I have to be honest and say that I really struggled with my thoughts on this book.
There have been some pretty big claims by the marketing department which made me slightly cautious in reading this book in the first place. Things like EXTRAORDINARY, CONTROVERSIAL AND EXPLOSIVE along with the lazy comparisons to books like Gone Girl and The Girl on the train by the media make me extremely dubious about reading them as 9 times out of 10 they fail to live up to the hype.This was no exception to that rule.

I kind of enjoyed it, at no point did I want to give up, but it was just so predictable, long winded and uneventful for 90% of the book and then the obvious happened and that was it.

The story held a lot of promise which is why I wanted to read it but I found it hard to get to grips with the writing style and the direction the book went. The friendship Milly made with the girl from the estate was wasted and meant nothing. Was it to show how much Milly was like her Mum? Not really.

I can suspend reality when I read, after all thats what I read for, to escape the drudgery of real life but my biggest problem was her foster father Mike. Were we meant to believe that such a poor psychologist who clearly had family problems of his own to deal with, be allowed to foster one of his patients, who was the daughter of a Serial Killer? Wouldn't of thought so, and they certainly wouldnt let her back with his family after a suicide attempt.

Now having said all that this book isnt a bad book by any stretch of the imagination. I thought Milly was a good character and I felt sympathy for her throughout the book and I had the opposite emotional reaction to Pheobe. How I smiled at 90%.

Its an ok read, but most defiantly not EXTRAORDINARY, CONTROVERSIAL AND EXPLOSIVE.

A gripping psychological thriller, and a fantastic debut. I was hooked from the first page, and it was really hard to put down.

I really felt for 15 year old Annie and all she had gone through at the hands of her mother, who was a child serial killer. I really felt the emotions that Annie experienced, from when she told the police about her mother through to giving evidence in court.

Highly recommnended and a full 5 stars from me.

Pitched to readers as an extraordinary, controversial and explosive debut, Good Me, Bad Me by Ali Land is a psychological suspense novel with an exciting premise.

Annie's mother is a serial killer and the only way she can stop her mother from killing is to go to the police. Her mother is arrested and Annie begins a new life as Milly while awaiting her mother's trial for multiple counts of murder. Will Milly end up like her mother or will she break free from the cycle of violence?

It's an excellent premise and concept for a crime novel and when I read the blurb for the first time it sounded entirely fresh and I was excited to read it. Unfortunately for me it didn't quite deliver.

The beginning of the novel started off with a bang and I was instantly drawn in, but it just didn't maintain the heightened level of engagement, although I'm not entirely sure why. Perhaps the novel needed to begin a week prior to Annie going to the police in order to experience the horrors she went through and for the reader to feel just how much of a menace her mother was.

Perhaps the novel didn't go deep enough or wasn't dark enough.

The relationship Milly develops with her new foster sister was absolutely fascinating and I would have enjoyed exploring that a little further and a little deeper. This relationship created more menace and suspense than the relationship with Milly's mother which should have been the driver for the novel.

Overall, Good Me, Bad Me by Ali Land is a good read and I'm confident it'll be enjoyed by many crime fans in the months ahead.

To be published in numerous local and regional magazines in April: Can a child brought up to be a killer change her fate? That’s the question posed in this gripping psychological thriller. Milly is in foster care with a new family and a new name. All she wants is a fresh start. But Milly’s mum is a serial killer, and Milly was the one who put her behind bars. As the trial approaches, Milly has to decide what she wants from life, and how far she’s willing to go to get it.

Cleverly written, but oh so dark, it kept me hooked until the very end, looking straight into the heart of the terribly abused young Milly. Harrowing, heart-breaking and thought provoking it is no easy read; it left me reeling at the end.

Review s posted on my Goodreads page:

This is a story which is crafted in an exceptional way. The character of Annie / Milly is developed and created in a hauntingly clever way.

I will try to avoid anything which may spoil this story, because it really is a book which is a voyage of discovery.

Here are a few of the headings which I made:

Annie the victim

An informer

A secret identity and foster family

Court room scenes

Suffice to say there are plenty of twists within this novel.

My thanks go to Netgalley and the publisher Penguin UK (Michael Douglas) for this copy in exchange for this review.

I found the start of this a bit slow going, but once I got into it I was hooked. Ending was not a great surprise, but overall I really enjoyed it.