An engaging UK psychological thriller which poses the classic nature v nurture question. Annie is a young girl (15) put into foster care, after she turns her mother in for a horrific murder. Forced to change her name to Milly protect her from scrutiny due to the imminent murder trial, 'Milly', as our unreliable narrator takes us through her new and old lives as she tries to settle in her new home – with her unwelcoming new 'sister' Phoebe, cheating foster mom Saskia, and 'I see a book in this' shrink foster dad, Mike, who has been tasked with preparing her for the trial.

The book is strong on bullying, and on the desire to be liked, and of how easy it is to manipulate and to let yourself be manipulated. Land make 'Milly' a character who you like and trust, then distrust and suspect, and back again. It is an uncomfortable journey at times. One of the better books of its genre this year.

This is a very hard book to read, concerned as it is with child cruelty, sexual child abuse, and cruel behaviour towards minors. The mother in this story appears to be devoid of any care, or love for her daughter. The daughter eventually realises that the mother intends to kill her when she reaches 16, so she goes to the police, and tells them that her mother has tortured, and killed several little boys, and one girl.
They remove her to a place of safety, a foster home with a male psychologist and his wife, who have one daughter of their own. However, she turns out to be quite a nasty piece of work herself, and makes life at school and at home very difficult.
The two twists in this story made me gasp out loud, and I felt that somehow it wasn't entirely unexpected after what had happened in the past. You need a very strong stomach to read about the cruelty, and an understanding of how the social services, police, etc work. Thank you to Net Galley, and the publisher for allowing me to read this books.

This was an amazingly dark but sympathetic story of the aftermath of a hellish childhood. Written in a style which was fragmented could have been an annoying distraction but it really reflected the thought processes of the narrator. A very different but hugely evocative tale. I look forward to more from this writer.

I thoroughly enjoyed this boosk, a really intriguing story, with a great lead character with whom you feel great sympathy, and root for..
An interesting idea, would you give up your Mother to the Police, how would it affect you? I really needed to lnow how this book ended, and read it very quickly, it kept me riveted, and I was really there with Milly, wanting things to turn out well for her. I think this is an author to watch.

Millys mother is a serial killer who is awaiting trial.
Her mother has groomed her from the age of four. She has suffered both physical and mental abuse at the hands of her mother and she is in fact the person who informed the police of her mothers activities.
Milly is not her real name she has been given a new identity and is now in foster care whilst her mothers case comes to court where she is the key witness.
All is not what it seems.
The book grips you form the very first page.
It is very clever because right from the start you sense the evil surrounding what is being revealed as you progress through the book and it is not until the last page you are faced with the reality of evil being played out.

I received a free copy via Netgalley in exchange for a honest review.

I was very disappointed with this book.
I found the story to be slow and the background to the story was very bleak and poverty stricken.
I know I will be in the minority but this was just not for me.

It seems wrong to say I loved this book when it involves child killings but I really enjoyed it. The story is told by Annie/Milly,the daughter of a female serial killer. I found it a chilling read and uncomfortable at times but couldn't put it down. Highly recommend it.

OH. MY. GOODNESS!!!
I finished this late last night as there was no way I could go to sleep until I had finished it. It took me quite a while to go to sleep after I had finished it!
I'm not really quite sure where to start with this review, but the word horrifying springs to mind.
15 year old Milly (AKA Annie) is living with a foster family having given evidence against her mother. She is preparing herself for the trial where her mother is facing a jury for murdering 9 children. 9 children! I can't even begin to imagine. Not only that, but it is obvious very early on that Milly suffered physical abuse at the hands of her own mother. Thankfully there are no details as such, but the insinuations are enough to make your skin scrawl. Needless to say Milly isn't your average teenage girl and she struggles to get on with Phoebe, her foster family's daughter of the same age. As a result she endures bullying from Phoebe and her friends, on top of everything else.
I did really feel for Milly although she obviously has issues due to her upbringing. She seemed to crave a normal family, but didn't really know how to fit in to one properly. It was hard to imagine how she would even begin move on from the horrendous things she had witnessed and been subjected to and I have no idea how I would deal with giving evidence in court against any family member, let alone my own mother, so her reaction to what she was facing is very plausible.
I knew the story wasn't going to be as straight forward as Milly getting through the trial and moving on with her life, but nothing prepared me for the actual truths which are uncovered along the way! Absolutely shocking and quite disturbing, but totally gripping. I was completely captivated by Milly and her story. It's a very tense read. I almost felt like there was a weight on my chest as I was reading and I think I held my breath through parts in anticipation of what might happen next. Amazing writing. I loved it! It's one that I will think about and recommend for a long time to come.
Many thanks to the author and publisher for my Kindle copy via Netgalley.

Milly has just arrived at the family home of Mike, Sasha and Phoebe Newmont. Her mother is awaiting trial on 9 counts of child murder, and Milly (formally known as Annie) is in hiding. Apart from her foster parents, no one knows who she is or the secrets that she is hiding. It was tough reading the school scenes between Phoebe and Milly, the bullying, the hatred that seemed to flow towards Milly, and the way that she tried to cope with this. However it isn't long before you start to wonder about Milly, about how much she knew about her mother's behaviour and what part, if any, she played in the deaths of these children. She isn't a reliable narrator, as at time there are two voices running through the narrative. Milly wants to be accepted by Mike and Sasha and when there is a glimmer that she might be about to lose that security again and be moved on, her actions speak louder than words. Phoebe is right to be suspicious of this girl sharing her home, because there may be more to Milly than meets the eye.
I didn't find this book as 'thrillerish' as I thought I would to be honest and at one point, Milly thinks her mother has escaped from prison and I thought the book might have been going down a different path, but it didn't pan out that way. It was a okay read and there were parts of it I really enjoyed but I think more could have been made of the trial itself and of the crimes committed by her mother, but in the end that isn't where the focus of the book lay; it was to do with Milly herself and maybe there was more there to be revealed? However, I do disagree that this book is the "new The Girl on the Train" because it isn't; the two books are completely different and there is no comparison between the two.

I love physiological thriller and when I started this I was expecting something similar to what I'd read before. It was definitely not like anything I'd read before. Written in the first person from the point of view of Milly, a teenage girl that hands in her serial killer mother into the police. Slowly Milly reveals the chilling secrets of her life with her Mother, trying to come to terms with what she's seen and prepares to give evidence in court. This truly is a book that is impossible to put down and keeps you on the edge of your seat to the last page.

Good solid 4* psychological thriller.Really enjoyed Millie's POV and found this book very addictive.I pre-empted a lot of the story,but still a great read.

Not your regular family dynamics, Milly’s mother is a serial killer. This isn’t the story of Milly’s mother however, it’s the story of Milly, her recovery and her new start.

I found this to be a unique story, a new side to a familiar psychological suspense, and because of this, I found Milly an interesting and compelling character.

This book was going to end up in my hands before I’d even read the blurb. I first read that Ali Land was previously a mental health nurse so I knew I had to give the novel a whirl and I was so not disappointed.

Good Me, Bad Me is a compelling read about Annie, a young girl whose mother is a serial killer. Given a new name and moving in with a foster family, Annie hopes to finally be free of her chilling past, but things don’t go quite so smoothly.

It took me a while to get into this book. For some reason or another the beginning just didn’t grab me, but once I was 50 pages in I read the rest in almost one sitting. It’s completely unlike anything I’ve ever read and while some of the passages are quite difficult to stomach, it’s well worth it.

Liked the idea of this book, but thought it mostly failed to deliver. Had to force myself through it, rather than it gripping me and pulling me in, unfortunately. Not for me.

This book has been predicted to be one of the most successful books of the year and has been highly recommended by the Richard and Judy book club. Do I agree? Absolutely, without a doubt. I just knew from the very first pages that I was going to be hooked.

Milly is the fifteen year old daughter of a sadistic serial killer mother who has spent many years abusing and grooming her. Only when she feels that she can no longer deal with what her mother is putting her through does she go to the police. It is here where our story takes us on a journey with Milly as she undergoes her own personal battle of 'good me versus bad me' as Milly takes on a new life with a foster family.

Each chapter was full of tension and drama. In particular, Milly's relationship with her foster sister Phoebe had me on the edge of my seat. Due to Phoebe's bullying of Milly there was always an air of is something bad going to happen? The friendship between Milly and her younger friend Morgan was sometimes uncomfortable to read but this I feel linked well with the overall theme of the book.

At certain points the author alludes to Milly having done something that she is not proud of and is terrified of people finding out and as the book gathered pace it truly took my breath away when I realised what exactly that it was. The ending was perfect. I was shocked. I wanted more and even more unbelievable I wanted Milly to succeed in life.

I would 100% recommend this book to other readers who enjoy a good thriller and I certainly cannot wait to read more from Ali Land.

I thought the concept of this story was a good one, Milly's the child of a multiple child killer and is taken in by foster parents after she has told the police about her mother's murders - but all is not rosy in the foster family. Her foster father is also her psychotherapist, her foster mother's unable to cope with her own daughter and the daughter in question is a bully who goes out of her way to make Milly's life unbearable. There are bits about this book that are good, such as the way Millie's story and her character unfurl gradually, making the reader more sympathetic to her, but unfortunately there is too much that I questioned in the story (why did the school not pick up on the bullying if the foster parents didn't?) that made it unbelievable.

Utterly and chillingly gripping. From the get-go, this novel draws you in and doesn't let you loose even when the book's over.

Milly's mother is a serial killer, and Milly's just turned her in to the police. Now she has to adjust to a new life - and new name - and wait for the trial, all the while wondering - will she turn out to be just like her mother? Placed in what seems to be the perfect foster home, it's not long before cracks start to show in the family's dynamic. Mike, therapist and all-round good guy, does everything he can to help Milly settle into her new world, while stay-at-home mother and wife Saskia is obviously uneasy at having the daughter of a psychopath in her pristine home. And then there's Phoebe - the golden daughter, spoiled, jealous and definitely not okay with her parents fostering another child.

This is as much a thriller as it is a story of family drama and coming of age - not only does Milly have to overcome the nightmares that years of horrific abuse have left with her, she also has to learn how to navigate these insidious family issues and the campaign of bullying that Phoebe instantly begins at the school they both go to.

Ali Land portrays Milly so crystal clearly I felt like I was standing by her side through the whole novel. We see exactly how she tries to decipher the social minebombs around her and behave like a "normal" 15-year-old girl in an impossible world. At times, it did feel like there was too much going on - rehearsing a play for Lord of the Flies, dissecting a heart in Biology and a school trip to London dungeon felt a little like overkill for a girl trying to overcome so much trauma.

Good Me, Bad Me deals with some heavy, complex issues with a clever and insightful touch, and I think I went through the full range of emotions reading the book (in one sitting - I really couldn't put it down). The twists and turns were nearly impossible to predict and I loved that Ali Land didn't pull her punches when it came to shocking her readers. An absolutely brilliant debut, I would highly recommend this book to anyone who loves psychological thrillers.

A brilliant read from beginning to end! I was hooked from the first page

What can I say? This book gripped me from the first page and though I found the Milly's voice disjointed to begin with, it draws you into her confused mind as she waits for the trial of her serial killer's mother and its aftermath. Placed in foster care under an assumed name she battles with the emotions of guilt of her past, love for her mum as well as trying to fit in. Throughout the book I was on tenterhooks unsure whether she was good, bad or somewhere in between. Well worth reading.