From the start you are presented with a situation. Annie, the daughter of a serial killer (her mother) reaches a point where she reports her mother to the police. Annie, who is also abused by her mother, is adopted by a physiatrist, who counsels her before the trial were she is the only witness for the prosecution. Her name is changed to Milly and you see this girl trying to adapt to the ever changing situation around her. Her own thoughts and feelings shared in the similar vein of a journal format. You see that this new start isn't always hearts and flowers. The foster family have a veneer being perfect yet you see the power struggle between the mother Saskia and the daughter Phoebe. Phoebe also makes it evident that she does not want Milly around and makes it hard for Milly in both school and home.
Milly isn't also as innocent as she appears and instead of feeling relief she is fearful. She is also not sleeping with nightmares every time she closes her eyes. She has little rays of light in her life that seem to offer her salvation but when Milly reaches breaking point how far does the apple fall from the tree?
Overall I would say I liked this book but it was a very difficult read. The style is written similar to a young Adult book however the subject matter is definitely of the adult realm. The book was difficult to read at times although thankfully the author spares us information about the crimes themselves. Milly being fostered by Mike I also struggled with. Surely this wasn't a believable point ? You can't counsel and be a father figure also without breaking your objectivity as a counsellor. This is a good debut novel and would be interested in reading more from the author. However I'm not sure I would agree with others who appeared to enjoy this thoroughly. I struggled at times with the believability of the plot.
Thank you to both the publisher and author for am opportunity to review this book in exchange for a honest review .

I received this book in exchange for an honest review from netgalley

And honestly. I loved it!!!!

Millie or milly? I don’t remember. Has a mother. As we do. Only hers is a serial killer. And when milly turns fifteen, she turns her mum in and the story follows from there

The style of the book was great. It was written from Millie’s viewpoint and her jumbled thoughts.

The ending was also great.

I’d welcome a prequel. What was life like for Millie when she was at home? What happened in the playground?
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Young people’s voices are notoriously difficult to do well in literature. Emma Donahue ‘s Room and Claire King’s The Night Rainbow did it really well. Ali Land’s Annie/Millie in Good Me Bad Me...for me, the author didn't manage to pull it off.

Annie’s mother is on remand in prison, accused of killing 9 children. Annie turned her in, eventually, and is now living as the foster daughter of her therapist. While not as dysfunctional as her own family, Annie's new family is not without its problems and her new life is less than perfect. Her new sister resents her and she has no friends. Soon, Annie will have to give evidence in court at her mother’s trial. How will she handle seeing the monster who abused her? And what will happen to Annie after the trial?

This book has been marketed as this year's Gone Girl. I abhor lazy marketing like this and I feel that it didn't do GMBM any favours. If you were to approach the story as a debut psychological thriller I think you'd not be disappointed. But it's nowhere near as good as Ms Flynne’s book.

Annie is a typical unreliable narrator and very unlikable. I honestly didn't care what happened to her. And back to the character’s voice - the author’s staccato style with single word sentences and sentence fragments makes for awkward reading.

The plot is decent enough but the twist ending wasn't hard to see coming.

I'd give this book 3*. It's not a bad book, but it's nowhere near as good as the hype.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book is a great crime thriller, and deals with the young protagonist excellently, particularly with regard to the motives behind her actions. Thoroughly enjoyed this book and will be looking out for more from this author

Another example of brilliant crime writing. A great psychological thriller. The strong characters within this book had me riveted from the first page. I couldn't wait to see what happened in it. A real page turner. A great book. Highly recommended.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Ali Land for the copy of this book and I agreed to give my unbiased opinion voluntarily.

I've heard so much about this book and I was desperate to read it. I was not disappointed. This was gritty and deep, and I was hooked from chapter one, to the point where I actually finished this in an evening ( I could not put it down!) I would highly recommend this book to anyone who loves a good psychological thriller - breathtaking!

I was delighted to receive this book to review and would like to thank NetGalley and Penguin.. I had heard lots about it and read many reviews, both professional and amateur. I expected to enjoy it but to my surprise i found i didn't like it much at all.

Milly is a fifteen year old girl in foster care. Her mother has abused her for years and has committed heinous crimes which Milly eventually plucked up the courage to tell the police about. She is now waiting to be a witness in her mother's trial.

Milly narrates the story in a disjointed uneven voice. It's very stilted and quite hard to follow at times. I can see why the author did it that way, to inject reality into Milly's voice but for me it didn't quite work. Much more serious was the way we had to suspend disbelief at a number of points. There are numerous instances of this but I'll mention just four.

First of all, Milly's foster parent is also her psychologist. As a psychologist myself I found this particularly hard to believe. There are all sorts of ethical considerations here which haven't been taken into account, not least the conflict of interest between being someone's therapist and at the same time their carer. In addition Mike is secretly writing a book about Milly. He hasn't discussed it with her, hasn't got her permission and I very much doubt if he has considered the ethics at all.

Secondly, Milly has now been placed in a private school. Who is paying for this? The state? Her foster parents? Her mother (a nurse). I just didn't believe it. And what a school. Nightmare pupils, no awareness of the horrific bullying going on under their noses.

Thirdly, Milly's behaviour is not credible, especially at school. I have worked with abused children. They show their distress through their behaviour. Milly's brother's behaviour is much more believable than Milly's. He does everything in his power to be kept in care and not returned home. Milly's cortisol levels (a stress producing hormone) would have been very high and I doubt she would have been able to keep it together outwardly in the way she does. But we are led to believe that she was a model pupil both at her previous school and her new one.

Finally the court scenes. I can't believe that a child witness would be intimidated by the defence lawyer in the way Milly is. Shouted at and accused of lying. It makes you hate lawyers even more.

I can see why the book is so popular. Female serial killers are thin on the ground and stories about the daughter of such, even more so. I did like the relationship between between Milly and Morgan, the child from the local council estate whom she befriends. There is an underlying hint of menace which is well done and I was genuinely worried about Morgan. However I am sick of reading about poor undernourished abused children who live in social housing. Poverty and abuse are often linked - yes. But it's not inevitable and does a huge disservice to those who are less fortunate in life. Unfortunately I've read a few books recently which suggest authors have never been near a social housing estate in their life and so they lapse into cliches straight from 'Benefit Street.'

This book is gripping, from the very start. Startlingly so!

I devoured this book and couldn't stop thinking about it between sittings. I actually thought it might give me nightmares, which I've never had from a thriller before...Don't let that put you off! I just mean to emphasize quite how well written it is.

It's told by Milly/Annie with a completely distinctive voice. It is highly disturbing, but that's what makes the story so powerful. This book will leave you reeling...a must read.

Wow! a breathtaking read. I devoured this in one sitting. it is very different to all the other psychological thrillers out there at the moment and the final chapter was amazing. I really liked how the author made reference's to Annie's past but did not go into gory detail.

Milly wants to lead a normal life in a regular family home.
However, Milly is really Annie, daughter to a serial child killer. As she prepares for the criminal proceedings against her mother to begin, we observe the battle in Milly's "Good Me Bad Me" identity. Are evil tendencies genetic or developed with environmental influence? Can Milly escape her past? A gripping, tense and often horrific thriller, which keeps you page turning.

I loved everything about this book, it was sensitively written and expertly crafted, I devoured it in 3 glorious sittings; I loved the storyline, the characters, the suspense, the unexpected ending! I love it when a book makes you feel like you’ve been on a journey and makes an impact on you. This book would make an amazing movie!!

Told through Annies voice, little snippets of her relationship with her mother are revealed throughout. The author gets right into the psyche of this psychologically damaged girl.

Most of Annies childhood involved witnessing her mother kidnap and murder children; she was forced to participate in her mother’s sick and twisted games. She herself was subjected to years of physical, mental, and sexual abuse.

After one murder too far to a boy she knew and befriended; she finally turns her mother into the police, Annie is given a new life and a new identity. She is taken in by a foster family; a foster dad who is a psychologist and trauma specialist, a foster mum who is withdrawn but eager to be liked, and a foster sister that doesn’t want her there. Milly wants to be good, but she constantly hears her mother’s voice in her head urging her to do bad things. Milly seems to have an unhealthy addiction/attachment to her mother which she doesn’t understand, although she is aware that her mother was a bad person grooming her to be just like herself.

Milly knows she has 'good and bad' inside her, but she'd rather be good given the choice.

More Please !!!!!

Whilst reviews are, of necessity, highly personal perspectives of an individual author's works there is something about the subject matter of this book that makes this much more personal than most. Setting that important issue to one side, I can start on safer territory by commending the skill with which Ali Land draws the reader into the story and breathes real life into her characters. The narrative is pacy and keeps the reader involved with the experiences of 'Milly', the central character. Her writing captures small details that illuminate the wider canvas on which she writes and is easy to read in terms of narrative flow and plot development. Less satisfactory elements are a rather heavy relevance on cliches relating to life in a private girls school and a surprisingly poor reveal at the end of the book of events that I think would have been predicted by a significant proportion of readers. Court dialogue also seemed implausible, but this is simply a feeling and not based on personal experience. However, for me, the greatest area of concern is the choice of subject matter; child abuse, child murder and the troubled life of a survivor of parental abuse, no matter how skilfully woven into a story, will never be seen by this reader as suitable subjects for a novel

I have to admit I struggled to get into this book in fact I started it three times and very nearly gave up. I really don’t know why it must have been me because around 5% in something just clicked and from that point on i was hooked! I really liked the friendship between Millie and Morgan and wish she had been in the book more. The storyline kept me guessing and even though I guessed the twist it kept me enthralled to the very last sentence and believe me that does not happen often!
Review to be left on Amazon.

Good Me Bad Me

This is a great psychological thriller, it follows the story of Milly who's mother is a serial killer. Milly decides enough is enough and goes to the police. When her mother is arrested Milly is put in foster care while she prepares to give evidence at the trial. This is a great read with plenty of plot twists along the way. Highly recommended if you love a good psychological thriller.

A real page turner from start to finish. Loved this book

For the most part I found myself engrossed in this thought provoking. and at times, chilling novel. Land manages to thrill and enthral while offering the reader plenty of room to let their imagination roam. A great skill in a writer.
You will be aware of the premise of this novel and you will probably expect any loose ends to be tied up at the end but the writer leaves an eerie end to the novel which is a neat touch but some might find it unsatisfactory. You decide..
My only criticism is I felt a change in the tone of the book about two thirds in. This is where I felt the writer was trying too hard to go for the thrill factor. It was already there so I found the shift awkward. That said, give this book a go. A good debut.

An unsettling read, in the best possible way! This exceedingly well written plot will shake you up each time you think you have settled into the mind set of the main character. Be warned, this story will sink into sleep with you, and meet you in your dreams.

A very difficult read,not for the faint hearted .Nature V Nurture. A very troubled teenager,the product of her upbringing. Compared to the rest I found it drizzled out at the end.

I enjoyed the pace but found the storyline relating to the young girl quite hard to digest. It's a difficult subject and left me feeling a little unsettled.

I finished Good Me, Bad Me in one sitting and what a complete mind f*ck it was! Wow, its like a road accident as you drive by, you don't want to look but there's that morbid curiosity that makes you stare. I felt this book had that feel about it. Much of the time Ali (Author) tells us what has happened to Annie/Milly but ur imagination is left to do the rest and boy did mine do a number!

The story is told from Milly/Annie's point of view. Told from the view point of a 15 year old girl, at times i felt she came across as younger than her years, juvenile and childish. Then she would say something that would make me feel she was beyond her years, 30 maybe older. I've read a few books where there's been abuse and found this often is the case with victims and how their heads work. I can't say whether I liked Milly/Annie. She wasn't easy to like and you knew she wasn't always telling you everything. It made her unreliable and when she's our narrator it made it story confusing, but in a good way.

The other characters of which there were a few were well thought out and interesting. I liked Mike although the things that come to the surface at the end made me wonder about him. Phoebe was a great character even though completely unlikeable and let's not forget Milly/Annie's mum who were didn't really see any interaction with in the present just the past.

I don't feel I've read such a complex book in such a long time. At times this reads like a YA, obviously with the subject matters of abuse (Physical and mental) and murder it is not a YA book, but the language was there (If that makes sense). I'd put off reading this a long time as I knew I had to be in the mood for it, but boy was it a good read. If you like a thriller with a complex leading voice, a twisted story of a girl who's both good and bad. Then you must try Good Me Bad Me. 4 stars - NetGalley gifted me this book in exchange for a review. My review is 100% my own opinions and not guided at all by this gratis.