Could not finish - the writing style made it feel clunky and hard to get into, plus the subject matter was deeply disturbing.

This story starts with an eight-year-old girl strangling a toddler. Afterward she remembers the murder with excruciating detail and pleasure because it makes her feel powerful, like God. But don't let that first scene scare you away. This is not a horror story. It's not one of those preachy, poor little abused child stories. At it's core, The First Day of Spring is a survival story.

It grabbed me from the first page and kept me reading, rooting for the unlikely heroine: Chrissie is a liar, a bully, and a thief, but every bad thing Chrissie does is a cry for attention in a world where she has been hungry, cold, unloved, and basically on her own practically since birth. Nancy Tucker's ability to put the reader into Chrissie's mind and heart is astonishing. The novel is very well written and suspenseful, but it isn't an easy story to read. We don't like to face the fact that a child like Chrissie might be living somewhere near our own home, playing with our kids in the park, acting out in our child's classroom. Adults in Chrissie's neighborhood know, or at least suspect what Chrissie's life is like, but parents pull their own children close, tell them not to play with Chrissie, and turn away without trying to help her. The mothers in Chrissie's neighborhood put the well-being of their own child first, and tell themselves Chrissie's own mother should look after her.

Yes, Chrissie has a mother, and another aspect of this story is the complicated relationship between mothers and daughters. How much of our life is shaped by our mothers, and our mother's mother? This is a survival story. Chrissie survives.

Wow! This book was enthralling, disturbing and amazing! I read it in two days because I could not put it down. Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free electronic advanced readers copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
From the very first page, the author hooks you when she introduces you to the main character, Chrissie, an 8 year old girl who has a brutal home life and goes on to commit a heinous act. While you are repulsed by her crime and the brutality of it, you also come to understand why she did it particularly as the author drops hints of the severe neglect and emotional abuse Chrissie experienced in her home. The story actually flip flops between 8 year old Chrissie and Chrissie 20:years later who is now living under an assumed name after serving time for her crime in a mental institution. Adult Chrissie, aka Julia, is now a single mother to a daughter of her own and she lives with the constant fear of her identity being revealed and her losing custody of her daughter. The crushing guilt she feels for what she did as a child is constant.
The author did a superb job handling a very tough subject without making it too depressing. You actually end up feeling sorry for Chrissie/Julia and cheering her on as she tries to get her life back on track. There are also some moments of humor interspersed throughout which helps lighten the overall dark mood of the book. This is a story of survival and hope - I highly recommend this memorable book!

Eight year old Chrissie is a murderer. She’s also neglected by her parents, nearly starving to death and craving attention so badly that she’ll act out in any way possible in school and in the neighborhood, just to get someone to notice her.

20 years later, Chrissie is now Julia. She’s served her sentence and has changed her name, twice over - she’s also a mum. Her daughter Molly is her world but possibly also her penance. She must do everything right, or will they take Molly away from her too? When Molly breaks her arm in an accident, Chrissie comes back, and they’re both on the run.

I found Chrissie’s story and POV heartbreaking, though the authors voice of an eight year old is sometimes not fluid - sometimes it feels like an adult’s language or tone. There should also be trigger warnings as food/hunger/starvation are mentioned a lot in this novel.

I also felt that Adult Chrissie/Julia was not really given the most fleshed out portion of the story. We know her history and a bit about what happened after but the little wrap up at Linda’s seemed rushed, as does the ending.

Overall, a good novel, with a few hiccups.

Wow. This honestly was unputdownable and it completely took my breath away. It portrays the life of the severely neglected 8-year-old Chrissie, who kills a toddler. Though the act is reprehensible, her reasons for doing it are expounded upon by the well-written, tragic words that describe Chrissie’s miserable existence. No child should have to put up with what she did and I felt deeply for her. The author brilliantly tugged at my heartstrings with her passionate sentences and it moved me deeply. I will not stop thinking about this anytime soon.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of The First Day of Spring by Nancy Tucker

Wow! Talk about a book that has you on edge throughout! This one keeps you on your toes.

Chrissie Banks is an 8-year old girl, living in the poorer part of a town in England with an abusive, neglectful, unloving Mam and an extremely absent Da. Oh, and she just murdered a two-year old neighbor boy.

The book flips between Chrissie after she murders the toddler and 20 years later as she lives under the assumed name Julia along with her 6-year old daughter, Molly.
Her life as Chrissie is awful - she is a troublemaker in school, bullies her few firiends, and has to basically get by on her own due to highly dysfunctional, ill-equipped, resentful parents (one of which shows up whenever he feels like it). It's the classis nurture vs. nature scenario - is she the product of a bad upbringing or are her murderous ways a part of her genetic make up?

Tucker's descriptions of how Chrissie feels as she's murdering the little boy and as she teases the local police trying to investigate the crime are nerve-wracking. You feel the tension, the frustration, and the pride (Chrissie says she has all the power and she feels like god in those instances) that Chrissie feels throughout the passages. She absolutely gets into the mind of a sociopathic child and makes it genuine. Chrissie is a tough little girl (she's had to be owing to her home life) and I did feel a bit of sympathy for her even knowing what she had done.

Strangely enough, you do feel sympathy for Chrissie/Julia as she tries to stumble about being a mom to Molly. She's full of self-doubt, regret, guilt, and fear.

There seems to be a few less than subtle nods to the novel The Bad Seed by William March and the subsequent film based on the book, as her teacher, and even Chrissie herself, refer to her as a bad seed on more than one occasion. I half expected her to use the "I've got the prettiest mother, I've got the nicest mother" line on her Mam at some point in the novel. Although even in Chrissie's delusional mind this would be a huge stretch to say that. Even Chrissie would have to know this is patently a lie.

Child violence is disturbing, but this book handles it in a way that shows consequences for the perpetrator and the reprucussions it has on her life. I do think the title is a bit odd (spring = new life, growth). It seems to be a polar opposite for what the book is about (death, dismalness); maybe it refers to Julia's new start with Molly. I would highly recommend this book to those that like taut, tense thrillers.

The funny thing is that the only thing I dislike about this wonderful book is the title, which isn't evocative at all, and if it were not for the great cover art, I'd think this was a light hearted book. It is so much more than thta--deep, unforgettable drama.

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review.

Wow. This was a disturbing read that I absolutely could not put down. It’s not easy to read about a child murdering another child, and it’s disconcerting to be able to feel some form of sympathy for the way she grew up. This was a sick, twisted, great novel.