Well written but slightly predictable. Milly's mother is a child serial killer. The story covers the build up to the mother's trial. Ali Land gives sufficient detail of the crimes to give the reader an indication of the horror without dwelling on graphic detail. Even so, the book is not comfortable reading.

The story draws you in and the writing keeps you there.

It is a dark story with glimpses of light which don't last for long. Great writing and good storytelling.

"The playground
That's what you called it
Where the games were evil, and there was only ever one winner. When it wasn't my turn, you made me watch. A peephole in the wall."
"Forgive me when I tell you it was me.
It was me that told."
Annie's mother is a serial killer.
Annie now has a new name and a new family but she is afraid of finding out who and what she might be! A really suspenseful

Good Me Bad Me by Ali Land has been compared to The Girl on the Train and Gone Girl, two huge psychological thrillers that keep you hooked throughout and rightly so. This book was amazing.

After the first few chapters i knew I would race through it. Do not start the book if you have anything else planned for the day as it is almost impossible to put down.

At the core of the book is the long debated question of what is more powerful nature or nurture?
It delves into the mind of 15 year old Annie whose mother is a killer. Annie starts a new life with a new family and the new name Milly. She is being prepared for the trial of her mother. But the the focus is not solely on the trial, it focuses on Milly as she tries to make sense of her situation. She not only has to try to make sense of the experiences that she had while living with her mother, but she also has to deal with the awful but rather common realities of being the target of bullies in school. This book really shows the good and bad parts of being human through its beautifully developed characters who you come to love or hate.

Throughout you question whether Milly is truly the innocent in this story or whether she is just putting on a act for everyone around her. Is it in her to be evil like her mother?

It is dark, gritty and engrossing and I will highly recommend this title to everyone who will listen.

A deep and dark read about a chilling story. A tricky and sensitive story well told.

I thought it was really well paced. Twists and plot points were developed well and uncovered at a rate that kept me hooked whilst not overwhelming me.

A really great debut novel and one I'll be talking about for a while.

I will be looking out for further books by Land.

Thanks to NetGalley, Michael Joseph and Ali Land for my free copy in exchange for an honest review.

one of the best psychological thrillers around



What a read, totally gripping . Hooked me in from the first page. Just make sure you don't miss this, one of the best psychological thrillers around.

This book is fascinating, brilliantly written, frightening and relatable.

The feelings of attachment the protagonist feels towards her abuser are taboo but very accurate. Reading the book was uncomfortable for me at times but only because it was so good.

While it is above all, a gripping, dark thriller, it also sparks an affinity with readers who have been abused who feel like freaks because of the torn and traumatically confusing feelings abuse can leave you with.

I loved the voyeuristic prose. It was always obvious that the narrator was talking to her mother throughout the book and it never broke style or felt disingenuous at all.

I got similar feelings reading this as I did from Forbidden by Tabitha Suzuma, though I found the latter a little more devastating. This book makes you question and explore the space between black and white, right and wrong and makes you focus on the cause instead of the resulting actions. It's creepy and brilliant that the climax of this book didn't shock me but rather made me sympathise with and root for the "psychopath."

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy in exchange for my honest review.

I was really intrigued by this book at first. It is such a powerful story but I could not get into it.
It is well written and talks about a difficult subject, it just was not one for me.

This is an unusual take on a thriller. Told from the perspective of the daughter of a serial killer, that alone is enough to make it stand out, let alone then what happens to Annie/Milly as she attempts to adjust to a normal life - or at least as normal as life can be in a foster home where your foster sister resents your existence and your psychologist foster father is hoping to write a book about you. As you gradually learn more about what happened to Annie before her mother was arrested, it makes you question, what matters more - nature or nurture?

Best book of the year so far (and by far!). It brings new meaning to the expression page-turner as I literally skipped lunch during lunch break since I couldn't wait to find out what would happen to Milly.

I would definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys mysteries/psychological thrillers and isn't put-off by the blurb (considering Milly's mother is a serial killer the book is, naturally, disturbing at some points and that might make the book too hard to read for some people).

This is the story of Milly who is living with a foster family. She has no choice, since she turned her mother into the police for what she did to those poor children. But foster families aren't always perfect, there's the father that only sees what he wants to see, the mother that thinks no one can see her and the daughter. The perfect daughter. But she's not perfect either.
While the style and formatting took a while for me to get used to, this was quite the page turner, with a brilliant twist in the tail.

This story was amazing. The description was intriguing and i had a feeling it would be a winner and i was right. It doesn't shy away from showing the warts and all consequences of having a parent commit heinous crimes and i so felt for Annie. It was so compelling and definitely a highlight of the psychological thrillers i've read this year.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. Thank you to the publisher, Penguin Books and the author, Ali Land and the for this opportunity.
The story starts with a 15-year-old girl in a police station giving a statement – we soon learn that she is the daughter of a serial killer, a woman who befriends women in homeless shelters before taking their young children and killing them, as well as abusing her own daughter.
Millie, as she becomes known (to protect her identity) is placed with a foster family to await the trial.
The story is told from Millie’s point of view and we really get a sense of the awful life she has, but also of her feelings, the conflict she feels inside and the darkness that threatens to spill out of her.
Very clever in its telling, in that there is no real detail of the murders and it only hints at the abuse Millie suffered but it still fills you with horror.

Oh dear, another example where I've been fooled by the blurb and the raving reviews only to be left disappointed by another underwhelming thriller.

The concept for this book is not a bad one by any means, and that is what piqued my interest in first place. However, the execution of it lets it down terribly.

For starters, there is little to no explanation about what Millie, our protagonist, has actually been through at the hands of her mother. Yes, there are hints but nothing indepth enough for me, and this just makes the entire contents of the book rather passe as you can't really get to the bones of the horror she supposedly suffered. There is also no explanation or even a hint of an explanation as to why her mother became a serial killer. A more in-depth character analysis of her would have made this book a lot more interesting.

The writing is appalling. Millie, who we find out is 15, has worse vocal command than a 6 year old. The vast majority of the book is written from her point-of-view. Her internal dialogues are all written in what can only be described as Yoda-esque, and it is infuriating. The sentences are far too short with an overuse of commas which really impacts on the reading pace. This is no Hemingway.

There are also things that I just find generally odd. For instance, I can't imagine a foster child being put into the care home of their psychaitrist, it just doesn't seem very professional to me. Nor would I expect a child to attend a new school in the run up to a big court case with little adult supervision, especially considering she was not moved far from her initial home and the trial is all over news media. There's also a snippet in the actual trial where we are told Millie's brother was taken in to care by social services, yet no mention of this or the fact the family would be under close scrutiny if this were the case. Lastly, it's pretty obvious what the 'twist' at the end is.

Good concept but executed badly making this a disappointing read for me.

Good me Bad me by Ali Land is a psychological thriller which has an intriguing and original storyline. It is a disturbing, chilling and suspenseful novel. Milly is a masterfully drawn, complex character and Ali Land's writing allows the reader access to her innermost thoughts. A brilliant debut novel, and I look forward to more of the same.

abulous psychological thriller. Fast paced and impossible to put down. Compelling but chilling and shocking written from the perspective of a fifteen year old girl.

This novel is a roller coaster of heightened emotion. It is an uncomfortable read, chilling but completely engrossing.

I anticipated the ending but the author built up to it so I wasn't disappointed. Definitely an author to watch out for.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is a most unusual insightful story into the mind of a 15 year old. Annie's mum had been a killer, a taker of the innocent lives of children. Following the demise of a young boy called Daniel Annie has decided for her own sanity she must ask for help and disclose the evil deeds perpetrated by her mother. But can Annie ever be truly free from the clutches of an evil parent, are family relations so strong that the mind of an innocent child can be warped and twisted by a misguided and immoral parent...is blood really thicker than water?

The story is told from the perspective of Annie and her new beginning as "Milly" under the guardianship of Mike, Saskia and their daughter Phoebe. This opportunity or fostering is to protect Milly and prepare her for the trial of her mother where she will be called as the main witness for the prosecution. But this story is much more than a simple trial, rather it shows the vulnerabilities, manipulation, envy and hatred that together make up the human condition. Phoebe is jealous of having to endure the company of Milly and is incensed that she is no longer the centre of attention so she embarks on a course of action, a war of attrition to humiliate and degrade her, inciting her friends to do the same. Mention is made on a number of occasions to William Golding's Lord of the Flies where the author paints a picture of a civilization consumed by savagery and chaos, the animal instincts of human nature. Indeed I found an uncomfortable familiarity between this classic novel and the predicament of Milly....but who's really manipulating who??

Good me Bad me is a very intense, claustrophobic experience, being trapped in the mind of child as she struggles to make sense of her situation. It is this entrapment that gives the dialogue a very edgy delivery creating some uncomfortable moments. Is Milly truly the innocent she attempts to portray or is there within her character an inherent evil that allows her to mould and manipulate those around her for her own gratification.

It came as no surprise to learn that the author spent many years working as a mental health nurse with children and adolescents, and she has certainly used this experience to create a novel of great depth and insight. I enjoyed it immensely and in particular the ending which although expected was still shocking when it occurred. Many thanks to the good people at netgalley for a gratis copy in exchange for an honest review and that is what I have written

A well written compelling, unputdownable storyline. Milly, the daughter of the woman on trial lives a life of terror and tension with plenty of twists and turns.

Your mother is a serial killer and you are the one who has turned her into the police. You now have a new name and are living with a foster family and the father is your therapist. You have endured awful events orchestrated by your mother. You are now counting down the days to when you have to testify against your mother in court.

This is the story of Annie/Milly and the days leading up to the trial. Although we are made aware of the deeds of her mother there isn’t a great deal of harrowing detail but enough for your imagination to do its best. Milly’s fear is that she will become her mother and she has regular conversations with her in her head. She is desperate for a safe place to belong and is hoping that her foster family will provide this. The fly in the ointment is Phoebe the daughter in the family who makes it her business to persecute Milly. It is this part of the story that troubles me. We are told that this is an experienced foster family, but the mother is dysfunctional, the father refuses to acknowledge this and their daughter is an insecure bully. Would they really pass checks to become foster carers?

That concern aside this is a real page turner, well written and engendering a real sympathy for the main character. I did guess how it would end but that didn’t detract from an excellent read.

I received a complimentary copy of the book from NetGalley and publisher in exchange for an honest review. Thank you.

The subject matter of this book is at times hard to read, however this is outweighed by the beautiful way this book flows. The pages wizz by as the reader is lead to question, and question again your ideas of what is true. This is an intriguing read, that is very well written. The characters are inviting and we'll rounded. The tension at times springs out of the book. What Milly has experienced is horrific, however she is detached from it and as the reader experiences this through Milly's thoughts and feelings, the reader inturn is protected from it becoming too upsetting. Thoroughly brilliant.