I suppose I am picky when it comes to books. This one just did not grab me. I wish it did. Lard rights very well but the synopsis just did not keep me entertained like I thought it would.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to review this book and to be an early reader via NetGalley! However, I will not be writing a review for this title at this time, as my reading preferences have since changed somewhat. In the event that I decide to review the book in the future, I will make sure to purchase a copy for myself or borrow it from a library. Once again, thank you so much for providing me with early access to this title. I truly appreciate it. Please feel free to contact me with any follow-up questions or concerns.

An engrossing thriller full of surprises! The main character is incredibly interesting and the book is so SO dark.

Good Me Bad Me
Ali Land
Flatiron Books, September 2017
ISBN 978-1-250-08764-5
Hardcover

We often wonder whether nature or nurture plays a bigger role in the development of a person’s psyche, especially a violent criminal, and Good Me Bad Me addresses that very question. Milly is placed in foster care after turning in her mother who was a vicious serial killer of children and you would think that Milly, only fifteen, has at least a chance of a normal life now. The trial is coming up and that gives Milly enough stress but her new family is not as welcoming as one could hope and her foster sister, the real daughter in this family, really resents her presence. That animosity leads to bullying in school but, in reality, it’s Milly’s own mind that could be her worst enemy in any future she might have.

This is a truly unnerving story and could be almost too much if the mother were present but the author chose to keep her on the periphery. We never see her commit her heinous crimes but we know what she’s done and the feeling of evil is full-blown. Watching Milly learn to cope—or not—with her life before and after was intriguing in many ways and I heartily recommend this to any reader who is curious about what happens to the children of truly wicked people.

Reviewed by Lelia Taylor, June 2018.

Good Me, Bad Me will keep you in suspense to the end. Millie's mother is a killer, but the last murder of a young child is the final straw for Millie. In an effort to ease her consciense, she turns her mother into the police, and in return, is given a new identity with a foster family. Millie tries to conform, but the family's daughter does not like Millie and treats her callously at home and in school. Millie is forced to confront herself, is she a good girl, or is she bad?

What do you do when your life is a dilemma? That's Annie's life. She can either stay with her mother through the abuse or turn her in. Many children face that problem but Annie's problem is compounded. For her mother doesn't just abuse her. She abuses and then kills small children and has killed nine so far. When things get so bad that Annie just can't stand it anymore, she goes to the police and the country is shocked to find out about the cold-hearted murderer who has lived among them.

Now Annie has a new life, or at least that's what they tell her. She is in the foster system and staying with a social worker, his wife and daughter. Her name is now Millie and she goes to a new school with new kids and no one except her foster parents and the school head know her story. She is getting ready to testify against her mother and then it will all be over. Or will it?

Can Millie actually say the words that will send her mother to prison forever? Can she ever fit in anywhere with her warped background? Her foster sister is one of the most popular girls at the new school and she takes an instant dislike to Millie. As everyone turns against her and the pressure of the impending trial mounts, will Millie survive?

Ali Land has written a tense narrative of how those around evil are tainted by it. Millie tries to overcome her background but it seems everything is against her and it would be very easy to fall into the coping mechanisms her mother taught her. Land has the background necessary to write about Millie. She worked for over a decade in children's mental health jobs in England and Australia. This is her debut novel and it has won multiple prizes. This book is recommended for thriller readers.

. .

At fifteen years old, Millie is living with a foster family preparing to testify against her mother, who has killed nine children while Millie was living at home with her. As the trial draws nearer, Millie still hears her mother in her head, and can't help but wonder if she's more similar to her mother than she cares to admit. Will Millie follow in her mothers footsteps, or will she choose a new life? 

Good Me, Bad Me was a book I was really excited to read and was highly anticipating! It had a lot of hype and great reviews, and the premise sounded excellent. Unfortunately, I think this one fell victim to the hype a little bit for me. While I enjoyed it, I didn't love it the way many others did. 

Good Me, Bad Me is told from Millie's point of view, and the writing style is very unique. The author uses lots of fragmented sentences in the writing, which really made it feel like we were hearing Millie's thoughts, rather than constant fluent coherent sentences that we as readers have come to expect from our books, and I really liked that. 

I think where I struggled was around the fact that the book didn't quite read like a thriller. The majority of the plot was spent in the time leading up to the trial where Millie would be testifying against her mother, and detailed the daily life that Millie had settled into with her foster parents, Mike and Saskia, and their daughter Phoebe. Phoebe absolutely hated Millie, and made it her mission to pretty much torment her on a regular basis. She was horrible, and just a bully in general, and essentially made it her mission to be as awful to Millie as possible. While I didn't mind that storyline, I wasn't expecting it to be the majority of the plot, but it was. I was also expecting a lot of twists and turns throughout the book, but overall the story was very straightforward, and while there were two minor plot twists, I saw them both coming, so overall the booked lacked the thrilling suspense element for me. 

Lastly, there were some references to Millie's past, specifically around her brother, that I would have loved to have spent more time reading about. They were mentioned, but not really covered in depth, and I would love to have read what would essentially be a prequel to this book - the life Millie lived with her abusive murderous mother, and how she turned her in and finally escaped from her. That wasn't covered in depth in this book. 

When all was said and done, I did enjoy the book, but I didn't love it. I rated this one 3.5 stars. I know I'm in the minority on this one, and that the majority of other reviews absolutely loved this one, so if the plot sounds interesting to you, definitely check it out! Thank you to NetGalley, Ali Land, and Penguin Books for an advanced copy of the book. It was my pleasure to provide an honest review.

This was my first Ali Land book and while getting used to the different usage of words I found the book to be very good.

Where to begin...if your a fan of psychological thrillers than this is the book for you. This book has it all murder, bullying, kidnapping, suicide attempts, love, hate, and everything in between.

The characters especially Milly/Anne are great. Some you will love to hate, others you will feel sad for and a few you will shake your head at.

If you love twists, turns, and the unexpected, than you will enjoy this book.

Flatiron Books and NetGalley provided me with an electronic copy of Good Me Bad Me. I was also privileged to win a physical copy of the novel through a Goodreads First Reads giveaway. I was under no obligation to review this book and my opinion is freely given.

Milly's mother is a serial killer, currently awaiting trial for the murders of nine young children because Milly contacted the police. Temporarily living with a psychologist, his wife, and his teenage daughter, Milly has to face many difficulties as she attempts to assimilate to her new environment. Bullied by her foster sister and her friends, will Milly's fragile psyche be able to withstand the pressure? is being the daughter of a monster a legacy or a curse?

This psychological thriller had some plot holes that ruined the novel for me. The ways in which Milly was taken advantage of were unrealistic, especially in regards to those adults who were responsible for the teenager's well being. The author telegraphed the ending too much and the book would have been much better if the conclusion was more of a surprise. The bullying was a bit much, as it does not seem likely that it would have gone on undetected by adults that long. Good Me Bad Me has a writing format designed to keep readers off balance, so that they may climb into a disturbed mind. This style, however, does serve to keep readers from fully engaging in the story. Good Me Bad Me was an average read for me and it will be of interest to readers who enjoy psychological thrillers.

Psychological traumas involving serial killers remain popular because they allow everyday people a glimpse into a mind vastly different (one hopes) from their own. We are voyeurs into the criminal mind as they rationalize their behavior. In Good Me Bad Me, we don't get to see into a serial killer's mind but rather into one of her victims. Milly is not just any victim though. She is the killer's daughter, having been raised and abused by her for her entire 17 years. Moreover, she is also the person who reports her mother to the authorities.

There is so much going on with Milly that it is difficult to know where to start, and that is what makes the novel so compelling. Milly is not just another seventeen-year-old trying to find her place in high school society. She also has to deal with the life-long trauma from living with her abusive and deadly mother. If that is not enough, she must also come to gripes with the guilt she feels at turning the police on to her mother and being the cause of her incarceration. She is dealing with a little bit of Stockholm syndrome as well as survivors' guilt on top of life as a teenager and life as an abuse victim. As we get to understand Milly a bit more, our feelings for her shift from pity to empathy to concern to horror and back again, with the emotional roller coaster getting even bumpier once we realize how indoctrinated her mother's teachings have become. Milly is unsettling; she resists therapy and longs for her mother's approval. Yet, she also wants a friend and someone to love her unconditionally. That neediness allows you to push aside the discomfort created by her thoughts and root for her to obtain her version of a happy ending.

Good Me Bad Me hits all the right notes as a psychological thriller. From a psychological standpoint, there is a bonanza of trauma, teenager angst, and guilt that plagues our hapless heroine at any given time. Trying to discern the damage from normal teenage emotions is a challenge and adds yet another layer to this already complex character. Adding to everything is the Mean Girls-esque story line that arises once Milly starts her new school. All of this combines to create a dark and disturbing story in which very little is what it seems. The chilling note at the end caps an intense ride into the mind of serial killer's victim and her struggle for normalcy.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for a digital ARC of this book.

Milly did a very brave thing. She turned her mom into the police. Milly's mom is a serial killer. She spent her whole short life living with a woman who took other children an killed them.

After Milly turned her mother in, she was committed to foster care. She is placed with a foster family who just happens to have a psychologist as the father. The family also happens to have an older sister, Phoebe, who has friends who bully Milly. Phoebe is not innocent. She torments her foster sister as well.

Milly wants to do the right thing. She wants to be normal, but is it possible? After all, she is the daughter of a serial killer.

As I write this review, I had almost decided that I didn't want to finish the book. However, I believe I will continue reading. I think I just made myself want to read it ;)

From the beginning I felt a great deal of sympathy for Milly. This young teen, who had so much to forget, had already been through so much, witnessed something beyond terrible, who know just wanted to be normal, and in a home where people cared about her in a healthy way. A therapist household sounds ideal but there was more going on here, making this a less than healthy environment for a troubled young girl.

After a spate of so called psychological thrillers that I found mundane or the same as every other I was pleasantly surprised to find how much I liked this one. Definitely hooked me, turning the pages, one of the better ones out there Imho. Not that therewerent things in it that irked me,but they were things that could happen and do every day in real life. Mistakes made by those precessional enough to know better. People with ulterior motives, taking advantage of those the shouldn't. All in all this one hung together pretty well. Suspenseful, without all the blood and gore, just plain, solid, good writing to create the atmosphere.

The ending not unexpected, could see this coming from what came before, but this worked for me too.
Couldn't really see it ending any other way.

ARC from Netgalley.

Good Me Bad Me by Ali Land is a very highly recommended psychological thriller. This is an impressive, compelling debut novel.

"Milly’s mother is a serial killer. Though Milly loves her mother, the only way to make her stop is to turn her in to the police. Milly is given a fresh start: a new identity, a home with an affluent foster family and a spot at an exclusive private school." Psychologist Mike Newmont, his wife, Saskia, and their daughter, Phoebe take Milly (whose real name is Annie) into their home, while her mother, Ruth, a nurse who murdered nine young children, is locked up and headed toward a trial.

Mike's job is to provide Milly with therapy and support as she comes to terms with her childhood and prepares for testifying at her mother's trial, but after living with her mother and being abused for fifteen years, Milly knows how to keep some things secret. She knows what her mother would say, what she is capable of, and she still hears her mother's voice in her head. Milly certainly sees and knows more than she tells Mike, as well as other people.

As Milly is trying hard to fit in at her new home, she is also struggling to fit in at her new school too, even as Phoebe, also fifteen, is determined to bully her and make her life hell. The problem is that Phoebe doesn't know Milly's true identity - and that Milly knows all about bullies and tormentors. Can Milly be good, or is she her mother's daughter?

Good Me Bad Me really is an unputdownable novel. Land manages to capture a feeling of impending dread that had me hooked from the beginning. The tension didn't let up straight through to the end. The narrative is wonderfully paced to allow that feeling of nervous anticipation of some unnamed horrific event that will surely be forthcoming. Milly's account of events also has her gradually disclosing more information about her past. As the tormenting increases, the potential of what living with Ruth has taught Milly, also begins to surface.

It is also a character analysis of someone who has experienced years of horrific childhood trauma. The abuse is by the hands of someone who is supposed to love her, establishing the question is it nature or nurture. Can Milly overcome the experiences of her childhood or is she doomed to repeat what her mother has taught her?

Adding to the total package is the excellent writing. Land presents us with a well-written, entertaining, engrossing psychological thriller that held my rapt attention from beginning to end.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Flatiron Books.

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This is a dark, gripping psychological thriller about the daughter of a serial killer. The character of Millie was so complex and the plot so unique. Great read.

A rollercoaster of a story that grabs you from the start & doesn’t let you go until the end.

Wow, so, the Goodreads summary does not do this book justice at all. I mean, I'll be honest, with sentences like "When tensions rise and Milly feels trapped by her shiny new life, she has to decide: Will she be good? Or is she bad?" I was expecting a sort of corny, mindless thriller, which would have been okay, but the reality of this novel is so much better.

Good Me, Bad Me is a dark, psychological character study of a novel. The story begins with Annie, who gets rechristened as Milly, finally deciding to turn her mother into the police, after a childhood of being forced to watch her mother abuse and murder children. Milly is placed into foster care with parents Mike and Saskia and their daughter Phoebe, who feels threatened by Milly's presence in their family and likes to remind her that her time with them is only temporary. Milly struggles with both assimilating to her new life, and ignoring her mother's voice which she hears inside her head, constantly urging her to indulge her darker instincts.

This is a novel about aftermath and recovery, about nature vs. nurture, and though the prose makes for a quick and compelling read, fans of the mystery/thriller genre may be disappointed at just how character-driven this is. I thought that the moments where this novel endeavored to cross over into proper thriller territory were actually the weakest - neither of the two main reveals were shocking at all, so I almost feel like this novel would have been stronger if all facts had been presented up front rather than in a "gotcha!" kind of way.

But that isn't a criticism as much as advice on how to adjust your expectations going in. As someone who finds character studies fascinating, I loved this book. I found Milly to be sympathetic and intriguing - I wanted to get to the bottom of her, to really understand to what extent she is her mother's daughter, but I also just wanted her to be happy.

This is a chilling, harrowing novel that I won't forget any time soon. Trigger warnings for rape, child abuse, and self-harm, all of which are presented sensitively but unsparingly. This novel isn't graphic, but it is relentlessly dark.

Thank you to Netgalley, Flatiron Books, and Ali Land for the advanced copy provided in exchange for an honest review.

During the course of getting my Psychology degree the concept of Nature vs Nurture was embedded in practically every course in some way. Some believed it was a pure mix and others favored one more over the other. Myself? I’m still after all these years and with everything I’ve known and experienced a bit undecided but leaning towards Team Mix. There are times I feel Nature was going to win out even if the sociopath was raised by Leave it to Beaver standards. Other times I believe that growing up with a Charlies Manson like father could’ve turned even Jesus into Satan.

This concept, this question, journey into the deepest recess of the human mind is what Land decided to dabble with in her novel in such a way that innocence because a questionable ideal.

In all fairness to Land it has already been put out there that THIS is going to be THE controversial book of 2017. I recently read one from an esteemed Irish author that told a story through an abusive psychopath but I think Land may have even her beat when it comes to levels of being uncomfortable.

Right away it opens up with a disturbing scene of a child holding bloody items in a police stations and telling him a story so horrific he has to call others in. Police are trained to handle it all so you know whatever she’s telling him has got to be bad!

From this point you delve into a twisty, psychological journey into the rabbit hole of WTH? She’s dropped with a new family who has obvious problems of their own which is kind of ironic seeing as how Daddy Dearest is a psychologist. Why do I think their families should set the gold standard of decency yet they never seem to?

You are given pieces to the childhood that will shape Milly into being a person that turns her mother in, to someone who is struggling to fit into ‘normal’ society, to not fight back when she obviously should. At the same time, beyond how she was raised, the treatment she suffers at the hand of her peers just keeps packing on the Nurture argument that one person can only handle being treated like crap for so long before they surely need to break and lash out.

As a parent, particularly since I have daughters, I began to over-emphasize a great deal and wanted nothing more than to protect Milly so as she became more tormented by her peers and no one seemed to really notice or do anything constructive I was getting outraged on her behalf. Land just makes you start off wanting to protect her.

For the bad: I can see certain people being triggered by aspects of this book and I am so OVER that that word has to be used as prevalently as it does but it’s 2017 and everyone gets offended by something. It’s a very dark story and can be hard to handle for some. Now I prefaced this being the bad part only because I know there are people out there who need to hear this before they go nuts and give this a bad review – if you’re one of those people please just don’t read the book.

This is one of those that people are going to want to talk about particularly that ending that leaves you going “Oh hell”…

Not an easy read. Found myself wanting to give up at times. The old nurture versus nature dilemma is front and center the heart of this book, and how old is a child before they are ruined by their upbringing. Is a child ever not salvageable? People will argue that for a very long time. And the criminal justice system is full of the victims and perpetrators. Can't say if I liked this or not. Can't say if I liked the character or not, but definitely made me think. Perhaps that was the point.