Friday 23 September 2016

Good Me Bad Me - Ali Land


'NEW NAME .
NEW FAMILY.
SHINY.
NEW.
ME.'

Annie's mother is a serial killer.
The only way she can make it stop is to hand her in to the police.
But out of sight is not out of mind.
As her mother's trial looms, the secrets of her past won't let Annie sleep, even with a new foster family and name - Milly.
A fresh start. Now, surely, she can be whoever she wants to be.
But Milly's mother is a serial killer. And blood is thicker than water.
Good me, bad me.
She is, after all, her mother's daughter...

What did I think?

I had seen lots of excitement about this book on Twitter so I was eager to read it for myself and what a tremendous read it was.  I read it over the course of 24 hours and I could not have torn my eyes away from this book if my life depended on it.  It is such dark, disturbing and compulsive reading.

Annie's mother has been arrested for abducting and murdering several children and for Annie's protection she has been housed with a foster family and has a new name, Milly.  A shiny new me, as Annie/Milly calls herself.  Of course, you can change your name but you can never change the person you are inside, which is what I took away from this story.

Milly is fostered by psychologist, Mike, his wife, Saskia, and teenage daughter Phoebe.  What a dysfunctional family these guys are. Mike may be a psychologist but he can't see what's going on under his nose and he certainly doesn't know how to deal with his teenage daughter.  Phoebe is a typical 'mean-girl'; she makes no attempt to welcome Milly, in fact she goes the complete opposite way and makes it known that she is not welcome at all.  Milly does eventually make friends with a girl from a rough estate, Morgan, and she really likes her.  So much so that she wants to protect her from harm - eek!  Eyes on stalks time.

As the court case against her mother progresses, Milly has to give evidence but is screened from the court.  Milly can feel her mother's presence and you can feel how disturbed and affected she is.  It's a proper brain twister as you piece together all the evidence and realise that perhaps there's more than one killer in this book.

Good Me Bad Me is an outstanding psychological thriller; my eyes were on stalks and I couldn't read it fast enough.  

I received this e-book from the publisher, Penguin - Michael Joseph, via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

My rating:




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