Good Me Bad Me

Product Information

Shouting. A tall, thin man dressed in plain clothes, unlike the others. A string of commands sliced through the sour air of our living room. You, take upstairs. You, in there. You two take the cellar. You. You. You. A sense of creeping dread drives the narrative, and that most fascinating of crime-novel subjects, the female serial killer, casts a formidable shadow…Readers will be more than happy to go along for the ride and may be surprised how they feel about the conclusion, proving the unmistakable spell that Land has cast. Sly, unsettling, and impossible to put down.” Soon there will be a trial and Milly will have to speak of the horrible things her mother has done. She counts the days until the trial begins. Mike will be working with her both to help her and to help her get ready for testifying.

Good Me Bad Me - Penguin Books UK

There is a major plot twist at the end of the book that you may see coming. Milly also frequently "talks" to her estranged mother and sometimes it was confusing to me as a reader. All minor issues, I still highly recommend the book. They send her home and tell her to act normal, that they're going to come that night. She's terrified they won't come but also terrified that they will... Unfortunately, I feel completely confused by my experience of this book, as my experience seems to have been somewhat different from most other reviewers. It is described as: But then the game changed, and it all happened within a few months of taking the job. Customers were experiencing more problems more frequently. They became increasingly demanding, and conversations became more heated. Some team members stayed longer than they otherwise might have because they liked John. But after observing that neither they nor John could cope with the demands, and that John was not able to “stand up” to management, they began leaving.

Wow....This really was quite a book. A chilling read. In my opinion a really well-written psychological thriller. An engrossing, disturbing plot with many well-developed yet flawed characters. There were times that I thought the believability envelope was being pushed a bit far, but I was totally wrapped up in the story and able to overlook most of it. The story is told through the eyes of fifteen- year old Milly, who has just turned her own mother, a serial killer, over to the authorities. The question then arises- Will good win the battle over Milly’s dark proclivities or will she eventually give herself over them? I used to tell the kids I looked after, ‘Just do your best and don’t forget to breathe,’ and that’s what’s next for me as I begin the journey of writing the difficult second novel. It’s a thriller set on a scarcely inhabited Scottish island where young twins – who have grown up in complete isolation – become fascinated by a group of newcomers on a training expedition. There are secrets aplenty, and as the end of summer looms a dark undercurrent threatens to rise, shattering the idyll of island life forever.

Good Me Bad Me by Ali Land | Waterstones Good Me Bad Me by Ali Land | Waterstones

Told through Milly’s voice, little snippets of her relationship with her mother are revealed throughout. These parts are the hardest to read--at times, I had to put the book down and just walk away as the dark, brutal images got under my skin.

I read this book in one compulsive gulp over two days and absolutely loved it. It's raw, superbly controlled and it chills to the bone' Richard Skinner

Good Me Bad Me: A Novel - Ali Land - Google Books Good Me Bad Me: A Novel - Ali Land - Google Books

At school, Phoebe takes bullying to a new level. Phoebe and her best friends, Clondine and Izzy, send her abusive messages and tease her relentlessly. They follow her, taunting her, and Milly doesn’t know what to do. She doesn’t want to hurt them, because that would mean she’s just like her mother. On the other hand, she hates feeling like a pushover. SET TO BE ONE OF THE MOST EXTRAORDINARY, CONTROVERSIAL AND EXPLOSIVE DEBUTS OF 2017 - for fans of quality psychological suspense and reading group fiction: once you read this book you'll want to talk about it. As a thirty-something manager, John’s self-structure reflected the effects of his early life experience as graphically portrayed in the Interpersonal Circumplex (IC) above. Let me explain.

BookBrowse Review

Good Me, Bad Me is one those strange books where the beginning and end are kinda meh, but the middle is fantastic. The story opens with a brilliant premise: Teenaged Annie turns her serial killer mother in to the police. Afterwards she’s given a new identity-- Milly--and is sent to live with her London psychologist, Mike Newmont, and his family. There Milly will be prepped for trial and attend school with Mike’s troubled daughter Phoebe. Mike and his wife, Saskia, are aware of Milly’s true identity. Phoebe is not. And it’s that deception that proves integral to the plot. Phoebe wages a brutal war against an innocent Milly. As their war reaches a fever pitch, Milly will discover whether she can escape her mother’s nature--adhere to her own goodness--or if blood does inevitably out. All I'll say is if you enjoy reading psychological/suspense thrillers then you have to read this book. It's another one of those books where the least you know about it, the better. I know people say that all the time, but it really is. As promised, this is a very controversial novel, one that really set my teeth on edge, and made my stomach churn with apprehension, really making me squirm. Mostly I’m coming to terms with the things I’ve done. I did them to be good, I promise, even though they were bad.