Title: Good Me, Bad Me
Author: Ali Land
Publisher: Michael Joseph
[Synopsis]
NEW N A M E .
NEW F A M I L Y.
S H I N Y.
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…
[My Review]
Wow – this novel completely sucked me in! It intrigued me right from page one and I finished it wanting more.
It has all the essence of a mystery / crime / psychological thriller (and I do love books in this genre, I have to say!) but there’s something more about it. Something more intriguing, something more exciting, something that is at times darker… it’s hard to explain until you read it.
The story covers the past – in memories and snippets of information that Milly reveals from her past, when she lived with her mum – and also the present day, as she lives with her foster family and prepares herself for her mother’s trial. This felt like a different, really unique storyline that I hadn’t read many books about before.
I love the characters in Good Me, Bad Me; whether you were supposed to like them or not, I still found them all to be interesting characters I wanted to read more about. Milly is an amazing main character, and I really liked her despite – or perhaps because – she wasn’t perfect. She had her ‘good’ and ‘bad’ bits, but at the end of the day she’d gone through something horrific, and reading about her experiences (though really quite uncomfortable at times) was very interesting nevertheless!
I loved that there were parts I didn’t see coming, and enough drama to keep you entertained without being all action. There was just the right amount of mystery and suspense throughout, and the novel was written so well that I ended it almost feeling like I’d heard about this case on the news, that it was real life. Of course I hadn’t – but I wish I could have found out more, read more, felt more of the novel before the end. It really pulled me in to Milly’s world and I loved every page – the sign of a very successful story, I think!
I’m now very excited to see what else author Ali Land will bring out in the future – I’ll be first in line to read whatever that may be!
Excellent review! I have this book and I can’t wait to read it soon especially after reading your review. I am glad that you enjoyed it and I like the sound of Milly. I always like complex/flawed characters 🙂
Thank you! It is a great read and I imagine you’d really enjoy it when you get around to reading it – especially if you like more complex characters that don’t strictly fit into the good or bad category! Will look forward to reading your review too ????
Wonderful review!
I finally managed to write mine and post it!
Ooh fantastic going to check it out now! ????
Based on your review, this sounds great. I have it on my Netgalley shelf, so will be reading it soon,
Ahhh great – I’ll look forward to seeing your review when you’ve read it and hearing what you think 🙂
I enjoyed this one too but agree it was uncomfortable at times (that’s sort of the point though). A good read.
Agreed! 🙂
It was so disturbing and great! Perfect review!
Thanks – it was definitely disturbing, agreed! And a great read too 🙂
I love it when characters are fascinating enough to keep you interested without having to actually like them. Great review!
Thank you! The characters definitely shine through in this novel – very well crafted 🙂
I loved this too, very dark like you said but also very compelling.
It’s a good read isn’t it, with it’s fair share of dark bits but well worth a read!
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