This was devastating in so many ways, but it was also a powerful novel about why people do awful things. The First Day of Spring is a dual narrative between Chrissie as a young girl and Julia who is Chrissie as an adult.

Chrissie is 8 years old, and she has just killed a 2 year old boy. All she wants is a home and to be liked by her friends. Her Mam doesn’t look after her properly so she tags along with her best friend Linda.

Under a new identity, Chrissie is now called Julia and has a daughter of her own Molly. Her main concerning is hoping that Molly does not grow up into a version of Chrissie.

Nancy Tucker describes this as an exploration into the darkest corners of human thought, feeling and behaviour, and hopes that the one thing people remember is the ferocity of Julia’s love for Molly. The fact that Julia is so eager to prevent history repeating itself just shows the care that she has for her daughter that she wasn’t shown herself. It’s so easy to see why Chrissie behaved how she did when she was abandoned herself.

Throughout reading all I could thing of was how the community around Chrissie had failed her. The community and her home life was so vicious, yet there was no sensationalist language, in fact Chrissie’s narration was so childlike and well written that it was so easy to get her point of view! This has got to be a 5 star read for me.

Eight year old Chrissie killed a small boy - she didn’t know this was an evil act and genuinely expected him to not stay dead. She had been told often by her vile Mother that her ‘Da’ was dead, but he kept coming back, so why wouldn’t little Stevie? This story explores all sorts of appalling issues, the greatest of which is the possibility of a neglected child who has never had love or a moral compass becoming a serial killer. It’s difficult not to have some sympathy with Chrissie, given the hunger, physical neglect and total lack of love she has endured since birth, but her acts are shocking and as she grows up she begins to realise that. Is this a book about redemption? Not entirely, as Chrissie may mature and change, but her Mother certainly doesn’t. If you are looking for an easy read, this is probably not the book for you, but if you want something superbly written, realistically characterised and constantly thought provoking, buy this book!

Chrissie is eight years old and has just strangled a boy. She tells this in a shockingly detached manner and when frantic neighbours gather, she simply goes home. Remembering her deed she states: “I had the belly-fizzing feeling I got whenever I remembered a delicious secret, like sherbet exploding in my guts.”
An evil killer? A deranged child? A child so damaged by her surroundings that she is unable to make any morally correct/ethical decision?
I seem to be reading lots of books lately that deal with children damaged by their parents (Shuggie Bain, Bright Burning Things to name but two), but this one is in a league of its own.
Nancy Tucker is absolutely brilliant at creating this young girl’s voice, growing up without a mother’s love or care and aching for both, written with the stark authenticity she has probably drawn from her working experience in a children’s psychiatric ward.

A vivid, gut-wrenching, bone-chilling insight into the warped logic of Chrissie and yet a tiny glimmer of hope that even “evil” children may be able to heal.

As I sit here, recovering from a bad bout of mental health directly after finishing Nancy Tucker’s debut novel “The First Day of Spring” I have so many thoughts and feelings. Some may come in a few hours, days, in a few months maybe; I’m a reflector at heart and I often think about the books I have read which have made a particular impact at length sometimes. Especially ones that tug at personal feelings, and certain experiences. This one in particular hit hard in places. The overall feeling I can comfortably say at this moment in time is a mixture of heartbreak and sadness. This book will easily go down as one of my favourites of this year.

“The First Day of Spring” tells the story of 8-year old Chrissie and the effects that neglect and loneliness can have on a child. Chrissie enjoys playing games, and has a deadly secret that she is keeping that gives her a fizzy, snap, crackle and pop feeling in her stomach. This is the most excitement she has ever had, certainly more exciting than being at home with a mother who barely acknowledges her existence or feeds her.

More than a decade later, Julia is the mother of five-year old Molly. Julia is constantly worrying about putting food on the table, keeping Molly clean and clothed and often worries about what other people think about her. She is constantly anxious and living in fear that social services will come and take Molly away from her.

Soon the phone calls start. Someone from Julia’s past who knows what she did back then is trying to contact her. Can Julia make peace with the horror she has caused? Can she be redeemed? More importantly does someone who has killed deserve redemption?

“The First Day of Spring” is Nancy Tucker’s first fictional novel. I had never heard Nancy until I received an email about reviewing this book. After devouring this outstanding piece of work, one thing I know for certain is that we will be hearing more from this outstandingly talented writer for years to come.

From the opening moments of this book I was absolutely horrified, as I continued to read I felt so conflicted for many reasons. Wondering if I should feel sympathy or even have empathy for Chrissie. The more I read however it soon became crystal clear that Chrissie is simply a child who has been failed, and mightily let down by the system and those around her. Tucker beautifully gives Chrissie a voice, a painfully, hollow, heartbreaking voice to tell her story.

When you see a child acting out in the street, or if you see a child acting untoward, most people would write that child off straight away as the “bad kid” or a “tearaway”, and Tucker knocks those stereotypes out of the park completely. People aren’t born bad. People unfortunately do bad things because the pain of their circumstances is all they know.

“The First Day of Spring” is going to be one of those books that never leaves you, and one you will be thinking about for days, months, and even years after finishing it. It’s outstanding and brilliantly executed. One of the first things I said to my Husband after finishing it is “You are going to LOVE this.” I’m certain that anybody who picks this up when it’s released in June will love this as much as I did. This is compulsive reading at its best, I couldn’t wait to keep turning the pages to see what was coming next. I cannot wait to see what comes next from Nancy next.

“The First Day of Spring” is released June 24 in the UK.

I've just finished reading this book and it's very hard to find the words to describe it! Whilst it was very dark, it was totally riveting from the start. This will not be a book for everyone as Chrissie, the eight year old narrator, kills a toddler on the very fist page. She grows up in conditions that no child should ever have to. Neglect, poverty, hunger. With a mother who can't mother and an absent father. Trauma is a very complex issue but what I loved about this book, is the level of understanding and compassion it should bring for Chrissie. I don't believe anybody is born a 'bad seed' but those early years of a child's life are so important and if their basic needs aren't met during that time, it can't alter their life dramatically

I tried so hard with this book, but i just could not get into it... i didnt seem to be able to follow it properly and something just did not click. i kept leaving and returning but something just wasnt there. i also found it hard to follow characters and just could not place who was who. This does not mean the story is not great and i may leave it a couple of months and try again but for now i shall have to leave it :(

The First Day of Spring by Nancy Tucker is a fantastic psychological thriller, and it’s incredible that this is her debut fiction work. The story is gripping, well constructed and easy to follow, even as it alternates between being narrated by 8 year old Chrissie, and Julia, the adult she has become 15 years later.

As indicated in the blurb, the book opens with Chrissie having just killed another child. This is a very dark, emotive and deeply complicated topic to cover in a book, but it is handled expertly. Other books I’ve read which have had similar events in them have tended to be narrated by the victim/their family, or be from the angle of the police investigation. This story being told by the 8 year old perpetrator hits in a very different way, and leads the reader to think very carefully about blame and responsibility. Certain details (which would be spoilers, so I won’t disclose them) caused me to have some very conflicting thoughts around how I felt about Chrissie as a person. So much so, that I’ve contemplated this review for over a day since finishing the book, and it is still on my mind even now.

I am looking forward to reading more of Nancy Tucker’s work in the future, this is an excellent story.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author via NetGalley, this is my honest and voluntary review.

Gosh this is a grim, dark and awful book. It was painful to read from the outset and I didn’t enjoy it at all. I feel like authors are trying to shock and sensationalise but all they do is produce trauma bile like this.

This novel isn't an easy read but that's the point. We don't want to think children can kill children but it happens. Those children have to grow up and what becomes of them? This novel offers an interesting, tense, and sometimes uncomfortable set of answers.
This isn't something to read for escapism. It is, however, a complex study in forgiveness: for the self, for others, and in having the power to give it or keep it away.

This is an incredibly powerful psychological novel which examines what compels a child to commit a heinous crime. This is the story of Chrissie aged 8 and twenty years on as Julia with a child of her own, it is told in a dual narrative.

Wow. I’m struggling to process what I’ve just read. This could have been sensationalised, it isn’t, it’s sensitive but equally it confronts exactly what Chrissie does which is a clever balance to achieve. It’s a book that will stay with me for a long time, in fact, it’s probably unforgettable. It’s absolutely heartbreaking, utterly compelling, a real punch to the guts, it tears you apart in places with the enormity of the tragedy. It’s impossible to put down, it’s so tense at times you scarcely breathe so as not to break the moment, there’s suspense on many occasions as you feel Chrissie’s frustration as she just wants to be seen not be a ‘bad seed’. It’s a very complex, complicated and very moving novel as you emotionally wrestle with many things, not just nature over nurture. Chrissie’s home life is something to ponder on and there are a multitude of thoughts raised from sadness and sorrow to the disturbing nature of what occurs. Chrissie is direct and can be very funny in her bluntness and she usually calls it right. The author has cleverly created a very authentic eight year old voice and she places you inside Chrissie’s head in order to try to understand her. The book is so well written, it flows effortlessly from Chrissie to Julia. My heart goes out to her as an adult as you perceive how much she loves her daughter Molly, that she is Julia’s opportunity for survival, for regrowth like the First Day of Spring. The character of Linda is worth a mention as she is Chrissie’s truest and probably only friend, she has an absolute heart of gold which you witness in adulthood.

Overall, an incredible book which is extremely moving and which handles a disturbing theme with delicacy and thoughtfulness.

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Random House UK, Cornerstone, Hutchinson for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.

Chrissie is eight years old when she kills a little boy in her community. The book is written from the point of view of Chrissie as a child and Julia, as an adult. When Chrissie is portrayed as a child you can feel her anger at the world and those around her, she is an unpleasant, badly behaved, uncaring and manipulative child. You also get to comprehend the depth of neglect, and how she unloved and uncared for which shape who she is.

The thought of anyone killing a child is incomprehensible, a child killing another child is unfathomable. What Chrissie does is inexcusable. But through the authors writing you understand the reasoning about how and why she turns out like she does, and what she is seeking.

The storyline takes you there, it’s well written, you feel for the child within Chrissie and the adult she became. Through the authors writing you get to understand Chrissie and the factors explaining who she is and her actions. All of this is without changing my views on the crime and what the ramifications should be.

One of the most heartbreaking and poignant books I’ve read. I loved the style and narrative of the story, which made it very easy and enjoyable to read despite the upsetting and harrowing subject matter. The story focuses on an absolutely abhorrent act by the eight year old main character, Chrissie, but also gives insight into her background and lack of care and family support in her early years and with contemporary eyes, it’s a painfully awful tragedy waiting to happen. We also follow Chrissie to her current life and relationship with her own child and how vulnerable and shaky Chrissie is with confidence about how to be mum herself. Definitely food for thought and definitely not the black and white, good and evil story it purports to be on face value. The story touched me and I cried several times, particularly towards the end. Recommend this but be warned it’s an emotional rollercoaster.

A book about a child killer will never be an easy read, but I was not expecting how well written and engaging this would be.

A child failed by all around her ends up killing another child.

Years later she has her own child and deals with trying to be a better parent and stay under the radar.

This book was an incisive look at horror and possible redemption and managed to do both of those things superbly.

Incredible and heartbreaking.

An outstanding debut novel! I was hooked from the beginning of this compelling book and could not put it down.

It might not be for everybody as the subject matter is dark and disturbing and does not make for easy reading particularly as one child kills another. The story is narrated from Chrissie, the child killer’s point of view and gives great insight into her heart-breaking world and why she behaves as she does. She is a child who is starving for affection and attention as much as she is for food.

This book will stay with me for a long time and I can’t wait for Nancy Tucker’s next book.

When an unloved and neglected child commits an unthinkable crime, the murder of a toddler, is she beyond redemption? Having spent the rest of her childhood in an institution she is released at eighteen unprepared for life in "the real world". Now fifteen years after the offense you is a mother herself and struggling, fearful she is about to lose her daughter.
This is a tense and disturbing tale that will stay long in the memory because a character so thought provoking will not easily be forgotten. I cannot recommend this harrowing book enough, it is a stunning debut from a young writer..

I haven’t read anything like this before, it’s a misery story like Shuggie Bain or Betty, but it’s so so sad. The way the author has voiced 8 year old Cassie is superb and her voice rings true with her bleak, sad lonely life. Her mother doesn’t really want her and is having trouble coping with her own life so Cassie is left to fend for herself. This means wandering the streets after dark, turning up at friends houses at meal times in the hopes of a meal. She uses her wiles to survive but it has also made her indifferent to other kids. When she kills 2 year old Stevie it gives he a fizzy powerful feeling, and anyway he won’t stay dead...look at Jesus and her dad who her mum said had died but he came back.
As the police search for the killer, Cassie carries on her awful life, stealing, bullying, lying and trying to survive.
Told in 2 narratives, Cassie is now Julie, mother to Mollie and she is living in fear that Mollie is going to be taken from her. As she looks back on her childhood she grows concerned for her future and what will become of them.
It’s not an easy read, sometimes I didn’t want to turn the age as I feared what Cassie was up to next, but her life was horrific and it made her who she was.

I loved this book - it is brilliant. I drank it in from the first page. Chrissie is 8 years old and she murders 2 small children. We should be absolutely horrified, and I was, yet I still felt sympathy for her because of her dreadful home life. Nancy Tucker writes so well- you can hear the way children talk to each other In her writing. I was there on the street where Chrissie, her Mum and the other families live. This book is real, believable, so insightful and evokes such a feeling of childhood. I highly recommend it.

5 Stars from me

Holy Moly. How to do this book justice?

I take my hat off to Nancy Tucker - all through this book I just wanted to scoop up little Chrissie and take her home. Bath her, feed her, make her feel safe, make her feel loved, make her feel wanted. 

This read more like a fly on the wall documentary than like a story, it felt real and it felt hauntingly plausible. I wonder how many Chrissie's there are out there (and how many there were at the time when people were less attuned to reporting abuse and less inclined to speak up). Had any of many people who noted that Chrissie wasn't being adequately cared for spoken up properly and stepped in, it does appear that her life would have been so different. 

There were so many chances for the right thing to happen. So many chances for this hungry, dirty, and unsafe girl to have been rescued from her life and provided with the basics that the majority of children are fortunate enough to be able to take for granted.

I felt angry at the teachers, at the neighbours, at the shop keepers at the many medical staff and of course at her mum and dad. Bizarrely, I didn't at any point feel angry with Chrissie. When of course, I realise I should have despised Chrissie - I should have found her abhorrent and wanted her locked away for ever. Nancy Tucker - how did you achieve this, it's like you have woven alchemy into the pages of this book! 

It surprised me that she was allowed to keep her own child - and yet it didn't surprise me that she was a good mum. Albeit one who continually doubted herself and scored herself against other mothers. I wonder how her own daughter will turn out with her slightly stilted mum - ultimately though, Molly knows that her mum loves her and most of the time that is 99% of what children need, just pure, accepting, unconditional love.

Got to love Linda, what a sweetheart.

An absolutely riveting book, heartbreaking, yet brilliant.

** spoiler alert ** It feels wrong to admit you enjoyed a book thats about a child killer. But I did.

Chrissie is 8,and she's being failed by everyone. She's neglected by her mother,in the most shocking of ways,and the community do not step up at any point.
When boiling point eventually hits,she lashes out.
When I say boiling point,its actually quite creepy how calmly she goes about life.
Future Chrissie seems far more human,having had her edges soften by becoming a mother.

I had a lot of pity for Chrissie,and found some genuinely touching moments in the book.

Grim subject matter,but told with feeling

What an emotional read and I’m still not sure how I feel about this book.
It’s very well written and will definitely stay with me for a long time. There were lots of times that I was willing the story to not go in the direction that it went as it was heartbreaking.
I felt anger, sympathy, disappointment and shock at various stages in this book.
I’d definitely recommend it though as it’s one of the best books that I’ve read this year.