A very disturbing story about a child who is trying to overcome years of abuse, now ended. Many of the dialogues and family scenes are very realistic and show the difficulty of a child trying to integrate in a family home and at school whilst preparing for the court case.

The secrets and distortions are many-layered and will keep you guessing as your sympathies shift back and forth.

Different and difficult subject to the books I normally read although I do read thriller. The book starts with Millie today and dips in and out of her past as it goes along to tell Millie's story, which hasn't been an easy one. I wasn't sure about it at first but something made me want to stick with it and I'm glad I did. Once I got into the book I couldn't put it down. Short quick chapters, a little predictable but I did enjoy it.

This was a good book but not a great book, the storyline was interesting and had a lot of promise...The subject matter was very dark indeed.
There were a lot of hints on the way through the book and the ending was a tad predictable and maybe a bit odd, or at least to me. I enjoyed it but it didn't blow me away

I loved this book, right from the start......Couldn't put It down. Easy read, worked out characters easily, kept me gripped right to the end plus lots of twists.....Didn't connect the outcome before it happened which is good

Ali Land deals with a difficult subject matter in this book and does so in an interesting and clever way.
She makes you battle with yourself as you read, by creating a character in Molly, who you feel you should like, due to what she appears to have been through, but who in reality you feel is not quite right. This battle of emotions carried me through the book, and on an emotional rollercoaster, that ended in a way that despite my doubts about Molly, I'd failed to see coming. We hear all the time how abusers often go on to become abusers themselves and yet it's a reality that is rarely portrayed in fiction. Most authors opting to create a victim that we feel for deeply, instead of choosing the harsher and much more complex approach that Ali Land has. The book was very engaging from the start, and incredibly well written with characters that were all believable and each perfectly flawed in their own right. I really enjoyed the book and it gave me a lot of food for thought. A resulted in a clever and intriguing read.

After 15 years of abuse and witness to nine murders, Annie has had enough of her mother's wicked ways and informs the police.
Eager for a fresh start with her new foster family Annie becomes Millie but will her life be safe or become even more troubled as she appears as witness for the prosecution.
This is a gripping story line where tension oozes from every page. Several clues throughout the book point towards the climax.
Although this is a complete story, I would be interested in seeing what happens next.

I really enjoyed rhis book. I have read a lot of physcological thrillers and this was among the best ones. It held my attention until the end and i found myself trying to guess what was coming next. The only thing missing was maybe a bit more detail of the mothers crimes.

A dark story exploring Millie's journey after informing police about her mother's lifelong abuse.
When her mother is charged and imprisoned, awaiting trial, Millie is placed in foster care, and the book focuses on her making friends (and enemies) in her new environment. She is cruelly bullied at school, but due to her mother’s influence, is resourceful and skilled at exacting revenge.
Millie fears that her mother's behaviour has influenced her and feels she is becoming like her mother. The story constantly flips back to scenes of terrible violence and abuse that she has experienced and witnessed throughout her young life.
The book deals with child abuse, and is dark and depressing - not for the faint-hearted! A chilling, compelling story, which is hard to put down. Readers hope for a good outcome for Millie, but feel uncertain this can be achieved.

Thank you for kindly providing this review copy.

I wanted to like this more than I did but, for me, the style was quite jarring and annoying. It's written in a very informal way with similar inflections and turns of phrase as you'd expect dialectically, and I found that grating. However, it was a compelling read. The book unfolds slowly and the protagonist's struggles with herself are quite gripping. I found her relationship with Morgan to be very touching and I also found myself scared for Morgan, so this is obviously a good work. The real viciousness and torture of teenage girls next to the murders of the children were also an interesting contrast.

Good Me Bad Me is an intriguing book, with a disturbing subject matter but sufficiently well written to draw you into the story and keep you there until the end. I enjoyed the story but found the style of writing a little disjointed, which possibly was deliberate on the part of the author to increase the reader's sense of unease - and on that level, it succeeded. Overall, a well told story with a good ending.

Where to start... What a clever book, this is a chilling novel that is quite detailed in the picture it paints in your mind

Milly aka Annie is the daughter of a serial killer and what we the reader follow is her journey as her mum is on trial for the murder of nine children, Milly's main worry, will she turn out to be just like her mother.

I found myself constantly second guessing what was going to happen next, every time I thought I'd figured out just where Ali was leading us, another spanner was thrown in the works.

This is a psychological thriller like no other. The subject matter is quite dark and I think should come with some trigger warnings but I have to say I was utterly engrossed.

I'll admit by the end I had guessed what was going to come on the last page but that wasn't a bad thing, in-fact I think it's left it open for a second book if the author wishes to write a sequel.

A fantastically controversial debut novel.

Annie is a 15 year old girl living with a foster family, she is there because she contacted the police and got her mother arrested. Why? Her mother is a serial killer who is now awaiting her trial and Annie will be the star witness. This taut, psychological thriller offers the reader something new, as it is told from a young girl's perspective, who herself is damaged. A compelling read.

Gosh! This is a deeply disturbing read, not for the faint hearted. However, it's so well written that, every time I wanted to stop reading, due to the subject matter, it had me hooked.
A real page turner. Just don't expect to sleep much, once you've picked it up, or for a good while after.

4.5/ 5 star.
Ali Land's debut novel is the best psychological thriller I have read this year.

Milly has told the police her mother is a serial killer, her mother has been arrested and Milly has been placed in a foster home whilst waiting to act as a witness at her mother's trial.

This is not an action packed thriller, but rather the emotional thoughts of Milly as she learns to live without her mother's physical presence. Milly has to decide how much of her mother resides in her and is she herself good or bad. Milly also has to deal with the realities of settling in to life with a foster family who have their own issues. It is hard not to feel involved with the characters.

This is a fast paced novel that pulled me in from the first page and spat me out exhausted and drained at the end.

I received a copy of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Having slightly fallen out with psychological thrillers as a genre, I approached ‘Good Me, Bad Me’ with extreme caution, but I fell under its spell and was soon thoroughly enjoying the whole experience.

Milly’s mother is the vilest serial murderer that Britain has seen for decades, she has abducted, tortured and killed no less than 9 defenceless children while they cried for their mummies; she has mentally, and even sexually, abused her own daughter, she is a monster. Finally Milly snaps and finds the courage to report her mother to the Police and this is where the story begins, the machine takes over, she is given a caring foster home and the chance to make a new life for herself, but is the teenager as innocent as we would like her to be, or does she have her own agenda? At the end of the day is she really just her wicked mother’s daughter?

‘Good Me, Bad Me’ is full of horrible anticipation and chilling suspense - will we find out exactly what happened in Milly’s old home and what was done in the killing room that her mother christened ‘The Playground’? Was the abuse she suffered as bad as we suspect it was? Will she crack under the pressure of having to testify at the high profile Old Bailey trial? Will her new friends and schoolmates find out who she really is?

A classic page-turner and a disturbing but entertaining read.

Many thanks to the author, the publisher and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

A well written psychological thriller. Firstly, top marks for whoever designed the cover. it grabs you straightaway and says 'I want to know more.'
The storyline, is certainly different. How hard must it be to be the daughter of a female serial killer. I felt sorry for Milly having to take on a new identity with such an obviously dysfunctional foster family. I really think that the character of the step father Mike who was obviously not very good at his job was portrayed well, as were the other characters. I think in places the pace of the writing could have been better, and in places the outcome was a little predictable, but overall a good read. I would recommend.

I regret to say I did not enjoy this book. It seemed somewhat unrealistic and whilst I can suspend disbelief for the sake of a story, I just couldn't engage with it.. There were lots of twists and turns in the story but none of them that surprising and it did become a little predictable.

"I remember a story I read. A Native American tale where the Cherokee tells his grandson there's a battle between two wolves in all of us. One is evil, the other good. The boy asks him, which wolf wins? The Cherokee tells him, the one you feed."

I knew little about this book before reading it, and honestly, had I known a bit more - specifically, about the very dark and disturbing subject matter - I'm not sure I would have chosen to read it. As it was, I read the beginning and had serious doubts about whether I wanted to carry on. Then I read a bit further and still had serious doubts about whether I wanted to carry on. But somehow I did find myself reading to the end, which is some kind of testimony as to what a compelling read this is. It's a very impressive debut novel.

Fifteen year old Annie's mother is a serial killer of young children - a psychopath, it would appear - who not only horribly abused her own daughter but also made her somehow complicit in her crimes. Finally, Annie spoke out. Her mother was arrested and put on trial; Annie was given a new name and identity (Milly) and placed in foster care. But it's not the safe haven she'd hoped for; the daughter of the house, Phoebe, is the meanest of mean girls and determined to make "Milly"'s life even more of a misery.

We see everything through Annie/Milly's internal monologue.. Is she a reliable narrator? Only up to a point. Her monstrous mother, who she both hates and yearns for, continues to exert a powerful pull over her, but only emerges through her daughter's eyes. It's impossible to understand why she did what she did, or indeed how she got away with it for so long.

Thankfully we are spared too graphic details of what went on, but told enough to linger unpleasantly in the mind.

The story is really about Annie's internal battle between on the one hand what she knows to be right and on the other hand the deeply entrenched effects of the only life and (some kind of) love she has ever known. Can she ever become her own person, free of her mother's malign influence, or are they just too deeply entangled to ever really separate?

This is an impressive debut work. The psychological thriller genre is filled with titles that excite interest. Good Me Bad Me is a relatively simplistic hook, but this story really packs a punch. There's a violent and abusive background, some retribution and justice, but throughout, the age old conflict of right and wrong.

Very well written with strong characters and plotting which kept me gripped throughout.

Quite enjoyed this. To be honest there wasn't anything in it that surprised me or made me think. The starting chapter was hard work with all the talking to self.

Probably won't read author again.