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Good Me, Bad Me (2017)Description / Buy at Amazon

Ali Land writes crime, thriller and fiction novels. She is famously known for Good Me, Bad Me published in 2017. After completing her university studies with a degree in Mental Health, she spent ten years working as a Child & Adolescent Mental Health Nurse in both schools and hospitals in the United Kingdom and Australia. However, she quit and now works full time as a writer living in West London.

Good Me, Bad Me

Annie’s mom is a serial killer, and the only way that Ann can make her stop is to hand her over to the police, but unfortunately out of sight is not out of mind. As her mother’s trial is near, the past secrets will not let her sleep even when in a new foster home and name- Milly. With a new start she can be whatever she wants, but unfortunately Milly’s mother is a serial killer, and after all, blood is thicker than water.

This book opens up when Ann is talking to a cop who cannot believe whether whatever Anna is telling him. She pulls out a stained dungaree and a teddy bear covered with stains of blood. She informs the cop that she could have carried more since her mother never suspected that she kept them. Then the detective hurriedly makes a call telling someone, possibly his supervisor to come quickly and get to hear the side of Anna’s story, because he is unsure whether she is telling the truth or lying, but she repeats the same story again and again. She tells him everything and almost everything.

However, they send her back home and inform her to act normal and that they would come that particular night and do what is necessary. However, she is terrified that they might not come and also at the same time terrified that they will come. Fortunately, they come, and her mother is taken away from her room. She stares at her daughter and when no one is looking Annie nods at her.

After her mother is arrested, Annie does not speak for at least three days. It is evidently clear that she was in shock. However, after getting a new home, new fresh start, she ought to be happy, but she is still scared. She is afraid of whom she might be in the future, and she is also scared of everyone else ever finding out too.

Her adoptive family, her foster father, Mike is a psychologist and an expert in trauma while her foster mom just wants to make Annie feel at home. The Newmont’s seems like a great family, and they are welcoming too. Well most of them are welcoming, but soon she discovers that Phoebe, her new sister does not want her around.

The trial is around the corner and Milly will have to speak of all the horrible things that her mother has ever done. She counts all the days until the trial kicks off. Mike, her foster dad, will be helping her and also help her get ready for her testimony during the trial.

The conversations that Milly has ongoing in her head with her mother gives the readers an insight into the toxic environment that Annie grew up in. It is as if her mother was “training” her since her childhood.

However, it does not take long before Milly begins noticing some other fishy things about the “perfect” Newmont’s family. She starts to see the “portholes” in the perfect family; school turns out to be another hell for her thanks to her foster sister and some other few mean girls.

However a guardian angel by the name Miss Kemp steps in, she is a guidance teacher who helps Milly get into therapy. Outside the school compound, Milly makes friends with Morgan who also has secrets. Life is not a downhill task for Milly either, but thankfully no one in the school knows her story, they all think that it is made up. However, Milly is scared that one day someone will find out the truth. She is terrified of what they would think and also what they will do.

Then the terrorizing at school only gets worse, but despite this Milly will not tell anyone anything. It is obviously frustrating how everyone around her seemed clueless what was happening, and with everything going on, it feels likes it is only a matter of time before she explodes.

What would possibly happen when she has had enough? Good Me Bad Me is quite a chilling read; it is a well-crafted psychological thriller. It is an engrossing tale, with a disturbing plot, well woven and yet flawed characters. It vividly paints the traumatic results of a monstrous childhood experienced by a fifteen-year-old Millie. She used to be the abused daughter of a serial killer mom whose victims were mostly children. Her mother is never introduced to the readers having dialogue, but her presence is written large throughout.

Apart from Millie, we get to know about Phoebe, the 15-year-old daughter of Milly’s foster parents. She hates Milly and is always against her in all ways. Milly son realizes that her foster family is dysfunctional in its own way and that Mike may not be public-spirited as first thought to be.

Above all the psychologically disturbed Millie is under enormous pressure as she is preparing for the trial of her mother. Her mother’s case is getting extreme media coverage, and her mother is often referred to as The Peter Pan Killer. Millie experiences sleepless nights and nightmares; guilty conscience always haunts her as to her role in the mother’s actions. She invites compassion and sympathy, but she finds it hard to leave her old life behind. The heavy burdens of her troubled past and keeping it a secret are too hard to ask anyone to handle. It is surprising how few adults would cope with the struggle of Millie’s life.

This is a tough read; the author sends the readers into Millie’s shoes and gives them a proportionate dose of what she is going through. The author gives an in-depth, complicated character that feels authentic. Millie is an enthralling character, and she will keep you gripped. If you like reading unsettling and disturbing psychological thrillers then, Good Me, Bad Me is a highly recommended read.

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