Good Me Bad Me

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Good Me Bad Me is an astonishing debut - technically sophisticated and emotionally heart wrenching. So many things are done well - the status jungle of girls school, the psychological dissonance of a dysfunctional family, the internal machinery of damaged children. I thought it was wonderful. Her new foster family. Her foster dad, Mike is a psychologist, an expert in trauma. Saskia, her foster-mother just wants to make her feel at home. The Newmonts look like a fantastic family and are they very welcoming..... Good Me, Bad Me is the debut novel by Ali Land which has found a following of admirers here on Goodreads. However, I am not one of them. Let me explain why. This is predicted to be one of the big books of 2017 which it very well may be. I tend to take these predictions now and publicity hype with a pinch of salt as really it can't be predicted. I do think regardless it will be a popular book and a great one for book clubs due to the great discussion that could be generated!

Good Me Bad Me by Ali Land - Penguin Books UK Good Me Bad Me by Ali Land - Penguin Books UK

Norma was listening to this one and while we were discussing this book it left the rest of us slightly confused with her take on it and we had to stop and ask Norma if she was listening to the same book as we were reading. That was quite the conversation as it had us all rolling on the floor laughing. Listening to this versus reading really seemed to give Norma a different experience than the rest of us who were reading it. This was a suspenseful, unsettling and creepy story revolving around the daughter of a serial killer. I was glad I had Norma, Brenda and Kaceey to read along with me as I was a little hesitant when starting this uncomfortable and alarming story.Verdict: Good Me, Bad Me is poorly bookended, but the remainder of the story is well done. The meat is the winner in this literary sandwich. Worth a read. 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. The questioning she undergoes in court is astonishingly brought home how a child brought up with overbearing, mind turning parents can have an effect on your psychological mind when she is listening out behind a screen for just the breathing sounds of her mother. Good Me Bad Me is dark, compelling, voice-driven psychological suspense by debut author Ali Land. How far does the apple really fall from the tree? Milly’s mother is a serial killer. Though Milly loves her mother, the only way to make her stop is to turn her in to the police. Milly is given a fresh start: a new identity, a home with an affluent foster family, and a spot at an exclusive private school. But Milly has secrets, and life at her new home becomes complicated. As her mother’s trial looms, with Milly as the star witness, Milly starts to wonder how much of her is nature, how much of her is nurture, and whether she is doomed to turn out like her mother after all. When tensions rise and Milly feels trapped by her shiny new life, she has to decide: Will she be good? Or is she bad? She is, after all, her mother’s daughter. Good Me, Bad Me by Ali Land – eBook Details Unfortunately Good Me, Bad Me’s ending doesn’t live up to its premise. While certainly disturbing, it’s hardly a surprise given aforementioned teases. The story provides enough clues that the conclusion becomes inevitable. After reading the last passage, I expected there to be more. How could that possibly be the end? It’s so telegraphed. We have this carefully executed narrative where the tension slowly ratchets up only to provide little to no pay-off? Seriously anti-climatic. I just expected…. MORE.

Good Me Bad Me by Ali Land: Summary and reviews - BookBrowse Good Me Bad Me by Ali Land: Summary and reviews - BookBrowse

Good Me Bad Me” was a creepy and captivating character study of Milly, in addition to being a psychological thriller. Though it was obvious to me how it would end - almost from the start, I found the novel entertaining and was glued to it from the beginning. The character of Milly was fascinating and I couldn’t help but be completely riveted by her. This is a novel that I enjoyed but can’t quite say that I loved. Perhaps because I found it somewhat predictable, perhaps because it just missing a little something, I’m not quite sure. On the whole, I think “Good Me Bad Me” is an impressive debut by Ali Land and I look forward to seeing what comes out with next. The detective. A kindly man, belly full and round. Disbelief at first. Then, the stained dungarees I pulled from my bag. Tiny. Mike has a big part to play in the work to be done. A treatment plan drawn up between him and the unit staff detailed a weekly therapy session with me in the run‑up to the trial. An opportunity for me to discuss any concerns or worries with him. Yesterday he suggested Wednesdays, midway through each week. I said yes, not because I wanted to. But because he wanted me to, he thinks it will help. Those were the words that I first heard used to describe this debut novel by Ali Land. Many were saying that this book was going to be one of the more controversial novels released in 2017. 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.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.” Sorry to say that for me, this story gave off only minor heebie jeebs—no shrieks or goosebumps here. True, my heebie-jeebie meter might be on the fritz; most people thought the book was plenty creepy. Whatever the reason, I didn’t shudder. The family live in Notting Hill Gate and it is here that the teenager is coached on her role as star witness at her mother’s trial, on multiple charges of torturing and murdering nine children. The kind of unreliable narrator who has fascinated readers of The Girl on the Train and other such novels....A gripping tale in the cutting voice of a teen antiheroine.” John, like all of us, was born into a family and social-cultural milieu. It was a ready-made context in which his caregivers lived and had become a couple. They, like John, had developed an identity and personality over time under the influence of their significant others. As a couple, his parents formed their own identity as a nuclear family, much of it influenced by norms and values they shared with a well-educated, middle-class majority population on the East Coast of the United States.