Good Me Bad Me

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Unnerving... Land is a mental health nurse who has worked with traumatized children, and her portrait of Milly has a powerful sense of authenticity.” 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.

The ending not unexpected, could see this coming from what came before, but this worked for me too. Annie too, has suffered terribly at the hands of her mother, but at the age of fifteen, she decides to inform the police of her mother's crimes. The fact is, she was unable to help any of the children, and the last murder was just too much for Annie to bear, because she was very close to the victim. Bad Me interpersonal behaviors have been associated with moderate anxiety, are highly devalued and infrequently performed. Milly/Annie can't let go of her mother and is struggling to move past her trauma. The dark and dysfunctional relationship of Annie and her mother unfolds throughout the novel giving us a better picture of what truly happened to Annie.I will say that Land is a good writer. The book was written clearly, the characters' personalities were well defined albeit stereotypical. 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. I struggled with the style of writing too at first. That’s when I started thinking, Oh no, this is young adult fiction, not the controversial adult psychological suspense I was hoping for. I did get used to the writing style eventually, and the last 30% of the book was more interesting, despite being predictable, so I did still enjoy reading it, even if there were no real surprises.

I thought the events at the school with the bullying were very true to life and realistic and though most characters were very unlikeable they were excellently portrayed. Of course this perked my interest because my social work/therapist side is peeking it's head out. I definitely thought I had this story played out BUT boy was I wrong. That will teach me ;) When it comes to courtroom drama, this one is right up there with the best. The tension is indescribable as Milly prepares to go into the witness box. She will be behind a screen while she gives evidence but her mother’s poisonous, powerful influence could penetrate a shield of solid lead.

The Interpersonal Circumplex presented here is a model developed by Donald Kiesler in 1982 and operationalized in the Impact Message Inventory (IMI). A thorough and authoritative history of related research is available in his book: Contemporary Interpersonal Theory Research: Personality, Psychopathology, and Psychotherapy, 1996. An astoundingly compelling thriller. Beyond tense. You hardly breathe. Best read in ages' Matt Haig

Now I know it's only just turned January, but I really do think this is going to be one of the big thrillers of 2017. It has everything you want from this genre. It's gripping, takes you to dark and disturbing places inside people's innermost thoughts, can get pretty twisted, is well written, keeps you guessing and hits you with some huge surprises. Parts are harrowing, particularly as we're dealing with a young teenage girl whose mother is a serial killer of young kids.Told from Milly’s POV the dialogue is mainly in her head. Short, one-two word sentences. At times it’s difficult to follow and more than a little distracting.