Good Me Bad Me

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This was a suspenseful, unsettling and creepy story revolving around the daughter of a serial killer. Where Good Me, Bad Me works best for me is where Annie/Milly tells us about what it was like living with her mother and the new life she has with her foster family while she waits to testify at the upcoming trial. I just need to say that although that instructor made my blood boil, this style does work for me here.

By selecting this method of narration to express the events of the story, it is a compelling choice that seems to work in well with the overall tone of the book itself. I felt that I had worked out the story and outcome very early on, it didn’t really give me much more as it progressed, and at no point did I feel tense. We have this carefully executed narrative where the tension slowly ratchets up only to provide little to no pay-off?Plus the mean girls went too far, always—they quickly became stereotypes with no power to make me shiver. Suspenseful, without all the blood and gore, just plain, solid, good writing to create the atmosphere. Sorry to say that for me, this story gave off only minor heebie jeebs—no shrieks or goosebumps here.

Millie used to be the abused daughter, Annie, of a serial killer mother whose victims were children. Here, Milly is a whiny cold fish (did I actually say that about a poor kid whose mom is a serial killer?I waited for you to sweep me up, rub our noses together in an Eskimo kiss and reply, you came for me, you belong with me, I love you. 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. But Milly’s new foster family are dysfunctional themselves, lacking the support and care this troubled teenager needs.

Annie becomes Millie, and is fostered into the care of Mike, a trained therapist and his wife, Saskia. For our Twisted Sister, Norma this book definitely worked for her and she was satisfied with the ending but for the rest of us not so much. Thankfully, writing improves as the story continues, but the occasional Yoda-esque statements still crop up. Her foster dad, Mike, is a psychologist prepping Milly for her day in court to testify against her mother.

The warning bells were huge in this novel, often leading me to question if the events in the novel could have been turned in a completely different direction, by the selection of a different foster family for our lead. What type of humans are we that we read this crap and allow ourselves to become so hardened to travesty? The foundation of this story is built on Milly starting her shiny new life at the age of 15, having just turned in her mother for the atrocious crimes. Allegory and symbolisms abound with frequent, sly, and carefully orchestrated references to ‘Lord of the Flies’ and ‘Peter Pan’, which I will leave for you to draw your own conclusions.