Good Me Bad Me: A Novel

An Amazon Best Book of September 2017: Who hasn’t wanted to do a very bad thing? Fifteen-year-old Milly battles these urges daily, but she not only has the desire to be wicked; she’s had the training to make her impulses reality. The daughter of a female serial killer who preyed on young children, Milly was raised in a nightmare of abuse and butchery. By turning in her mother to the police, Milly has escaped. But has she really?

Debut author Ali Land is devious: She only hints at the horrors Milly experienced, forcing the reader to fill in the gaps. A brief scene in which Milly dissects a pig heart in biology class includes the chilling, almost throwaway line, “I know a lot about a person’s insides.” Milly wants her “good me” aspect to win, but relentless bullying at school, her unhealthy friendship with another lost teen, and the pressure of testifying against her mother gnaw at Milly, allowing her darker instincts to ooze through her defenses. Your own impulses will veer between wanting to protect Milly and dreading what she’s capable of. Readers will have differing reactions to the ending, so when you’ve finished Good Me Bad Me, swiftly hand it over to a friend so you can unravel the conclusion together. —Adrian Liang, Amazon Book Review