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What a great read this was. It's full of this tension that's as taut as a stretched elastic band threatening to snap at any minute.

Told from the viewpoint of Annie/Milly, we're only given snippets of the horrors she's witnessed and been subjected to growing up with her mother. Thankfully. The snippets are far more than enough of a window, believe me. And so now, placed in foster care with Mike, Saskia and their daughter Phoebe, Milly has to try to build a new, normal life. Quite how anyone could do that I have no idea!

Anyway, it had a clear, distinctive voice, written in the short, quite pragmatic sentences of a 15 year-old. There's a sense of disassociation pervading the narration as she struggles to adjust and also free herself from her mother and her crimes. The sense of her 'being bad' is sad to read, a feeling that she un-loveable and unworthy of attention. There are so many issues involved that would make this a wonderful novel for a reading group - just imagine the discussions that could be had.

Events are realistically portrayed I felt. I understood the reasoning of what happens to this fractured child and the equally broken foster family she stays with. Whether these events could have been changed with a different placement, or if they are inevitable and inherent, would again be an interesting discussion to have.

It did have me almost holding my breath, and feeling quite uncomfortable as to not only what had happened, but as to how things were unfolding. I very much enjoyed reading Good Me Bad Me - I'd totally recommend it.