Deliciously scary, the novel revolves around 15 year old Annie, the daughter of a serial killer of children, as she is settling into her new life living with psychologist Mike, his wife Saskia and daughter Phoebe, with the pseudonym Milly. A competent misfit, Milly is bullied at school and the tyranny doesn’t stop when she gets home, with jealous and temperamental Phoebe exerting power over what is to her, a never ending line of foster siblings. Land is cleverly suggestive, and does well not to be too graphic as she drip feeds us information regarding her mother’s crimes, which increases the tension and horror. Similarly, the unreliable narrator technique is expertly deployed as she carefully and expertly explores the relationship between mother and child, and what happens when that relationship is black, perverse, dark and withered. It explores the genetic element in addition to psychological – was Milly born bad, made bad, or bad at all? There is suggestive foreshadowing throug...