The Bad Seed looks at how people deal with having a murderer in the family. But that murderer is not who you'd necessarily expect.
Eight year old Rhona is an only child and lives with her mother Christine, while her father is off on business. At the opening of the book, we find she just missed out on winning a medal for most improved handwriting for the school term. Most kids would be pissed off and move on but not Rhona. At the end of term picnic, the child who did win the medal ends up dying in circumstances noone finds to be suspicious. Except Rhona's mother.
Throughout the book we, along with Christine, begin to realise that Rhona is not the sweet, innocent little angel she appears to be on the outside but is in fact a massive psycho bitch! (if you can call an 8 year old that!)
The story goes on to reveal how Rhona has done this before and is more than a little cracked. It's an enthralling story and you're totally there with Christine as she tries to process and deal with the fact that her daughter is a murderer. I have no idea how I would cope in her situation but I found myself relating to her rollercoaster of emotions, such as the fact she does still have maternal love for her daughter despite everything.
Ultimately Christine has to decide what to do and how to attempt to end this child's murderous urges once and for all. What would you do? Turn her in or take matters into your own hands?
I sped through this book as I couldn't put it down. I was enthralled by the idea of how a family would cope with being related to a murderer but the fact that murderer is a child is quite unique to me and so very interesting.
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