The First Day of Spring: Discover the year’s most page-turning thriller

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Thank you to Riverhead Books for sending me a finished copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review. Now available. Inspired by David Copperfield, Kingsolver crafts a 21st-century coming-of-age story set in America’s hard-pressed rural South. I think that the last 20% of the book was the best part because I could finally hear that heartbeat, which is what I missed the most. This is a deeply disturbing but powerful novel about the effect of neglect and abuse on children. Your attention is grabbed from the first sentence where Chrissie, an eight year girl, describes how it felt to have just killed a toddler. Talk about a chilling and confronting start! Twenty years later Julia, a single mother is trying her best to raise her five year old daughter but with no role model of her own she is insecure and paranoid that her little girl will be taken from her. Confined for many years in a secure children’s home, she feels she doesn’t fit into normal society doesn’t know how to interact with the other mothers around her. All she wants is to raise her child in a safe and loving home and give her the childhood she never had.

The First Day of Spring by Nancy Tucker | Waterstones

When your book begins with this sentence, you know you have a dark journey ahead of you. After you have completed your double-take at that unexpected start, you try to get a clearer idea of the diabolical person giving you this first-person insight. The killer murdered the child willingly. Then walked out, very relaxed, in search of her friend, then went to the local park and played with her until the murder was discovered. She calmly joined the crowd and watched the distraught mother sobbing over her dead child. The other chapters are narrated by Julia, who now has a six-year-old Molly. Julia is grown-up Chrissie who had her named changed after her sentence for the murder. Chrissie went to a “home” for dangerous children, since prison is not place for an eight-year-old. Julia wants to be a good mother but doesn’t know how. She reads childrearing books and gets help from social workers. Her chapters, reflecting on her life, and her insecurities of being a mother, also brought tears to my eyes. Her adult guilt at what she did as an eight-year-old is crushing. It is difficult not to feel sorry for Chrissie, although I absolutely do not condone the actions she took as a child. To say the mixed feelings were there throughout is an understatement. I wasn’t able to put this book down, it burrowed deep under my skin, leaving me breathless and sad. I know this is a book of fiction, but Chrissie/Julia became real to me. The murder of the innocent little 2 year old was an act of absolute evil. Chrissie’s thoughts and behaviour were painful to read as a mother and as a human being. She also feels insurmountable guilt at having a gorgeous, smart and lovely baby girl when she herself deprived parents from their child.Ann wrinkled her forehead and started to say, “Oh, I’m so—” but Mam interrupted. “You wanting to adopt a kid?” she asked. The beautiful woman nodded tightly while she took clean tissues from the box on Ann’s desk. Mam walked over very fast and pulled me up by the elbow so hard I spilled watery orange squash all over myself. She pushed me in front of her, toward the beautiful woman, and said, “This is Chrissie. She’s mine. But she’s being adopted. You can have her.” Tense, addictive and powered by an unforgettable narrative voice, The First Day of Spring gives us not just a window into the confused psychology of a child driven to violence, but a thoughtful consideration of the redemptive power of love and friendship." - Paula Hawkins, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Girl on the Train

The First Day of Spring - Penguin Books Australia The First Day of Spring - Penguin Books Australia

And it's time to face the truth: is forgiveness and redemption ever possible for someone who has killed? At the same time, you also have to reconcile yourself to the fact that this same child has grown up to be Julia. And you wonder, should a child murderer be allowed to have a child? For how long should a crime be punished? What would you do if your child was murdered and you hear about the killer free and with a child after a few years? Don’t killers deserve a second chance? Do they? Too many questions, no simple answers. A quarter of the way through I was OH MY GOODNESS POOR LITTLE LOVE ( now that disturbed me) as I’ve got sympathy, understanding and raw empathy with this child who killed someone then as an adult whose hiding this secret.An angry, powerful book seething with love and outrage for a community too often stereotyped or ignored. This is a debut like no other in this subject matter that’s thrown me in circles and bashed me head first into a wall. My thoughts were all over the place. Overall, an incredible book which is extremely moving and which handles a disturbing theme with delicacy and thoughtfulness. Everything is okay with both of us,” I said. “But you can’t speak to her. She’s busy. She’s working.”

The First Day of Spring Download - OceanofPDF [PDF] [EPUB] The First Day of Spring Download - OceanofPDF

If you're looking for a feel good read, this isn't it. But if you're willing to read a raw novel about what suffering does, about what being deemed bad can turn you into, and what love in a ragged, needy, and lost way can be at its best and worst, you will not be sorry you read this. It's brilliant and painful and astonishing. An absolute must read, and a novel I won't forget anytime soon. For those unafaid of the darkness of the human heart, this is very, very highly recommended.MY THOUGHTS: Inside Chrissie's head is a scary place to be. Probably the scariest place I've been. It's dark, disturbing and more than sad. An eight year old should be full of the joys of life. Chrissie is full of nothing, except rage. The word 'neglect' doesn't even begin to cover Chrissie's mother's treatment of her. She tries to give Chrissie away. Her dad keeps disappearing. The other children have two parents, they are cared for - fed, and clothed, and loved. Chrissie wants this for herself, all of it. A darkly dazzling debut, a harrowing story of neglect and cruelty written with a delicate touch and a big heart. As gripping as the tensest of thrillers and as moving and humane as the most intimate of memoirs, I loved this book." - Lisa Jewell, New York Times bestselling author of The Family Upstairs This novel is about childhood neglect and the ramifications. A dark and totally heartbreaking story 💔 Chrissie is a killer that fact is stated up front, but as the story unfolds we begin to see the tragedy that led to this crime and no matter how unforgivable her actions are, the actions of the adults surrounding her are also unforgivable. I am not ashamed to say that I felt my heart break for little Chrissie even though she seemed to show almost no remorse for her crimes… read between the lines in this story it truly shattered me. I was stunned by this one. And while I can’t say it was fabulous, I can say honestly it was haunting and sad and this character will stay with me for a long time.