Bad Little Girl

By: Frances Vick

Narrated by: Katherine Manners

Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's Summary

"I'm not safe - you have to help me..."

Little Lorna Bell is from a notorious family on a rundown estate. Everyone thinks she's a nasty piece of work. The schoolchildren call her a thief. But Lorna's hair is matted, her shoes pinch her feet, and school teacher Claire Penny can't help herself; some kids just need a bit more support, a bit more love, than the rest.

As the bond between teacher and pupil grows stronger, Claire sees Lorna's bruises, and digs to uncover the disturbing tale behind them. Heartbroken, Claire knows she has to act. She must make Lorna safe.

Just when Claire thinks she has protected Lorna, a chance encounter brings enigmatic stranger Marianne Cairns into their lives. Marianne seems generous and kind but there is something about her story that doesn't quite add up. Why does she feel so at home, and why is Lorna suddenly so unsettled?

Claire has risked everything to save Lorna. But what can save Claire from the shocking truth?

An utterly unputdownable and darkly compelling listen that will have fans of The Girl on the Train, The Sister, and Gone Girl absolutely hooked.

©2017 Frances Vick (P)2017 Bookouture

FINALLY, GILLIAN FLYNN & GIRL ON THE TRAIN have

a book that is in the same league! I have returned more than a few books for "false advertising " by claiming that their book compares to GILLIAN FLYNN and GIRL ON THE TRAIN.
It became my pet peeve.
This book was a "one sitting" read for me.

Interesting clever twists

Started off a tad slow but unwound into a story far different than normal. Love the ending; could easily be picked back up and continued. Makes you imagine several possible endings!

Didn't love it.

I can see what this author was trying to convey clearly but was not succeeding in the telling. This story was too transparent for my liking and the main character was made to look so gullible and stupid that I had to force myself to keep reading. I don't want to be rude but it was painfully obvious what the child was doing right from the very beginning. I wanted to scream by the time I got to the cabin at the seaside. Nice try though.

The Murdering Kind

Oh my...is the last statement I made as this rememberable Frances Vick novel came to a close. Katherine Manners delightful narration made this story a breeze to the ears and not the horror thriller it would be if written for the big movie screen's.
Clair was a bit lonely and would have been better off befriending a gentleman friend....or would she?
Probably not..?
I found myself liking Rabbit Girl too and I too like Clair would have been the fool too. I found myself wishing wishing she would take this little girl away from her horrible life. I too as this character on to take this girl take this little girl away from her life and show her how happy her life could be?
After all the title of the book is The Bad Girl...I wanted so much for Lonnna to have a good life.
I don't want to give away too much but some people just are not what they seem. Over all I gave this 4 1/2stars.. the half because I wanted Clair to at least have met a gentleman and have fallen in love and have kids of her own? I suppose, that's too much romance to ask for in a Thriller Novel?
This was definitely a fabulous book. I actually enjoyed every moment of it .If it were a screenplay it would be a lot more bloodier on screen and that's probably something I wouldn't be willing to go see by myself like the Girl on the Train.
I enjoyed the Girl on the Train as I did Vick's novel, however, the movie version was a little bit too bloody for me. We as writers tend to write things and then when its put into visualization, we realize how our words look on the screen and I'm sure all of us are like,
"Wow I really wrote something that damn bloody?"

I am a fan of the movie the Bad Seed. This certainly was a bit like it. I'd love to see this as a major motion picture.

Official DeAnn DeVille Review/Author, Narrator, Philanthropist & Book Review Blogger

Completely Absurd!!!

Ridiculous story with weak main character. Makes no sense that Claire would tolerate such awful behavior from a young child like Lorna, and especially give in to Lorna's obvious threats. Hard to believe that Claire made so many rash decisions, without ever once, first discussing the situation with a friend or coworker. Still have another couple of hours remaining, and will definitely finish the audiobook, but finding it impossible to listen without feeling that Claire is patheticly dumb and naïve. The author actually insults the reader's intelligence with a story this far fetched. Avoid buying the novel.

Solid entertainment

Although sometimes the gullibility of the lead character annoyed me, I realized that without her gullibility and vulnerability, there wouldn't have been a story to tell. This will keep you entertained.

The moral of this story, if there is one, is that we should assume children know much more about their wrongdoings than we'd like to give them credit for and maybe some kids have a switch inside of them that flips if the right circumstances are presented. When that switch is flipped, they become perfect sociopaths under the guise of innocence leaving adults to reconcile long held yet possibly false perceptions about criminal responsibility in adolescents.

Unbelievable characters/caricatures

Very well-written in terms of the text itself, and some wonderful metaphors and linguistic twists. But the characters were too unbelievable - the lead adult character was thoroughly odd, her actions were simply not credulous (I suspect there may be a darker story to tell about *her*, but it was left unsaid and therefore muddled this story). The performance was really good though - that was what kept me listening to the end.

if you obsess about inconsistencies and unrealistic events and occurrences I wouldn’t recommend this book for you!

Initially the book started off more along the lines of a social work case study story, more in the style of Tori Hayden, but it pretty quickly became obvious that a twist what is in the works but way too soon!. But this twist, really lacked suspense and was so unrealistic touting that a young girl at the age of 10 was a already a criminal mastermind - which was made more unbelievable by her pretty bad Yorkshire accent (nothing against Yorkshirerians’) who tend to sound like the nicest, least threatening people ever! What followed, and the the related climax was also so predictable leaving me wondering if I should even continue, and finish the book given that I already knew where it was going!. However, possibly the most annoying factor was just how purely unrealistic the sequence of events that occurred were; how they unfolded, how clueless the main character was and how everything seemed to seamlessly unfold without barriers or true consequences. What happened in this book would never happen in real life, and if it did I would be seriously concerned as to the ability of the British police force to solve anything! I know that breaching reality is the whole point of fiction, but this was just a little too fictitious for me.

Spoiler Alert... In the title?!?!

I thought there must be a twist...but nope. The story was slow and I already knew the ending due to the title. I had to listen at 1.5x just to get through it. Don’t waste your credit (or time)!

Ridiculous

Such a long, , unbelievable story.
The little girls character is not at all believable as one that would allow two grown woman to fall for her supppsed charms- it is a silly book that I reluctantly read till the end hoping for an exciting twist which never came.

Bad little girl

A good thought out book which turns out to be a page turner . The end seems rushed and all the way through you can work out shat is going to happen and then get annoyed because it does . Katherine manners is a brilliant actress with good voices for characters - I recommend the book but there are better authors out there

a book that was very well read i could not put it

well read and one that i could not put down had to know how it was going to finish

disappointed

i found this book jumped to much as wasnt half as good as i expected it to be very disappointing

Makes you think.....

Not what I was expecting at all. a very cleverly written story. I completely identifed with Claire, and now, even though this is a work of fiction I will definitely think twice before believing everything I hear. It seems so natural to instantly believe the voice of an apparently innocent young child. An excellent performance by the narrator, would definitely listen to her again.

sad story, this poor child

story is sad but could have been narrated better, story skips at times which is annoying.
Its so irritating the way she narrates the child, may need to find another site as not impressed with this one.

Review

Slow in some places but overall edge of seat story. Bit of an odd ending.

Lorna

This story was well written and I couldn’t put it down and also well narrated

Brilliiant!!

really enjoyed this book. Doesnt finish how you think it would. really gets interesting once they move to the cottage. Narrator was very good and helps you to imagine the scenes in your mind as your listening to it.

Excellent twisted novel

Loved this mind bender and could relate to the main characters portrayed - characters very true to life. Would recommend it

Bad little girl.

Overall I enjoyed this book.
Disturbed at how two adults can be so intimidated by a ten year old, but it can happen.
Would have liked the investigation to have encompassed Clare's absence from the village.
Would have liked more insight into the dreadful Maryanne.
Felt the end was flat, big let down there.
Loved the narrative.