The First Day of Spring
A Novel
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4.2 • 142 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
“Tense, addictive and powered by an unforgettable narrative voice.” - PAULA HAWKINS
"A stunning debut...Suspenseful? You bet. Heart-rending? From beginning to end."—The Washington Post
“Gripping…The voices of Chrissie and Julia reside deep in your skull: visceral and wicked, sad and wonderful, all at the same time.” —The New York Times
“Fans of Lisa Jewell and smart psychological suspense will eagerly await Tucker’s next.” —Publishers Weekly, STARRED review
“So that was all it took,” I thought. “That was all it took for me to feel like I had all the power in the world. One morning, one moment, one yellow-haired boy. It wasn't so much after all.”
Meet Chrissie...
Chrissie is eight and she has a secret: she has just killed a boy. The feeling made her belly fizz like soda pop. Her playmates are tearful and their mothers are terrified, keeping them locked indoors. But Chrissie rules the roost -- she's the best at wall-walking, she knows how to get free candy, and now she has a feeling of power that she never gets at home, where food is scarce and attention scarcer.
Twenty years later, adult Chrissie is living in hiding under a changed name. A single mother, all she wants is for her daughter to have the childhood she herself was denied. That’s why the threatening phone calls are so terrifying. People are looking for them, the past is catching up, and Chrissie fears losing the only thing in this world she cares about, her child.
Nancy Tucker leaves the reader breathless as she inhabits her protagonist with a shocking authenticity that moves the reader from sympathy to humor to horror to heartbreak and back again.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
British author Tucker (The Time in Between: A Memoir of Hunger and Hope) makes a spectacular fiction debut with this gripping novel about childhood pain and healing. Eight-year-old Chrissie Banks's father rarely comes home, while her mother dislikes her. Chrissie lies, steals, brags, and bullies other children in her working-class neighborhood to get the food and attention she craves. One day, she strangles a two-year-old boy, and no one suspects her of the crime. She loves the power her secret gives her, but as the police ignore her and interest in the boy's death fades, her desire to hurt another child mounts. Two decades later, Chrissie has become a single mother after her release from a detention home. Obsessed with caring for her five-year-old daughter, Molly, she panics when the social worker who supervises her parenting asks to see her after an accident results in a broken wrist for Molly. Terrified that Molly will be taken away, she considers flight and reckons anew with her past. The taut, meticulously observed narration, which alternates between Chrissie's youthful and adult perspectives, mines the dangers that childhood trauma causes both its victims and those around them. Fans of Lisa Jewell and smart psychological suspense will eagerly await Tucker's next.
Customer Reviews
Worth it at the end
I felt like it took a while for me to really be invested into this story. I honestly could not stand the main character but she really exhibits remorse and growth by the end. I enjoyed how the author used two plot lines that merge together in the end. It was beautiful. I recommend