Welcome to my review of The First Day of Spring by Nancy Tucker. This is the most awesome book I have read so far this year, I know its only January but I really loved it.
‘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.’
Chrissie knows how to steal sweets from the shop without getting caught, the best hiding place for hide-and-seek, the perfect wall for handstands.
Now she has a new secret. It gives her a fizzing, sherbet feeling in her belly. She doesn’t get to feel power like this at home, where food is scarce and attention scarcer.
Fifteen years later, Julia is trying to mother her five-year-old daughter, Molly. She is always worried – about affording food and school shoes, about what the other mothers think of her. Most of all she worries that the social services are about to take Molly away.
That’s when the phone calls begin, which Julia is too afraid to answer, because it’s clear the caller knows the truth about what happened all those years ago.
And it’s time to face the truth: is forgiveness and redemption ever possible for someone who has killed?
Nancy Tucker was born and raised in West London. She spent most of her adolescence in and out of hospital suffering from anorexia nervosa. On leaving school, she wrote her first book, THE TIME IN BETWEEN (Icon, 2015) which explored her experience of eating disorders and recovery. Her second book, THAT WAS WHEN PEOPLE STARTED TO WORRY (Icon, 2018), looked more broadly at mental illness in young women.
Nancy recently graduated from Oxford University with a degree in Experimental Psychology. Since then she has worked in an inpatient psychiatric unit for children and adolescents and in adult mental health services. She now works as an assistant psychologist in an adult eating disorders service. The First Day of Spring is her first work of fiction.
This starts with the greatest line “I killed a little boy today”. This is possibly the best book I have read so far this year (we are only at the end of January though!) this centres around one character, Chrissie aged 8 when she kills a little boy and herself years later, now named Julia.
Chrissie is a clever little girl who is desperate for attention, abused by her mother, mostly neglected but often not fed, never clean and deserted by her dad who she initially believes is dead until he returns from prison when she is told to call him uncle. No wonder the poor girl is so confused! This is a devastating story of how that abuse led Chrissy to do the unthinkable and how it later affects her life and gives her constant fear that her own child will be take away at any moment.
The characters are well developed. Chrissy is particularly well written and my heart breaks for her multiple times, despite her want to murder many people and be so disruptive. She often just thinks of herself as a ‘bad seed’ which I think is how she wants to be seen rather than feeling like a monster. Chrissy is very direct and can be very funny with her bluntness, but she is often also very close to the mark, definitely not a stupid girl by any means.
As Julia you can see how much she loves her daughter Molly, she would do anything for her but doubts her abilities as a mother all the time. Moly is Julia’s opportunity for survival and for regrowth. Her best friend, Linda, whom she has known since she was a small child, is a brilliant friend. She is sympathetic and caring and loves both Chrissy, Julia and Molly, she has a heart of gold and would make a best friend to anyone.
This is a heartbreaking, compelling read that I just couldn’t put down. There is plenty of suspense, it’s dark and you don’t know what is going to happen next. The book is so well written it’s seamless going between Chrissy and Julia’s chapters.
This is a brilliant book; you don’t want to miss it!
The Paperback is released next week on Thursday 17th February.
| Title | The First Day of Spring |
| Author | Nancy Tucker |
| Series | N/A |
| Format | Kindle |
| Page Count | 388 Pages |
| Genre | Contemporary Literary Fiction |
| Publisher | Cornerstone Digital |
| Release Date | 18th May 2021 |
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