Purchased from The Goodwill thrift store especially to be shared through BookCrossing!

This will be one of the books given away for my ELEVENTH Bookiversary Give-Away to be held on my anniversary date: November 14, 2014! Link to Forum Thread, Click Here!

Book Description:
The bestselling inspiration for the chilling movie starring Patty McCormack and Nancy Kelly.

What happens to ordinary families into whose midst a child serial killer is born? This spine-tingling tale investigates a mother's concerned suspicion surrounding several mysterious accidental deaths that all connect back to her eight-year-old daughter, Rhoda. Tremendously impacting the thriller genre, this masterpiece of suspense generated a whole crop of creepy kids, and it's as chilling, intelligent, and timely as ever before.

Originally published in 1954, this National Book Award-nominated classic was adapted into film in 1956.

With a new foreword.

Vintage Movie Classics spotlights classic films that have stood the test of time, now rediscovered through the publication of the novels on which they were based.

A great reader's review here: www.amazon.com/review (Link)

THE ENDING IS NOT THE SAME AS THE MOVIE!

On its way to BKind2Books, who claimed it from My Eleventh Bookiversary Give Away☺ Happy Traveling, Book! ☺

Thank you for the RABCK, Dove-i-libri! We must have joined around the same time as my 11th Bookiversary was December 31st (yes I joined on New Year's Eve).

I'm looking forward to reading this as I remember the movie - always thought that Rhoda was a thoroughly detestable kid. I appreciate your kindness in sharing this with me.

A classic for a reason, this novel examines the creepiest little girl in literature. I'm sure that back in the more innocent age of the 1950s when this was first published that it was truly shocking with its portrayal of an 8 year old sociopathic killer. Rhoda is the darling of her apartment building, doted on by the matronly women in the adjacent apartments. But behind that saccharine exterior beats the heart of a calculating, cold-blooded murderess. March does a wonderful job, with his spare prose, of setting the scene and building the action to an unexpected (especially if you've seen the movie that is based on this novel) climax. The author explores and leaves the reader to ponder the whole nature vs nurture question. Hear his perfect description of the sociopath: "...most of us were able somehow, under the molding force of precept and example, to develop the strange thing we call conscience, to acquire a reasonably acceptable moral character; but others did not have this ability at all, no matter what benign influences they were subjected to. They were not even able to love another except in the crudest manifestations of the flesh...They were true, inborn crimes that can neither be changed or modified..." Years before the term serial killer came into popular usage, March described 'monsters of real life [that] usually looked and behaved in a more normal manner...presented a more convincing picture of virtue' than the average person. Rhoda's mother is a wimpy character for much of the book, but she is definitely of the time period, dependent on her absent husband's guidance and opinions. SPOILER ALERT*****She is the character that is ultimately dragged down by her love of her child. Rhoda is unrepentant to the end and as Christine uncovers just how manipulative she is, and more importantly who she reminds her of, she becomes the next in what appears to be a long line of Rhoda's victims. Utterly horrifying and creepy, this novel stands the test of time. "The Bad Seed" does for little girls what "It" did for clowns - makes them the stuff of nightmares.

Reserving for Mystery/Thriller VBB

Selected from the mystery VBB
DC# 9549 0122 8976 7003 1157 53

Received, thank you!