Warning: This article contains light spoilers for the book!
Should heinous crimes committed by children follow them into adulthood? How do you make sure that those who have committed crimes have been rehabilitated? Who gets to decide whether to forgive?
These are the key questions readers grapple with when reading “The First Day of Spring” — a thriller written by Nancy Tucker and published in May 2021. The story follows Chrissie, a single mother living under a changed name due to a horrifying crime she committed when she was a schoolgirl. The book alternates between Chrissie’s POV as a young child committing the crime — the murder of a little boy — and her current life as an adult providing for her daughter. Throughout the book, we get to know Chrissie’s motivations for the murder, as well as her relationships with her friends and the conflict she faces as an adult as a result.
PERSPECTIVE & PLOT
The plot of the book is set in a small town in the U.K., where everyone in the neighbourhood knows one another. Some chapters are written in a childish voice — Chrissie at eight years old — while others are written in a quasi-adult voice — Chrissie as an adult. The reason why I say that Chrissie’s adult voice isn’t fully an “adult” perspective is because Tucker specifically points out how Chrissie has lapses and doubts in her judgement; she doesn’t fully trust herself to be mature, emotional, or essentially anything other than a robot in the name of survival.
What struck me was that I’ve never read a book so psychologically confusing — but that, to me, was the entire point of the book. Countless times, because of how gruesome and heavy the description of the crimes were, I found myself wondering if Chrissie really has changed, and if she is a fit mother for her child. Given how it seems like Chrissie has no remorse for the crimes — perhaps because she doesn’t know how to feel empathy — I was disturbed about how someone could go on to live a relatively “normal” life after committing something so horrible, and I understood how the parents of the kid she murdered felt. This is exactly what readers wonder when Chrissie’s social worker keeps calling to check in on her and her daughter, and Chrissie desperately does what she can to keep her daughter from being taken from her.
Overall, Tucker does a masterful job at tapping into the psychology of this character, both as a young child and an adult. It’s especially poignant, as readers themselves play a role in questioning the morality of the situation.
DEEPER MEANING
While this book was heavily advertised on BookTok and other platforms as a straightforward psychological thriller, I was surprised to encounter some heavier themes of childhood neglect and abuse, motherhood, and forgiveness. The reason why Chrissie did what she did evolves over the course of the book: we see how Chrissie’s mom abuses and neglects her, how she starves for food, how her friends and community members reject her. In the end, Chrissie does land on her feet: she gets to keep her daughter, she has a friend and a social worker who care about her wellbeing, and she finally feels like she can be a good mother. It’s a relatively satisfying ending to an otherwise dark and disturbing story.
Overall rating: 4 stars out of 5 ★★★★
I don’t read a lot of thrillers, but when I do, I enjoy the ones that stick with me emotionally or cause me to pause and think. “The First Day of Spring” by Nancy Tucker definitely achieves these goals, however, I do wish it was a little less heavy on the childhood perspective, and had more emphasis on Chrissie’s adult life and how she came to be a mother. Ultimately, if you’re looking for a chilling read this spooky season, this book might just be the one for your TBR.