An Anonymous Girl

A Book Review

  
Here comes another psychological thriller from the ‘writing duo’ of the #1 bestseller ‘The wife between us’ :  Greer Hendricks and Sarah Peckkanen.   This book is the second from them and it became the instant New York Times bestseller (January 2019).    The book is a composition of chapters alternatively written by Jessica Farris and Dr. Shields, the two leading characters of this story. 

The story begins with Jessica’s P.O.V.   She’s a make-up artist. She’s young, elegant,  and a punctual girl.    Her life already carries so many  problems but the most dangerous one begins right after she falsely enters a study,  conducted by none other than Dr. Lydia Shields,  because it offered money.   Dr. Lydia Shields is a therapist.   She is described to be a breathtaking,  enticing beauty who wears expensive ensemble,  drinks luxury liquors and lives in a multi-million dollar town house.  She seems to dwell on morality and ethics. But it looks like something is really fishy about her principles. In the beginning, Jessica didn’t feel that the study is harmful but soon she watches everything gradually unfolding in front of her eyes and finds herself in a completely tangled situation.  The interesting fact about the way of writing in this book is that Dr. Shields P.O.V is in passive voice  that speaks about the complexity of her character but Jessica’s version is a normal one that we usually find in novels.  Dr. Shields chapters contain study on morality,  ethics,  analysis of human brain, especially Jessica’s  which were too intricate for me to comprehend.

The book has a very slow start. I didn’t, honestly, like it in the beginning. But as you go further into the chapters, you’ll find that the book keeps up with the plot and gradually creates uneasiness in the mind due to so much going on. The middle chapters are dramatic and compel you to question every instance. The problem I faced in the book was with the chapters with Dr. Shields’ P.O.V. It needs a lot of concentration while reading due to the complicated theories about the human brain.  Apart from the convoluted plot, the characters themselves are quite knotty as they hold a lot of secrets within, but they can be fascinating sometimes. Another aspect that I didn’t like much is the manner in which the book concluded itself. It was a rather obvious climax. It could’ve been satisfying but it left several questions (not major) unanswered.

Greer and Sarah is an amazing ‘writing duo’. I love their split narration and profound thriller plots. The way they stun us readers with their out-of-the-way stories is more than appreciative. So, I’ll suggest you should read all their novels if you have a thing for thrillers.  Though, this novel isn't as appealing, intriguing and page-turning as the previous one,  yet the plot is worth reading for. So, you must go for this book.

Wanna know more about the authors?

Here are their sites:

http://greerhendricks.com/

http://www.sarahpekkanen.com/

Rating : 3/5  

Happy Reading!!