Publisher: Mira
Published: September 3, 2019
Genre: Mystery
Source: E-ARC
Rating: 3 stars
Blurb:
A compulsive suspense debut for fans of Megan Miranda, Wendy Walker and Kimberly Belle, about two teens--one sheltered by her strict and reclusive mamma, one living in the shadow of the missing sister who was snatched from a theme park as a toddler--and their search for the truth about their families and each other.
If your whole life is a lie, who can you trust?
Raised in a quiet rural community, Anna has always been taught that her Mamma's rules are the only path to follow. But, on her eighteenth birthday, she defies her Mamma for the first time in her life, and goes to Astroland. She’s never been allowed to visit Florida’s biggest theme park, so why, when she arrives, does everything about it seem so familiar? And is there a connection to the mysterious letter she receives that same day—a letter addressing her by a different name?
Rosie has grown up in the shadow of the missing sister she barely remembers, her family fractured by years of searching without leads. Now, on the fifteenth anniversary of her sister’s disappearance, the media circus resumes as the funds dedicated to the search dry up, and Rosie vows to uncover the truth herself. But can she find the answer before it tears her family apart?
Winner of the Daily Mail First Novel Competition, A Girl Named Anna is a psychologically riveting read that introduces Lizzy Barber as an outstanding new voice in suspense fiction.
Review:
| I’m not gonna lie—this took me quite awhile to get completely engrossed in. And even after I finished, I still felt a teensy bit underwhelmed. I still liked the book though and thought it was well written and kind of scary once we find out what happened. I’d also like on record and say that I’ve been listening to a bunch of true crime podcasts—mysterious missing persons cases to be exact. Then I’d find myself on reddit reading crazy theories on what could have happened and what others thought of what happened to these missing people. How is this relevant to this book? Well, this is a story about a young girl who goes missing and the family who faces the aftermath of the abduction. There’s one part of the story where the sister, Rosie, goes onto a site just like reddit to read theories. Kind of makes you wonder if some theories deem true. While I thought the concept was interesting. It was the whole getting there that was slow going for me to truly enjoy it. But the characters were well written and at times engaging. Anna’s life is one full of secrets and structure. Her mamma is strict, almost exactly like the mom from Carrie. You know, the whole paranoia and crazy religious aspect of it. Rosie is the younger sister that has never been able to live up to her older sister after her disappearance. That would be something very tough to deal with as a teenager. Overall, I think if the blurb interested you at all, give it a shot. May just be a case of it’s not you, it’s me. I still liked it okay. *Thank you to the publisher for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. All thoughts and opinions are my own. About the Author: Hello! I am a London-based author, living in Islington with my husband, George. I read English at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge University, and My Name Is Anna is my first novel. Having previously dabbled in acting and film development, I have spent the last eight years working in the restaurant business with my brother, Jamie, heading up our brand and marketing department. We have a small group of restaurants, mainly in London, including Hush in Mayfair, the all-day burger brand, Hache, and the Latin American barbecue group, Cabana. Working with the restaurants has been creative and dynamic…and has involved a certain about of writing (including a lot of press releases!), but writing has always been a creative itch I have scratched on the side. I have always written in fits and starts, but about five years ago I started writing my first serious novel – a very long and drawn out literary fiction piece based on my grandmother’s life in Mandate Palestine, pre-Suez Cairo and post-war London. I started taking regular classes with Maggie Hamand at the Complete Creative Writing Course, which made me completely rethink my approach to writing, and was invaluable in shaping the way I wrote. However, in April 2017 I found myself at a complete dead end with my first novel, and, almost as a form of release, starting dabbling with a thriller that had been niggling away at me. I mentioned I was writing it to my mother, and, about a week later, she told me that she had spied a first novel competition that I *had* to enter. I hammered away at my laptop, completing just enough of the book to be able to enter, and literally handed my entry in on the closing day of the competition (I couriered my entry, so worried was I it wouldn’t make the deadline!). And then I forgot all about it… About two months later, preparing for my morning operations meeting, I received a phone call out of the blue, which completely changed my life. The phone call was from Luigi Bonomi of LBA Books telling me I had WON the Daily Mail and Random House First Novel Prize 2017 Thus began an extraordinary chain of events that I am still waiting to wake up from on a daily basis. The little thriller I had dabbled away at is now My Name Is Anna, and was published by Century, an imprint of Penguin Random House, in January 2019. It will be published in North America by MIRA, an imprint of Harper Collins, on 3rd September 2019. I have had the privilege of working with a marvelous team of people on My Name Is Anna / A Girl Named Anna, and am now hard (hard!) work on my second book. Stay tuned… |
