Greer Hendricks

Sarah Pekkanen

Barrie Kreinik

Julia Whelan

A Novel

An Anonymous Girl

Ciel Zero

actual rating : 3.5 ⭐️
read this earlier this year in january thus i can't really write a detailed review. however, i did enjoy how this book itself made me question my ethics on which character i would side with based on what i knew about them.

Good psychological thriller. Hard to follow at times but I did like it! Just not a 10/10 for me 

Zoey Novak

Kristin Boren

Definitely my least favorite of the Greer and Sarah universe of books so far, but not the worst thriller I've read by any means. Just felt like the pay off was just OK in the end. Did really like Jessica as a character though. The dog is 100% safe the entire book in case you needed to know before reading.

Macy Johnson

This novel is exceptional. I loved it, and did not expect it to be so gripping, but I was utterly captivated by the story of obsession and all its psychological drama. 
I would recommend it to anyone who loves a good psychological thriller. :)

Maria Morales 

Cheri Fuller

Completely enjoyable thriller with plenty of twists and turns!

I enjoyed The Wife Between Us but I think this one was even better. I saw some twists coming but others took me completely by surprise. I love it when that happens!

I think my only complaint is that the use of first person POV and present tense was very distracting at times. It took me a while to get to the point where the narration flowed over me instead of making me stumble. But I'm very glad that I stuck with it. 

Very fun read!

Big thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC!!

Sarah Pino

3.5 but leaning towards 3. 

Underwhelming. I saw the plot uncover in the middle and wasn't amazed

Jacqueline Englund

This was an average thriller for me. I liked the concept, but it really took me about 150 pages to actually get into it. Luckily the second half made up for it....but overall just not fast paced enough for my taste.

Alexa M

i had a pretty good time reading this but it wasn't all that. pretty meh. better than the last book i read by this duo which isnt saying much lol

Allie Herrington

Librarian: The Wife Between Us was a big hit last year, and I can see that repeating with their new book. Personally I found this one to be the better book, and I'm sure that it will be a popular one, especially for book clubs. That's actually what I'd suggest using this one for in a library setting. I feel like including it in a book club pack would be a really good choice, as there's a lot here to unpack.
Reader: I'm not normally a huge fan of psychological thrillers and suspense. The operative word in that sentence is normally. This book is an exception. I found myself really pulled into the story, and wanting to read more. The two leads felt more like they were functioning as deuteragonists, then as protagonist and antagonist, inspire of their opposing roles in the narrative, which I found fascinating. One other thing that I noticed, was the fact that the whole time I was reading it I had the song Bad Romance stuck in my head. The book made me think of that song, and I could easily see it being used on the soundtrack of a movie version.

Reading Challenge:
PopSugar 2019 - A Book by Two Female Authors

jana <3

4.5 rounded up.

oh.

this was fun. the ending was sort of underwhelming, but i feel like it made the book better, in a way? Like, this could be just my interpretation of this, but not only does the last line represent Jessica's feelings, but it also feels like a mockery of what Dr. Shields did after all of this build up of her being this logical, strong character.

There were also a lot of loose ends and little details throughout the book that never really got mentioned again / held any relevance, and while that was incredibly stressing me out, I felt like it added to the suspense and really just sucked me into this book.

anyway i enjoyed this. didn't expect the plot twists (but then again i am sort of slow so maybe don't take my word for it 💀) & overall had a fun time.

Christina Rae Lu

** spoiler alert **
           A 2.5

All I can say is.... 
She should’ve just hired a private investigator. That would’ve spared all the time and money.

Skye Sherman

** spoiler alert **
           One of the best thrillers I’ve read in a while. Just something different, which I appreciate. Suspenseful and twisty and curious and draws you in. I do feel the resolution could’ve been a little more interesting... crazy psycho psychiatrist obsessively “tests” her husband and is dumb enough not to see through him even though she’s genius-level cunning with everyone else! — but overall, a great read.

Cindy

This started out so innocently for Jessica Farris , who is a makeup artist for BeautyBuzz,  she was doing make up for two girls when she overhears one of them saying that she is going to blow off a study by Dr. Shields that pas five hundred dollars. Jessica needs that money and innocently inserts herself into this study with the  mysterious Dr. Shields, the study just so happens to be on morality and ethics. What follows is a twisted game that becomes more bizarre by every encounter Jess has with Dr. Shields. Jess is being paid a lot of money to continue further into this study with the Dr. but what is this study on morality and ethics really about anyway? Soon Jessica cannot trust anyone and becomes suspicious of everyone she meets.

As I got further into this book thing became more fast paced and exciting, the mystery really opened up. I just did not know who the villains really were. Dr Shield s becomes so involved in Jessica and her life that Jess starts to wonder if lines are being crossed and should she cross some herself to figure out what is really going on with this sudy.

What a fast paced twisted book that I enjoyed immensely!This review was originally posted on Cindy’s Book Stacks

Molly Morgan

This book was meh for me. The twists were all meh, the main character was meh, the thrills were meh... just overall not the most exciting read.

This was a fascinating story for most of the book. The ending was a little disappointing.

Fellowes Cynthia

I wanted to love it - I really did. It is advertised all over the place including TV. I love psychological suspense. But once this book switched to the double points of view, it lost me. It became too exhausting and taxing to my senses.

AN ANONYMOUS GIRL by Greer Hendricks is about a makeup artist living in New York City, who volunteers to participate in a psychological study at a local college, even though legally she is not the person who was invited to be part of the study.

It was very intriguing at first and I was really into it, thinking that it was going to be a favorite read, but when it switched gears and started showing me another person's point of view (I am being deliberately vague so as not to spoil plot twists), it became plodding and overwrought and I was on a fast pace to finish it, so that I didn't have to think so hard.

And I like to think. But not overthink. There is a fine line.

This book gave me too much detail and I didn't feel like following it all.

Cara 

Lots of twists and turns. Ending was almost anticlimactic. Not great but enjoyed it.

Jessica Guht

This book was so beautifully constructed and wonderfully twisted. You truly don't know what is fact and what is fabricated until the very end.

Kylie Robinson

Caitlin Snyder

Alexis Aumagamanaia

….7 weeks. 
I’m a two days-one week type of reader. 
Seven. Weeks. 

I’m so bored by this books. I held out hoping for something interesting and earth shaking but…it’s just slow and the ending is essentially anti-climactic. Super disappointed.

Annalee Harris

What would you do if you had the opportunity to earn hundreds of dollars--and all you had to do was answer a couple of questions? Jess Farris is a young and broken make-up artist that's struggling to make ends meet. Between paying rent, bus fares, and secretly contributing to her mentally ill sister's medical bills, Jess is spread thin. When the chance to participate in an anonymous study about ethics presents itself, Jess jumps at the chance. What follows next is a hair-raising, nail-biting experience that will shock Jess to her core--and make her question everything about her life.

An Anonymous Girl is an intriguing premise with great characters, but suffers from a muddled middle section, unnecessary pages, and a boring and unrealistic ending. This novel is entirely too long--the "final reveal" happens about 100 pages before the ending, which means that sections of the novel are boring, ill-paced, un-suspenseful "suspense". It got boring quickly, which is a shame; the plot is really unique and innovative in an over-saturated industry.

(view spoiler)[The split perspective can be done poorly, but at first, it was done really well; Jess' perspectives and thoughts inter-spliced with Dr. Shields' showed how completely different their realities were, and how little we knew about what was really happening. Unfortunately, Hendricks and Pekkanen copped-out by using the most overplayed literary device: writing letters to reveal the truth. It was completely unnecessary, especially in a novel that expects the characters to talk about themselves. Writing a letter is the easy way out--you suddenly let the letter do the work for you, instead of piecing the clues together. (hide spoiler)]

Overall, An Anonymous Girl had a promising premise but fell short due to the author's inability to conceive an ending just as thoughtful, rich, and interesting as the beginning.

An Anonymous Girl A Novel

Reviews