An Annonymous Girl is a tale about lies, jealousy, deception, and a woman who will do anything to prove her husbands infidelity. It’s a good read, but I found it a little rambling in the latter half and struggled to complete it at times.

I didn’t realise it was written by two people; a format I don’t usually enjoy. It worked better than most however. It’s written from two women’s perspectives - the wife and the girl used as bait to tempt her husband. It’s a little predictable, despite twisting the tale around, and the ending wasn’t a surprise for me. However it’s a fair and engaging read, just maybe not quite for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my ARC in exchange for my honest review.

An Anonymous Girl is a disturbing and intense experience. And that is a great thing. If you are looking for a tense psychological thriller, you've found it. If you want creepy characters written with skill, they are here. If you want the unsettling feeling of a cat and mouse game, you'll get that. If you want to watch with dread the inevitable slide to rock bottom, you will with this book.

Not only is the story good, but the style is unusual and works brilliantly here. Alternating chapters are told in a second person perspective from the Doctor's POV and this really adds to the prickling intensity. I wasn't keen on the epilogue, but I can happily pretend I didn't read that bit. Overall, a great read that has me looking over my shoulder and questioning my daily choices and interactions. Great stuff.

I am really sorry but I could not get into this book. I won't review anywhere as don't want to give you a bad review.

Deceit, jealousy, obsession, paranoia - An Anonymous Girl has this in bucket loads.

18-32 year olds wanted to take part in an ethics and morality study where complete anonymity and generous financial compensation is guaranteed. Jessica Farris signs up, she could do with some extra cash and how hard can answering a few questions be? Though the questions become more intense and invasive, it’s as if they know what she’s thinking.

I felt the book started really well but failed off slightly in the middle section. I was wanting more to happen at a faster pace. However I stuck with it and I’m glad I did as the last third of the book really picked up pace and drew me back in.

A great read four star book. Thank you to NetGalley, Pan Macmillan and the author for the chance to review.

WHAT?! Just… WHAT??!

This book is 3 parts of ever increasing suspense, evil genius and craziness and I just couldn’t read it fast enough.

This is a split perspective novel, telling the story from the perspectives of Jess and Dr Shields.
Jess is a fairly normal young woman who has participated in a psychological experiment to try to make some extra money, whereas the mysterious Dr Shields is manipulative, devious and a step ahead of everyone else.

I’m not going to give away any of the plot because it was so much fun to go in blind and be surprised at every twist and turn. You can kind of guess where things are going when it comes to the overall plot, but it’s the getting there that’s so fun to read – I genuinely laughed/gasped out loud at how outrageously nasty the characters were to each other, especially given that some of them were deeply involved in an ethics and morality experiments.
If you like suspenseful psychological thrillers full of secrets and women who can take care of business – this is a book you shouldn’t pass up.

Unfortunately I found this book very disappointing. I quite enjoyed The Wife Between Us so was feeling positive about this one. I feel like not much happened. For a book of this length, I was expecting a lot more to happen and much more drama. However it was very uneventful. I found the characters hard to connect to and didn’t have strong feelings towards any of them. There were no events that shocked me, and I found it a bit boring. The only reason I kept reading was because I was expecting something to happen. The reason for me rating this two stars instead of one is because there were some parts that I didn’t expect. Although they didn’t shock me, I was a little bit surprised. These few events that surprised me stopped this from being a one star read for me.

When Jessica signs up for an anonymous psychological study about ethics and morality she doesn’t realise the extent to which it will impact her life. What is the study’s end-game and what does the mysterious Dr Shield’s really want to get out of the results?

An Anonymous Girl is a chilling thriller which holds its card close to its chest throughout. Although you get a nice balance as the chapters alternate between Jessica and Dr Shield’s perspectives, you still only get drip fed the information that the characters want you to know and they both feel very unreliable at times. I particularly loved the chapters written from Dr Shield’s point of view - both Hendricks and Pekkanan really effectively get under the skin and into the mind of a psychologist and the result is harrowing. I loved the examples of real-life psychological studies dotted throughout the piece – from Ascher’s study of conformity, the Stanford prison experiment and the Invisible Gorilla test, all are used perfectly within context and added some real-life believability into the narrative.

Dr Shield’s is described at one point as being ‘understated, elegant (and) menacing’. I think this actually sums up the book very well indeed! There is an air of unease throughout the entire book and you aren’t quite sure who to trust and where the plot is going. The pace keeps up at break-neck speed with lots of little twists and turns that kept me off-balanced but hooked throughout.

My only criticism is that I found the use of second person narrative in Dr Shield’s earlier chapters to be a little hard to get into at first, although as I got to know the characters more it actually added to the atmosphere of the book. That was my only note on the book though as I just got into it so much that I just enjoyed the story for what it was without needing to criticise or write notes.

Overall An Anonymous Girl is a chilling psychological thriller about obsession and trust and is highly recommended! Thank you to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for a copy of the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Great story that leaves the reader as confused as the reader about who she can trust. May be slightly over long in places, but that doesn’t stop the tension. I was right in there with the main character, feeling her fear and confusion.

This book was just not for me. The plot was unique and intriguing and I enjoyed the writing style switching from Jess, the girl's point of view to Dr Shields, the therapist. This is kind of where it ends for me, the plot while unique it was at times unbelievable. I found myself getting angry with the characters and the need for the authors to keep mentioning what clothes they were wearing stated to grate on me.

I found this book got off to such a promising start. A girl in her late 20's is struggling for work and the opportunity comes up to participate in a psychological study. It seems like easy money but it isn't as straight forward as it seems. Jessica soon gets deeper and deeper as she discloses her most personal information in exchange for cash. It's a really unique concept and I thoroughly enjoyed the first 3/4 of the novel but was a little let down by the ending. As far as thrillers go, its a little different (in a good way) to what else is out there just now.

An Anonymous Girl is a second book by a female writing duo - Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen. I haven't read their first book The Wife Between Us, but I've seen plenty of good reviews, so I was curious to read a book by them. This new release introduces us to Jess, a make-up artist that hoping for easy money sneaks into a psychological study claiming to be a replacement for her friend. She peaks interests of the psychologist running the study, and we're presented with creepy and worrying notes of a said psychologist. The relationship between them tightened, and Jess is asked to perform strange tasks in the name of the mortality study.

I appreciate the first 'twist' of the story, the reveal that Dr Shields who Jessica was absolutely sure was male, turns out to be beautiful, sophisticated women. For many readers, the strong highlight on the fact that Jennifer refers to Dr Shields as male even though at the beginning we don't know who Dr Shields is will be a tip-off that the doctor is probably a woman. What I found interesting about this twist is the exploration on how main characters perspective on the whole even changes, she starts to doubt her answers and worries that this woman is judging her, she feels intimidated by her. Somehow it wasn't comforting for her to see that she shared all her intimate secrets with women, she felt scared by it. And what impacts her the most is that is not just any women, she's a successful, sophisticated, beautiful women.

Overall I'm really disappointed with the story, it hooked me at the beginning but after some time I got bored. The 'twists' weren't really groundbreaking, they were just natural progress of the story. Moments, when the truth was revealed for things I was led to believe, were different, were inconsequential. They didn't bring much to the story. The narrative is made to keep the reader in suspense, but without any bits of twists and shocks delivered I got bored, it got repetitive and didn't deliver. I could be good, the beginning is interesting and I was curious about what's going on. But really, there wasn't much going on and it ended on a very weak note. I was reading hoping to be shocked by some revelation, hoping that the authors purposely dimmed our vigilance and were planning to just drop a bombshell that will change everything. No such thing happens.

Not really sure what all this fuss was about this book. I managed to finish it but to be honest didn’t enjoy it very much.

A suspenseful thriller that captivated me from the off. Thank you NetGalley for providing me with access to a book that I had to force myself to put down.
Jess is a make-up artist, fairly happy but with secrets. When an opportunity arises to make some more money she takes it. Participating in a confidential study Jess could not predict just how life-changing this experience will be.
Initially the study is intriguing, but nothing more for Jess. However, we get an insight into the mind of the person carrying out the study and can see there’s a lot more going on.
As Jess gets further immersed in the study, she comes to realise that Dr Shields may not be being entirely honest with her. She has her own secrets and, for reasons Jess is determined to discover, she wants them kept that way.
This is definitely a book best to go into without knowing too much. I was intrigued by Jess’s responses to events and though there were parts of her character I was not sympathetic to I couldn’t help hoping she’d survive this experience.

Brilliant book from cover to cover. Jessica enters a research project but little did she know where it would lead and what was at stake. I could not turn the pages fast enough as I wanted to know more but yet I wanted the book never to end. Lovely to see a book with fresh ideas and a different plot 💜

Thanks to NetGalley, Macmillan books and the author for my ARC in exchange for this honest review.

This is a masterful tale of suspense that builds with the reader at the same time as the subject. Jessica is a hardworking makeup artist who signs up for a psychological morality test in order to earn more money.
What appears to be a simple process soon becomes complex and disturbing.

I found elements of the story confusing and longwinded but, in a way, this added to my enjoyment as Jess experiences a similar confusion. It definitely starts well and has a satisfactory ending, with a distinct dip in the middle, but, hold fast, it's worth it.

This is a very different type of book and I enjoyed the subject matter and characters.

I was intrigued by the idea of this book and in the main i enjoyed it.
I did feel though that it became a bit repetitive in parts and I felt the authors perhaps tried too hard with the ending which I just found confusing.

3,5 Stars
The problem with overhyped books or authors is that the expatiations are always very high. If not too high. “The Wife Between Us” caused a huge rave among book lovers. I probably read it too late, heard too much about it so I expected something spectacular. I was not overexcited about “The Wife” but it was a solid ok read. This time I avoided reading too much about “An Anonymous Girl”. And so I did not know what awaits me.

You have say goodbye to all of you realistic expectations about a story when you read something from the duo Hendricks/Pekkanen. That makes the stories unique and entertaining. They are unbelievable and unrealistic. But also fun. Like in “The Wife” you should not know too much about the plot. Just dive into it. It is an absolute unbelievable story but you just have to follow.

Jess is a make-up artist and struggling with her life and money. So when she overhears that a client is part of a study about morality which is paid very generous she diddles her way into it. But soon she is fascinated by the questions and the person behind it. Of course she is exactly the person the leader of the study is looking for and soon the study is getting more intense. She meets the person behind it and gets involved in their personal life.

I still think the books from the authors are overhyped. The story is unique, the writing ok. It is not a fast paced story and you can see how it all turns out from afar. They are solid and entertaining reads but in my opinion all the hype does not serve them right. Quite the contrary. Because you begin to anticipate something spectacular. But that is not what they are. They are good and I would recommend them and read again a book written by Hendricks/Pekkanen.

I started reading An Anonymous Girl thinking that I was in for the same shocking, whirlwind rollercoaster that I got from Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen’s first novel, The Wife Between Us. It didn’t take me very long to begin to doubt the magic that even the first book held.
It was February 2018, I was a different person back then. I had different hair, lived in a different country and thought that this writing duo actually had something to offer... 11 months have passed since then and that thought has gone right along with it.
One that has replaced it, is that I think it may be time for authors in the psychological thriller genre to take a step back and have a long, hard look at the books that they are writing; the direction the genre is moving in. Because, despite the capital-P-word being used in its name, it really doesn’t mean that their books need to shit on everything that the discipline is trying to achieve.
Because, unlike authors in nearly every other genre, psychological thrillers seem to feel the need to constantly rehash the same tropes that were last seen as acceptable back in the 1950s — evil psychologists, suicides for dramatic tension, beautiful girls with ‘weak’ constitutions.
If you are imagining the scene in black-and-white, on a stormy night, inside the terrifying stone walls of an asylum, you wouldn’t be that far off.
I suppose that this is what happens when a genre is obsessed with beautiful, mentally ill girls who alternate between giggles or schemes when their minds have wandered. But, people like that do not exist, not outside of bad thrillers and Shakespeare plays and long-repeated folk tales. The characters were implausible and melodramatic, dimension so completely lacking that a strong gust of wind could have blown them over.
And, the writing! This is what Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen should have been focussing on. Not the bad ’twists’, the damaging portrayal of therapists, the references (dear god, the references!), or the characters that have equally come straight from AHS: Asylum or an early-James Bond flick. But, because of the neglect (I mean, it had to have been neglect. Even the tiniest bit of focus would have made it readable, at least), the book felt like a first draft.
Compared to The Wife Between Us - at least what I think I remember of it - this book felt apart at every single one of its seams.

When I started to read the book, I didn't know what to expect. Dr Shields is so terrifying, and I was so worried about Jess through the whole book. I was constantly guessing what is Dr Shields is up to, and Thomas (Dr Shields's husband) came to the picture it gave another twist to the whole story. I literally couldn't put the book down because there were so many possible outcomes, and I wanted to know.

I loved the book and I would recommend to everyone who wants to read a good thriller.

Wow! Very quick paced thriller, you have no idea who to trust or what’s going to happen to Jes !!

I found it positively sinister at points and it kept me guessing all the way through and Dr Shields herself is really terrifying

Unquestionably a good read and one I highly recommend.