Genre: Dystopian, Post- Apocalyptic, Science Fiction
Age range: Adult, 18+

Overall: 1/5
Characters: 5/5
Writing and Setting: 4.5/5

*Content warning: rape, mental abuse, physical abuse, injury, gun violence, murder, weaponry, slavery, hostage situation, depictions of mental health conditions (anxiety, PTSD) issues with war, drugs, alcohol.*

The gist of my review:

This book is important in some ways, because confronting literature only highlights injustices in this world, however, I couldn’t finish this book because I found it too unsettling and likened it to experiences I have witnessed in my career, and that is why I have scored it so low. There were elements that I think were done very well and I do believe that this book can come across as excellent to some readers (I.e all the 5 star reviews) but I am just not one of them.


The first segment in this book was the hardest part to read (it wasn’t long after the ending of part 1 when I stopped reading), but we are introduced to a post- apocalyptic world that is decimated by world war, civil war, and gangs. Anna (I understand that her real name is actually Kate) is a woman that was making her way through the world on her own and doing what’s necessary for survival. Will is introduced as her kidnapper/ captive.

Over the course of Anna’s capture, Will exclaims that everything he does to her, including rape, chain/ cuff her to himself/ walls, assault, emotionally manipulate, starve, threaten, is all done to ‘protect her’, that she ‘needs protecting because she is delicate’. In a way I can understand that this could be a trauma response mixed in with the values of the society within the book, but the effect that this has on Anna creates a very tough and tense environment to read. There are glimpses of Anna when we see her so helpless and exhausted that she doesn’t stop or is unable to stop Will from hurting or assaulting her. There is also glimpses of Anna where she questions herself on whether she should be stopping Will (Stockholm syndrome potentially).


Characters: 5/5

I think the characters in this book are incredibly well written. Anna’s trauma and the change in her thinking is incredibly accurate depiction of real life reactions to assault, abuse and to captive situations.

I don’t believe I knew Will well enough in the book to be able to provide a full judgement of him, but he plays a fantastic villain, but he also has these very soft and tender moments that make me as a reader question him and rethink on my previous assumptions of him, just like what Anna was experiencing in the book.



Writing and Setting: 4.5/5

I think the way in which this book was written was done so really well. The descriptives used set the scene phenomenally and with a post- apocalyptic world, that element is absolutely vital to the success of a book of this genre. The settings were written wonderfully and I could clearly see the decimated towns and burnt out cars left in the street. The writing stayed true to the genre and was always consistent with the constraints of a world such as this (ie: no electricity- playing board games while its still light, trading (medication, alcohol, women, possessions, weaponry) instead of using money, etc.)


My thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

I have a lot of mixed feelings about this book. The book was written in 3 “parts,” and they were so drastically different from one another that I feel like I should review them each individually.

Part One:
I want to preface this by saying this part is brutal. I usually have no trouble reading about tough subjects, but this was a lot. So, trigger warnings: A LOT of mental, physical, and sexual abuse; rape; death. I basically never DNF books because I can’t bear to not know what happens, but I have to admit, after the first couple chapters of this, I almost did. The absolutely graphic and gut-wrenching content would maybe not be so bad if the world/character building was a little bit better. How exactly did we get to this dystopian, post-apocalyptic world? There were a couple hints here and there, but I would’ve liked more explanation. And more importantly, some type of back story for the monster who is Will/Daniel (main character, Anna’s captor, which the author also never explained why he was known by two different names). He is a complete monster, and although there could be no redemption for that, maybe a backstory would have eased the pain a bit?

Part Two:
I actually thought I was reading a different book as soon as I started part two. It could not have be more different from part one and it gave me whiplash. This part was probably my favorite of the story, but I just had such a hard time adjusting to the drastic change. I felt for Anna (now known as Kate in this new seaside town she found after escaping her captor) and the hopelessness/mixed feelings she felt when she found herself pregnant. The characters here were fun, and the story became pretty interesting when her captor found her.

Part Three:
Once again, the story shifted drastically. Most of this part takes place in the woods. Literally pages and pages of, “I stepped over a branch… mud everywhere… the forest thinned.. I must stay hidden.” This was pretty boring to me. The ending was alright, and without spoiling anything, there was a moment when I thought what ended up happening might not actually happen, and I was about to lose my mind haha. However, the last couple pages just left me with more questions. It was kind of open-ended, and for this story it just didn’t feel like it worked that well.

I struggled with whether or not I wanted to give this a 2.5 or 3 overall, and I settled on 3 because it was a quick read that had a good overall plot, but just wasn’t executed as well as I think it could have been.

I read this book after hearing that a colleague (who's opinion I respect) was unable to finish it. I finished it, but I will not recommend it. The first half of this book is made up of senseless acts of sexual violence and senseless acts of actual bodily harm. Society has not entirely collapsed- cars can still be driven, food can still be cooked- yet women are constantly at risk of being claimed and branded by roving gangs of men. Some of these women are trafficked or forced into sex work (which doesn't make sense- if you can make any women your slave, why does a sex trade exist?) by criminal gangs. Outside the cities, "nice" families live under the protection of former police or army officials. There isn't any room for dissent, but you can throw birthday parties and send your kids to school and to the library- it's almost as if the cities don't exist a few miles away!
I struggled to get to grips with the geography, the timeline, the technology, and most of all the society/relationship aspects of this book. I felt like the author wanted to write a book about relationship abuse and decided to use a dystopian setting because...it's scarier? The setting should have allowed the heroine more creative ways to fight or mete out justice- there are more guns in this book than in the average British crime novel, but nobody really uses them. There are several comic book moments where the heroine refuses to shoot a bad guy "because then I'd be like you". I found myself thinking "just bloody shoot him"-you're in a dystopia, you won't have to prove abuse to the police or a judge and jury. This novel isn't a realistic portrayal of a woman trying to leave an abusive relationship, and it's not a wish-fulfilling revenge story either. What is the point?

This was creepy, violent, disturbing, thrilling, and just utterly captivating. Definitely something to read when you're in a good environment though, as this material is pretty emotionally draining.

An incredibly powerful novel about the survival of the self. Set in a brutal, dystopian future, we follow Anna as she lives and survives alone in the Unlands after a global war. Anna has learned to hunt and provide for herself for several years alone in the woods, until one day she is captured by Will, who takes her to a town controlled by a group who brand and keep people in slavery. Will professes to want to protect and love Anna and keep her safe from everyone else, but he physically, emotionally and sexually abuses her to break her down and make her completely dependent upon him. Just as Anna discovers she is pregnant, a chance to escape presents itself and she flees to a new, seemingly idyllic new town by the sea. Here she is welcomed, begins to finds friends and awaits the birth of her child until Will enters her life again.
This novel is captivating and impossible to put down while at the same time being absolutely harrowing, disturbing, violent and truthful to the effects of abuse on survivors. This story does not hold back in its descriptions of Anna's abuse, her physical and emotional reactions to abuse and yet has moments of tenderness and friendship that allows Anna to plan a path forward for herself. While the first two parts of the story are very different in tone, I think that really highlights how Anna's life is compartmentalized and how she comes to deal with the PTSD that she suffers and that lead her to making the choices she does at the end. I found myself on the edge of my seat through the last chapters and desperate for Anna to be able to escape Will and what he had done to her. I could not put this book down even though it is difficult at numerous places to live in Anna's skin, I found it a very powerful story of survival.
Content Warnings; Frank descriptions of physical, emotional and sexual abuse

Anna is a dystopian story that I really wanted to love. For some reason it felt unfinished to me. The characters were hard for me to become attached to and although I wanted to root for Anna, I had a hard time..

Anna (not her real name) is caught by a man in the Unlands and he is horribly cruel to her, but then treats her like he really loves her at other times. She escapes from him when she realizes she is pregnant. She finds a home in a village and hopes she can leave her past in the past. However, that’s doesn’t seem to be in the cards for her and her reaction is not what I expected.

I feel like this books opens itself up to a sequel and honestly, I would read it. I need more information about the characters and I would like to know what becomes of them.

I almost didn’t make it through Part 1- it really is as difficult to get through as the reviews say, especially as a woman. However, I’m glad I stuck with it, because I really enjoyed the rest of the book.

This book had me gripped, with its dystopian dark intensity. Featuring some heavy issues, it was a very impactful novel.

I implore all to read it.

Fascinating and compelling - one woman’s journey, and her strength, in a world of danger and extremes

Woah this book was DARK. Anna is a dystopian novel featuring a strong main character and a well-imagined world that feels like an all too real mash-up of The Handmaid’s Tale and The Road with an epicenter of a woman finding herself.

The book starts off strong jumping straight into action but unfortunately the first third was relentless in its brutality making it almost impossible to read. Reading about rape, abuse, and brutal murder for so many pages was unreasonably hard to stomach. I got nervous that I wouldn’t be able to finish the book and skipped ahead a bit before realizing I had missed too much and went back able to get through it.

I really enjoyed the remaining two thirds of the story and the characters there and felt as though the experiences from part one may have been better handled as flashbacks. I liked the world building and the history that made the storyline believable.

I was not a fan of the ending. I get why the cliffhangers were there as a means of supporting the main character’s sense of self, but really? Some of the things we never find out after all those pages?!

Anyway, if you’re a big fan of dystopian novels, horror/escape fiction, or dark thrillers, this will probably be right up your alley!

One of the best dystopian books I have read in a while! from the bleak surroundings and massed graves to the descriptions of the characters fear so real you can almost smell it coming off the pages you cannot help but root for Anna to find her inner strength and escape from Will. The utter dismay I felt when he caught back up with her was just overwhelming and the world she finds herself thrown into is heartbreaking.

A chilling and horrific story. I found it hard to read but also felt compelled to see how her story ended. Ultimately this is a story of survival.

Anna isn’t an easy read, but from the synopsis and even the tag line on the cover: Beaten. Branded. Defiant, that is rather obvious and because of that, you can’t say you enjoyed it, in the sense that the emotional, physical and sexual abuse of both men and women in the book will outrage you and while it isn’t a long book, emotionally you will have to pave yourself.. But it is a very good book, well written, compelling, tense and with a brilliant protagonist and worth sticking with.

Anna essentially is broken into 3 acts: when she is caught, when she has escaped, and when he finds her again and what happens. In the first act, you mean ‘Anna’, a wanderer after the world has broken down, where society, economy and order has crashed and survival and basic want/needs prevails. Anna lost her husband 2 years earlier when he was conscripted and died in war, she is estranged from her family she feels betrayed by and living and hiding in the wilderness, not knowing she is his prey until he captures her. This first act is brutal, Anna is humiliated, beaten, raped by a man who goes by many names but I’ll settle with Will here. This book will be hugely triggering for many and I hope when the book is published this is explicitly clear. Will isn’t just physically abusive, he is is emotionally manipulative, he deprives Anna of food/water to punish her while also saying he is there to protect her, he sexually assaults her but is tender when it comes to her period, he turns his abuse around and blames her for making him do it. It’s a story that many women (and men) will identify with sadly and Anna isn’t the only victim to this abuse in this story.. Anna remains defiant, clinging to herself while he tries to snatch it from her, vowing to escape and when she finds out she is pregnant, she seizes the opportunity to escape his grasp.
In the 2nd act, Anna becomes ‘Kate’, found and accepted into a community and carrying Will’s baby. Kate is trying to rebuild her life with the trauma of her past, not just Will but of her family and marriage. The pacing slows down here, there will be a lot of community meetings, council talks, until finally, act 3, Will resurfaces and the life Kate has tried to build starts to tumble around her and she has to protect herself and her baby.

It initially frustrates me how much was left unsaid by the end of the book. We don’t know Anna’s real name or what she wanted to name her baby or what happens to the community she found solace in. But the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. ‘Anna’ has everything taken from her but ultimately her name was only hers, Will never got to claim that and to the end, this part of Anna remains untouched, as does the identity of her son. When so much is taken from ‘Anna’, she has this final control. And then it made sense.

Will is a brutal character and you will hate him and yet I appreciated the humanity teased into his character. There is so much we don’t know about him but we are shown that he isn’t a 2D villain but a man who was once good and loved and lost it all, leaving a man who now simply takes. It was just enough without trying to add excuses or sympathy into his character but it still had a powerful effect.
Anna, or whoever she really is, is a wonderful creation and you constantly root for her, this woman determined to survive, strong yet hurting, a true hero.

This is a brutal, tense read and I’m glad I read it. Thank you NetGalley for the review copy.

I read 50% and couldnt stomach most of the book. I rarely DNF and can typically deal with this subject matter but this made me feel gross.

ANNA by Sammy H.K. Smith

A futuristic, dystopian novel of the failure of society as we know it today. Women and others are routinely captured and kept as slaves, branded, and abused for the sadistic pleasure of their owners.

Anna has managed to survive in the broken world by following strict guidelines, never trusting anyone, and staying to herself. Her world changes when she is captured by Will. He is a psychopath who wants to control her every movement. Very hard to adjust, when you are used to being on your own.

Trigger warnings: Rape and abuse.

This is not a romantic novel. This is a novel about survival.

Highly recommend.

Many thanks to #netgalley for the complimentary copy of #anna I was under no obligation to post a review.

The premise of this book is fantastic, and appealed to me immediately. Dystopia, mixed in with a kidnap and Anna's escape from her captor all sounded like it would make for a really intense, exciting story.

One thing I appreciated about this story was that there seemed to be some decent diversity amongst characters. It could also be better, but this was a good start.

I also really enjoyed the exploration of the issues around rebuilding a society. The debate about how best to punish crime fairly was really interesting, and to me seemed like a realistic portrayal of what would really happen in this situation.

On to the things I didn't like as much. My main gripe is probably the lack of explanation of what exactly led to this dystopian world - there are a few mentions of global war, political unrest and so on, but not enough for my liking. At one point, our narrator alludes to '"the first wave". I had no idea what this was referring to and it wasn't explained further, which was frustrating.

I found the dialogue to be quite stilted, possibly due to the lack of punctuation. The characters generally were a bit two dimensional, and I can't say I really liked or cared about them all that much.

A couple of things that irked me - Anna was embarrassed about her period. Was this really necessary? Secondly, Anna says she understood why her husband slapped her. Nope. We don't need excuses for domestic violence.

Anna also seems to get very freaked out by murder/death. After two years surviving in the Unlands, surely she would be a little more immune to it? Surely she has seen plenty of murder and other awful things? There is an emphasis on her being a 'survivor', and yet she thinks in Part 1 that she should have died rather than the men trying to get her because it's 'her fault'. I think a character who had experience all that Anna had would be a little more brutal than that.

In general, there was a lack of build up for me. Anna was captured very quickly at the start, so I didn't feel all that invested in her escape, as I didn't get to see her surviving alone. Part 1 in general felt quite rushed. I don't think there was enough tension - I think a slow burn would have been great in Part 1, with Anna slowly luring her captor in to a false sense of security.

Again, in Part 2, we had no explanation of how Anna/Kate comes to the new town. Personally, I would have enjoyed seeing Anna/Kate trying to survive and navigate the Unlands a little bit more, as that sounded like it would have made a great story.

Part 3 felt slow. I found myself skipping large bits, although it was interesting to see the bond between Deven and Anna/Kate develop due to their shared trauma. More of this would have been great.

And finally, the ending. Of course, it was great to see Anna/Kate finally exact her revenge, but by this point I had basically lost interest. It was so very drawn out, with Anna/Kate leading him through the woods for an age for no apparent reason. Plus, the unnecessary cliffhanger didn't make sense to me, and left me feeling very frustrated again.

I really enjoyed the premise of this novel, and there were some good elements, but in general I feel a little let down as it could have been so good.

Anna is a poetic and gritty journey into a dystopian nightmare.

In the first section of the book Anna is captured and becomes the hostage/slave/victim of a man who claims to love her and want to take care of her. Honestly, although the writing was beautiful, I really struggled with this section. As a really sensitive person, I just felt exhausted by the complete wearing down (TW rape, torture, emotional and physical abuse) of Anna, with very few moments of respite and lightness.

The dark started to lift though in the second section, when Anna escapes with her unborn child and becomes a part of a new community. This part felt much more human to me and I loved some of the female and inter-generational friendships, as well as seeing Anna start to work through her PTSD. I really enjoyed the book from this point on and was kept hooked by the promise of seeing Anna flex to fight her demons and protect herself and her child.

I agree with other reviewers that it would be fantastic to see a sequel as I definitely felt there was more to Anna's story!

Thank you Netgalley, Rebellion and the author for a digital ARC of this book!!

This was too painful a read for me, and I actually did not finish it. I think it had flashes of a compelling narrative voice, and if it had been a shorter novel I would probably have thought it fantastic, but I just did not have the stamina to continue. I also think there's something valuable in choosing this grim, grinding format for a grim and grinding story, but it certainly will not connect with every reader. Those who do connect with it, however, will probably love it.

My thanks to Rebellion and NetGalley for the ARC.

This was initially a difficult read... The content dark, heavy, traumatic and deeply upsetting. I was at the point of maybe not continuing the book when part one ended and part two began, with a change of pace and environment. I found then I wanted to read on, to see if there could be some resolution, happiness, peace?
The book is extremely well written, and the difficult subjects aren't shied away from. I would have liked to know more about the fall of the world as we know it, and how the world came to be in this bleak, dystopian future, but the vagueness around that doesn't detract from the impact of Anna's story.

Let me just start by saying that this book is about women being owned by men. It is not an easy read. It is graphic and disturbing and depressing. I had a hard time connecting the two very different lives Anna/Kate was experiencing in such a short period of time. I would have loved some background on Will/Daniel.