Matthew Blake's Anna O's premise sounded so dark, fascinating and intriguing that I could not help but want to read it. The writer Anna O (Ogilvy) or Sleeping Beauty as she is referred to by some, understandably garners global attention for she has apparently committed the most extraordinary of crimes, double murders whilst sleepwalking, and hasn't woken since then. In a story told from multiple perspectives, forensic psychologist Dr Benedict Prince wants in on her rare resignation syndrome case as a specialist of these type of homicides. He seeks the truth of what happened, wanting to be the one that wakes her up, to be her 'prince', but as she comes under his care, we see this is a process that is fraught with complications.

In this multilayered, tense and complex narrative with its echoes of The Silent Patient, there are twists galore in the crammed plot, but for me there is too much repetition, pacing issues, it required a suspension of disbelief on occasion, and often ventured into what to me seemed ridiculous territory. I did enjoy and was gripped by aspects of the book which allowed me to finish this novel of mystery, tragedy, psychology, and sleep, including looking at whether it is possible to be guilty if one is asleep at the time of the crime. I have absolutely no doubt this will be a bestseller and there will be many readers who will love this more than I did, so I strongly urge you to read other reviews. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

A great concept, but at points a little convoluted and difficult to follow. For me this was not a ‘read in one go’ book, mainly because I found my self having to skip back and re-read some parts. Nicely twisty towards the end but again, instead of being driven to finish the book in excitement, needed to stop and start to review bits that I had either missed or didn’t link together. Overall, I did really enjoy the story but maybe a sharper edit to speed up some narrative and cut some unnecessary info out would have pushed me to a 5 star rating.

This is far from the easiest book to review - in some ways it is, perhaps, best seen as several books. In part this reflects the author’s choice to reveal the developing plot through different ‘voices’. This is by no means an original device but the different voices and different time frames that arise from one ‘voice’ being a diary of a key protagonist do conspire to make this a somewhat unusual approach. There is plenty of tension, and enough red herrings to stock a reasonable sized market stall, but the author leaves the most shocking and probably unexpected plot twist to the closing pages. A rather more ruthless critic might bridle at the length of the novel; it could certainly have benefited from a crisper edit without losing any of the context of the plot. Overall, though, it kept this reader’s interest piqued, despite the length and deserves to be recommended.

On a separate, and possibly idiosyncratic, point this reader finds it rather distasteful to see the names of recent appalling murders of children being used to add ‘colour’ to a novel.

This is a high concept thriller which I enjoyed. I imagine it will be a big hit.
Anna O committed a double murder, then fell asleep and never woke up again. We join the story when she’s admitted to a private clinic, a place where rich and famous people go to get sleep. She’s under the care of Ben Prince, a therapist whose specific interest is in cases of people who are in these states of long-term sleep. He’s going to wake her up, so the Home Office can finally take her to trial.
Ben is needs to find out more about Anna, in order to wake her up. He’s lucky, because his ex-wife is a police officer who was first on the murder scene. He’s also got a mentor who knows a lot of useful stuff. Prince starts to find links to another case, years previously. So what will happen when Anna wakes up?
This is twisty, and complicated with a lot of unreliable narrators. I have read a lot of thrillers and got the twist quite early, although there was some good sidetracking which made me temporarily doubt myself. I didn’t really like any of the characters, which actually felt helpful in being suspicious of everyone. This is not a high octane thriller, more a gradual reveal of useful info, with some excellent writing. I read this with Net Galley.

When I requested Anna O, I was very intrigued by the blurb that Matthew Blake had left on NetGalley. I have an interest in psychology and weird things that the mind/body can do.

My general overview of the book is that it’s a slow to medium paced psychological thriller. A who done it, and from an angle I’ve never read before. The ARC that I read on my kindle wasn’t set out great, but feel that this was more of a formatting issue as Matthews name kept appearing in the middle of the page. After a few chapters, I ignored it completely.

The storyline, I found was slow burning. Giving a background to the main characters. Ben Prince, a sleep specialist who built a thesis of waking people up from long term sleeping/coma patients by giving them hope through over stimulation. And of course Anna O, a patient, possible criminal who murdered 2 people on an outting.

Anna O background was written in the form of diary entries which bulked her character out and another mysterious characters of @suspect8, a blogger who seems like rattling up the online community of what happened with Anna O. Was she really asleep while she committed these murders?

The world building is mainly centred around the hospital , Bens home and The Farm, where the nurses took place. I felt like I had a good sense of the area., how far things were and time.

The narrative picks up from the second half of the book abs I did find that I wanted to read more and more to find out what had actually happened. The pieces of the puzzle drop nicely into place at the very end. Even if you did figure out the plot twist. It’s still a very good one..

All in all, I really enjoyed this book. 3.5 Thank you NetGalley for the ARC

I was very much looking forward to reading this. I was thrilled to get the request for an ARC accepted by NetGalley and rushed to finished my previous book because I just couldn’t wait to get started.
A murder committed whilst someone was asleep- did they do it??? Right up my alley.
However, It felt like a looooong old book.
It took me over 3 weeks to read it.
I was a bit confused about half way in. Is this too clever for me? Am I missing something? And even now, having finished it, I’m still a little confused.
The twist at the end; yes, nice. That’s helped the star rating.
But there’s too much that’s been left unexplained for me - or I’ve just “not got it”. I only had chance to read it in bits and drabs at first but got to read it in bigger chunks after around the 70% mark which helped.
I’d say, read it for yourself and make your own mind up. I wasn’t crazy about it unfortunately.
Many thanks to NetGalley UK and the publishers HarperCollins for the ARC.

This was a fantastic read what a gripping story. Had me from page one. I feel like a lot of research went into this novel and it shows! Well done to this author

In 2019 two people were murdered in a cabin. Anna was the person everyone believed to be responsible because she was found unconscious and covered in their blood.
Four years later she has never woken up.
A sleep expert Ben Prince is looking into the incident and trying to find a way to bring her back to find out what actually happened.
A slow moving thriller with some twists.
Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK for my e-copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is such a gripping read. The characters are well written, especially Benedict Prince, the main character. The plot reveals itself chapter by short chapter, with thrilling glimpses into other times to introduce us to the events that lead up to where we find ourselves in the plot. The premise of sleep disorders was really interesting, especially how people have committed crimes while sleepwalking. As an occasional sleep walker, it was both interesting and worrying!
I would recommend this book anyone who likes a psychological thriller, you won't be disappointed.

Anna O was an interesting read, though did not fully scratch my mystery thriller itch.
Not a bad book, and the writing was fine, but my expectations of it were a lot higher

Ok, how do you review a book you neither liked nor disliked. It felt to me like the author had read Alex Michaelides The Silent Patient, seen it become a hit and decided to expand on the theme.
Anna Ogilvie is a 25year old with ambitions of becoming a writer/journalist. All this changes when one night she murders her two best friends while she is asleep. A sleep she doesn’t wake up from. She becomes known as Sleeping Beauty. Four years late Dr Ben Prince who specialises in Anna’s sleep disorder, and sleep related murders, is asked to see if he can wake her up. But if he is able to wake her she will then be charged with murder, unless he can prove otherwise. His methods seem to work and she awakes. Only she knows what really happened, but Ben has to find out the truth.
With lots of points of view and several twists that were not, for me, plausible, I found the book rather disappointing. This is where I wish 1/2 stars could be awarded.
3.5 stars from me

#AnnaO. #NetGalley

Hmmmm.

It wasn’t that I was dissatisfied with the novel but it has left me thinking that it could have done more. Or maybe less…

Things I liked:
- It’s an interesting and unique premise.
- The multi-narrative structure.
- The fact that clues weren’t given all in one go.

Things I didn’t particularly like:
- The second half of the book seemed long and drawn out.
- Some (apparently clever) characters (particularly Dr Prince) made questionable decisions / did frankly stupid things.
- Repetitious language and imagery.
- Some of the twists were excellent and some were quite obvious.

I guess it felt like a book with bags of potential which just needed a more brutal edit. But I really appreciate the idea.

Enjoyed this book
Thought it was brilliantly written
A bit of a slow burner, but worth it

Thank you netgalley, Matthew Blake and Harper Collins UK

Wow! What a masterpiece of intrigue & mystery. This is definitely a fantastic standalone novel.

I absolutely was in awe of the suspense Matthew Blake created, giving tidbits at a time to keep us gripped and on the edge of our seats flipping the pages wanting more.

Honestly I had a list of suspects but I was so so wrong and definitely didn't see it coming near the end.

The multiple POV'S give us so much information yet and the diary entry idea was such a good idea. We got to know so much more about Anna.

I definitely will recommend this book to my bookish friends. Thank you to Netgalley and Harper Collins for the ARC in exchange for an independent review.

I received this book from NetGalley and the publisher in return for an honest review. This review is based entirely on my own thoughts and feelings.

Overall rating : 4*
Writing skill : 5*
Plot: 5*
Pace: 3*
Characters: 4*
Twists: 4*

This was a really thought out and well written thriller. The characters were complex, and the twists had you guessing throughout. I’m hindsight I should have guessed the ending but as usual I have blinkers on when reading a thriller with a big build up twist. Lovers of the silent patient will love this.

Great subject, thought provoking and really makes you wonder, did I dream that or ? I found it a bit repetitive with the description of the experiments. However not enough to stop me reading and following the twists and turns , murder and mayhem and enjoying the finale.

Good jacket.

This book honestly had me SHOOK! Kept me hooked from the start, I genuinely really enjoyed reading this one a lot and will be recommending

Whilst the premise of this book is actually a good idea, the execution is confused and overly convoluted.
To concentrate on a comatose character and an exacting medical protagonist I would have expected the narrative and prose to be a bit more stark and sparse, a lot more 'show don't tell', but this was all over the place. Garrulous, monologuing, excessive questioning and some unnecessary red herrings.
Everyone’s motive was completely off, actions far too extreme for the situation at hand and made a quite simple story rather messy.
It could have been rather enjoyable if we were invited to explore the actions and motives of a murder suspect as they slept but there were just too many unwanted characters and confusing plot holes to keep me awake. Oh and I got who the murderer was quite early on thanks to some clunky hints.

When I was introduced to Matthew Blake's crime novel, "Anna O", I was immediately intrigued by the premise - a unique blend of somnambulistic crime and psychological analysis set against the backdrop of contemporary London. I so wanted to be 'wowed' by this book and its concept, alas, the potential this story held was, regretfully, not actualised to its fullest extent.

The plot centres around Dr. Benedict Prince, who has a fascination with sleepwalkers' consciousness during criminal activities, and Anna O, a violent sleepwalker suffering from resignation syndrome. The construct develops momentum initially, and it captured my interest as both paths intersect in an unsettling circumstance. Yet unfortunately, it loses its grip mid-narration, becoming a victim of underdeveloped characters and a languorous plot progression. As a reader fond of nordic noir and psychological thrillers, my anticipation turned into disappointment, despite my efforts to persist in the hope of an unexpected twist or a sudden suspenseful turn.

Blake's narrative shifts between various characters' perspectives, though it predominantly comes from the viewpoint of Ben (Dr. Prince) gradually admitting others into the spotlight. Despite its potential for creating depth and tension, it felt contrived, only exacerbating the sluggish progression of the plot.

The reuse of various cultural and literary references adds another layer to the narrative, often tied to Anna O's character and her condition. Yet, the distribution of these throughout the story, most notably Harry Potter references, felt incongruous to the character voicing them (it seemed like Ben, Anna, Donnelly were all HP fans). There were other pop culture nods to Star Trek, Hitchcock, quotes from Shakespeare's Macbeth, and repeated invocations from Aristophanes and Milton felt more a display of the author's wide-ranging readings, over-egging it rather than serving the narrative's voice and cohesion. I dare say that Blake's narrative could have benefited from a more rigorous editing.

Sadly, despite my high expectations and initial fascination with "Anna O", I was left underwhelmed by the disjointed narrative and lack of character depth. The book, however, did spark my interest in learning more about resignation syndrome and spurred me to revisit Medea. For that, it does deserve some credit. In the end, "Anna O" is a novel that teases with promise but unfortunately falls short in its delivery.

I am grateful to Netgalley and Harper Collins UK for the advance review copy.

An intelligently written novel with a striking mystery at its heart.
A compelling novel that I couldn't put down, I whipped through it in a couple of days.
Plenty of Freud references to make readers feel smart!