Sadly I could not get into this book. I must say I don’t believe it was the story itself at fault, more than my mood wasn’t right for this book. I did also struggle with the format of the kindle version. I honestly didn’t make it that far into the story so I don’t want to rate it low for what I believe was my own reading mood which didn’t suit the book the times I did attempt to read it.

A gripping, slow burn thriller perfect for fans of Alex Michaelides and AJ Finn about the complexities of the unconscious and what we will do for revenge. A bestseller in the making.

'Anna O' was well-written, though not to my tastes. The foreshadowing was very well done -- just enough for the reader to work out what was going on, but not making it too obvious. I find it difficult to review this book because, while I did not enjoy it, there is nothing wrong with it. It's original and the pacing is great.

I'd read about this book on social media and was delighted to receive an ARC from the publisher through NetGalley.

Anna O is a patient who has been asleep for three years. She was found asleep beside her dead friends, knife in hand. The government wants her to wake up so she can stand trial. Ben Prince., a forensic psychologist specialising in sleep disorders has been given the task of waking her.

Told mainly from the POV of Anna (through her diaries) and Ben as well others this is a meaty book. There is a lot of psychology in it with references to Freud throughout as well as detailed explanations of resignation syndrome, a psychological (or more likely social) phenomenon where people who have lost hope withdraw from the world. It's not new. It's been written about at least from the time of WW2 where it was used to describe certain prisoners in concentration camps by Bruno Bettelheim amongst others. Bettelheim used it to explain autism in children leading to the now discredited "refrigerator mother' theory. I am a psychologist by profession so found this interesting. However overall I didn't gel with the book. The characters didn't resonate with me and I found I couldn't connect with them. There were parts that interested me but at times there seemed to be a lot of information dumping especially towards the end.

I suspect this will be a marmite book. I didn't hate it but it dragged in places for me and I didn't love it. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

This is not a genre i would normally read, but i was intrigued by the blurb.

This is s story about Anna, a young woman who commits murder whilst she was sleepwalking. She has been asleep since.

Psychiatrist Ben believes he can wake Anna up to face trial and aeranges with the home office to have her transferred to his place of work, a clinic in London.

However Annas case not only challenges Bens perception of Psychiatry, but of himself.

A very twisty ending i did not see coming.

Thank you for letting me read this advanced copy, I was intrigued by the front cover as soon as I saw it. The book started off great and I thought it was going to hook me and be a real page turner, however, after a quarter of the way in I found it hard to keep reading. I was again intrigued by the outcome but it just seemed to be going a long way around to get there. It did have lots of twists and turns and kept you thinking but maybe too many for my liking.

This starts with a bang and an intriguing premise - it appears Anna O has killed two people before succumbing to resignation syndrome, falling asleep for four years. Dr Ben Prince, a sleep psychologist with a complicated personal history of his own, has been put in charge of trying to wake her. So far, so good. But after that, I'm not sure this book knows what it wants to be or where it wants to go. There are multiple points of view, none of them delving deep enough for any satisfactory character development and most of the narrative consists of inner thoughts, which tell us what characters are feeling but rarely show us their behaviour through dialogue and action. This book definitely has potential but feels like it's not quite there yet.

Four years ago two young people were stabbed to death at a rural hospitality farm, their presumed killer, found holding the bloody knife fell into a fugue state and has not woken up since. After being kept at Broadmoor she is transferred to a Harley street clinic where a young psychologist thinks he can wake her up. As his methods get closer to success, one of his senior colleagues is murdered, and as he is the one who found her, he is in the frame. As events become more and mor threatening to him the mystery of who did the original murders and why and who is now pulling the strings becomes more obscure. Some old case files from Broadmoor of the murdered senior might help him to work it out. Its a fascinating plot, utterly gripping and you won't guess whodunit.

I was very intrigued by the premise of Anna O and the positive reaction from the ARC on Bookstagram.
This is a very well paced and researched novel based around automatism or the sleepwalking defence for criminal acts.
I definitely agree with other reviewers I'm that the last third of the book could be fleshed out and I found some of Ben's chapters a bit of drag while the breadcrumb offerings of Anna's POV definitely kept my interest.From my own point of view it was very obvious who PatientX was and I was interested how Matthew Blake would pull it together.
Overall would not be for me but I think those will be a huge hit when it is released

I'm genuinely not sure about this book, i've been generous and given a 3 star rating - i like the premise, i think it's well written but it didn't quite have enough oomph for me. Having said that i can see other readers loving it for the style and story line but personally i would have liked a bit more suspense and action. the last content of the last 20% should have taken up more of the book and the first 80% could have been faster paced.

I would recommend this book but to a very particular audience, readers of a more high brow persuasion to my usual bookers.

With thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins for sending this book for review. All opinions are my own.

This started off well with lots of interesting information about psychological theories but I failed to connect with any of the characters. Ben was incredibly annoying so I didn't get a lot when it was his PoV but Anna was much more interesting as her story gradually unfolded through her diary entries. It's a hard book to review because it was very gripping and I raced towards the ending but despite this I didn't really enjoy it although I'm fairly certain it's going to be a huge hit and I'm the odd one out.

Thank you HarperCollins and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this before publishing.

I am torn with this book, parts of it I loved and parts of it I am just not sure about.

The first two-thirds of the book were great, and then for me it just went downhill. I'm not sure what happened but it just didn't fit right with the rest of the story.

Although set around a really interesting subject, of which I had no previous knowledge, it was too drawn out, too slow and I just couldn't wait to finish it.

I did guess who PatientX was and am glad I was right - to be it was obvious but to others it may not be.

Due to it being too drawn out and too long I would give 3.5 stars but can't that is why it gets 3 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Anna O is a victim of Resignation Syndrome, a condition that causes long term sleep for months, sometimes years. Before she can be put on trial for the murder of her two friends, she must wake and give her version of events.

The concept of this is interesting and the information given about the medical conditions in this book seemed to have been well researched in my opinion which makes Matthew Blake a great author. There are many authors who drop the ball when it comes to research but I believe that Blake did everything he needed to make the fiction somewhat believable.

Although I believe that Blake is probably a great author, I'm not sure if the book itself qualifies as great. It's a good read and if you're a fan of The Silent Patient, there's every chance you'll love this book. As someone who did not enjoy The Silent Patient, I found some similarities but thankfully I didn't end up hating this book the way I did that one.

With the heaviness of the book, I found I couldn't read large amounts of it at any one time and needed to split this up into smaller chunks than I would ordinarily read. As a quick reader and someone who can read for a sustained period of time, it put me off that I found it too heavy to do those things.

Overall, I think this was a good read and would maybe recommend this to a certain few who I know would enjoy it.

I enjoyed the first two thirds of this book the most - the pace was great and it pulled my curiosity along with it. I felt the novel lost its tautness a little towards the end and I found myself skim reading a lot of it. Still, I didn’t guess the ending! Lots of twists to keep the reader entertained.

Two bodies were found murdered at The Farm four years ago and the main suspect Anna Ogilvy has been unable to help police as she hasn't opened her eyes since that fateful night.

Dr Benedict 'Ben' Prince is a specialist in sleep related crimes, can he help Anna to open hers eyes and give her side of the story?

The book is told from different points of view including entries from Anna's journal, where she gives account of her history of sleepwalking and her interest in sleep disorders.

This is no ordinary psychological thriller, at times there is a lot of detail relating to the psychology of sleep related disorders but I couldn't put this down, I kept wanting to know more. Who is behind the Suspect8 blog? What caused Anna to be asleep for so many years and how was Patient X related it all.

I really wanted to love this, as I thought the premise and marketing were fantastic. It started off really well, and I was absorbed in Ben’s narrative, but I just found it hard work from about 20% in. Ben’s internal monologue felt manipulated to serve the plot and the twists felt like they were written to order. I still think the idea is brilliant and I am absolutely sure it will do really well.

A really interesting premise for a book - I was quickly pulled into the story.
The middle section was a bit slow and I found myself losing interest a bit but it soon picked back up and the twists kept coming right to the end.
Recommended.

✨Anna O by Mathew Blake ✨

“No one else ever really knew what happened that night, the terrible choices that had to be made.”

Here’s a thing, I’ve got major FOMO and when I saw all the ARCs for this book being sent out, I had to go and requesting from #netgalley who graciously granted me the ARC along with #harpercollins , so thank you very much!

Anna O is due to be published in February 2024 and is already getting lots of publicity around being the next big thriller/mystery. I can definitely see why. This is a story full of twists and reveals, unreliable characters and cinematic settings. I can see it so easily being turned into a bingeable Netflix mini series.

If you were a fan of stories like the Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides and other similar thrillers revolving around psychiatry and hospitals then you will love this. Sadly this wasn’t 100% for me because I prefer things a little less twisty and with some questions left unsolved however that’s personal taste and I wouldn’t hesitate in recommending this to pretty much anyone who dabbles in thrillers.

I can definitely see why Anna O is being hyped so much already and I think it’ll have no trouble filling the best seller shelves at the bookstores! Can’t wait for more people to read it and share their opinions.

#AnnaO

I really enjoyed this book and was completely captivated by its story

This book is 400 pages but it did feel a lot longer not sure why but it just took me a long time to finish it.

The story is dark and very twisty with multiple viewpoints and lots of back and forth

Plenty of twists and turns that kept you on your toes however i did guess who it was but I’m sure the twisty ending will surprise many.

Lots of psychological details which intrigued me especially the condition of Anna

I will look forward to more books by this author

Thank you Netgalley for a copy for an honest review

Anna O by Matthew Blake.

Thank you Netgalley and Harper Collins for the arc for an unbiased review.

The synopsis for this book is fairly minimal, and in many ways, having read the book I can see why. It might put some readers off, not having much to go on, other than an absorbing thriller (which I felt it was), and a small amount of blurb, yet it is a book that has so many twists and turns, I imagine trying to even explain what this book is about in a limited synopsis scenario wouldn't be easy.

But just what was it about this book that I found so gripping?

The premise as a whole was just something that brought a different angle on the mystery of how and why Anna did what she did, and why she was still asleep.
The problem is how do I expand the review without giving much away, because it was so cleverly crafted in my opinion. What I will say, is we have multiple points of view, including diary entries from Anna's past.
The plot did have a lot going on, but I didn't ever feel as it it was convoluted. This won't be to everyone's taste, but if twisty, dark thriller mysteries are something you enjoy, you should definitely read this book.

After the end, it took me a while just to absorb everything and look back to see what clues I saw, and what I might've missed. Or the ones I saw but realised my hypothesis was wrong.

A book I will love to own, and highly recommend. I'd also be giving this book out to friends and family.

Easily 5/5 stars 🌟 🌟🌟🌟🌟