The instant #1 New York Times bestseller (January 2019) everyone is talking about! People Magazine’s Book of the Week • Bookish’s “Must-Read Books of Winter” • PopSugar’s “Best Books of Winter” • Cosmopolitan’s “2019 Books to Bring to Your Book Club” • Bookbub’s “Biggest Books of Winter” • Refinery 29’s “Best Books of January 2019” • Crime Reads’ “January’s Best Psychological Thrillers” • … • Crime Reads’ “January’s Best Psychological Thrillers” • InStyle’s “7 Books That You Should Resolve to Read This January” • HelloGiggles’ “The 50 Most Anticipated Books of 2019” • USA Today’s “5 New Books Not to Miss” • Marie Claire’s “The Best Women’s Fiction of 2019 (So Far)” • Hypable’s “Winter Releases You Can’t Afford to Miss”
“Hendricks and Pekkanen are at the top of their game…You won’t see the final twist coming.” —People Magazine
“Beware strange psychologists…the authors know exactly how to play on their characters’ love of danger to bring them to the brink of disaster – and dare them to jump off.” —New York Times Book Review
“Slickly twisty [with] gasp-worthy final twists...major league suspense.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“For those who relished the creepy stalking in Hendricks and Pekkanen’s The Wife Between Us, this unnerving tale will have them rethinking what secrets are safe to share and if moral and ethics really matter when protecting the ones you love.” —Library Journal (starred review)
“Masterfully escalates the suspense.” —Booklist (starred review)
Looking to earn some easy cash, Jessica Farris agrees to be a test subject in a psychological study about ethics and morality. But as the study moves from the exam room to the real world, the line between what is real and what is one of Dr. Shields’s experiments blurs.
Dr. Shields seems to know what Jess is thinking… and what she’s hiding.
Jessica’s behavior will not only be monitored, but manipulated.
Caught in a web of attraction, deceit and jealousy, Jess quickly learns that some obsessions can be deadly.
From the authors of the blockbuster bestseller The Wife Between Us, Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen, An Anonymous Girl will keep you riveted through the last shocking twist.
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Careful: You’ll turn the pages so quickly that you might get a paper cut.
It’s very fun for me to see all these incredible women authors writing such intense, evocative suspense. I was up too late finishing this one.
This is a solid entry in the domestic suspense genre. Excellent structure, excellent use of the second person POV, which is a very difficult thing to do well. And the ending will have you talking!
Wow! This book is full of twists and turns that kept me turning the pages and trying to figure out who was the true “bad guy.” Great, thrilling read.
Maybe it’s because I minored in psychology, but I found this book about a psych professor gone rogue fascinating! Just when I thought I had it all figured out, there was a twist. It shows how a person can be tormented by secrets and manipulated by a skilled listener. I don’t want to give anything away, so if you like suspense, I suggest you give it a read.
WOW! Just WOW! An Anonymous Girl was written by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen and is a consuming psychological thriller! I won’t post spoilers, and I know hundreds of reviews have been written, but this was a wonderful read on a cold and dreary winter weekend. It was so easy to feel a connection for Jessica and want things to turn out well for her in this story. Jess has a secret she has carried inside of her for years. Her younger sister was injured in childhood by a fall and needs ongoing therapy and treatment. Jess has been secretly helping to pay for the costs of these treatments and now needs additional money. She overhears of a survey which pays participants $500.00 for a session to answer questions about honesty, ethics, and morality. She sneaks into the program and receives a chance to continue an ongoing study by Dr. Lydia Shields. In order to earn extra money for your family, how far would you go for a research project when you begin to fear the outcome could be dangerous? Jess must consider this questions as she is pulled deeper into a complex moral dilemma.
An extremely interesting book!
Un-put-down-able! This book was so good that I literally could not put it down. The stakes were high for these authors after The Wife Between Us, and they did not fail to outdo themselves. You realize early on that not all is as it seems. There is a twist near the beginning that sets the tone for the entire book. Original and clever, An Anonymous Girl will capture you right away and take you on a thrill ride all the way to an end you won’t see coming.
I thoroughly enjoyed The Wife Between Us, the previous title by the tag-team of Hendricks and Pekkanen, and was eagerly awaiting their next foray into storytelling. They have a perfect blend of voices together; by shifting points of view between two main characters by chapter, the two women are able to capture the fascinating divergence of perspective that makes life – and thrillers – so engaging… It doesn’t hurt that they come up with clever and damaged characters who offer a wealth of opportunities to explore morality, life, and social interactions in such a fascinating and nuanced way.
In this iteration, we’re again dabbling in the psychological, taking on two women from wildly different backgrounds with wildly disparate lives – or are we? The tension and secrets and questions that hang in the air from page to page are a huge part of what make these women’s books so successful I think. They have a marvelous knack for dangling the perfect blend of facts, fictions, and red herrings in front of their readers, and for keeping things taut and tense throughout the story. Even when you’ve been told what to expect, you don’t *really* expect it. It makes for a very engaging read…
I will admit that I didn’t find this book to be quite as surprising as the previous one. That’s not at all to say that I didn’t enjoy it – I did, quite a bit – but it felt a little less “ta-da!” when things were revealed in this one and I saw a lot more coming this time around. The characters were once again a nice meld of likeable and eminently dislikeable traits. I love that Hedricks and Pekkanen not only present but explore the uglier sides of human nature with such glee – their characters are always just this side of over-the-top in their highs and lows… It keeps them just relatable enough that you feel like you might even know them (or someone like them) even when they’re at their worst and most fictionalized. By dancing on that line so deftly, the story can venture into places that might otherwise feel overdone or too unrealistic without ever shifting the tenor of the book out of the possible. It’s no small feat that, and one of the things I most enjoy about the women’s writing.
Here’s hoping there are more books to come!
My review copy was provided via NetGalley. The book releases in the U.S. on January 8, 2019.
Until the very last page, I never saw the twists coming. I lost a night of sleep because I didn’t want to put this book down. Every chapter, ever scene, ever twist – I thought I knew what was going to happen, but I was wrong every single time.
From the pacing to the tension to the suspense, these two amazing authors nailed it!
loved this book. Lots of twists and turns. Kept my attention to the very end.
The premise for this book hooked me immediately. Who wouldn’t be drawn in by a quick and easy way to earn extra dollars, participating in a psychological study? It doesn’t take long, though, for Jessica to realize that the questions, and especially her answers, are designed for more than a professor’s dissertation. The characters and plot twists in this book kept me turning pages.
Engrossing page-turner and spot-on charicterizations. Great follow up to “The Wife Between Us!”
I loved Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen’s first collaboration, THE WIFE BETWEEN US, but I loved AN ANONYMOUS GIRL even more. If you can listen to this as an audiobook, do it. The narrators are fantastic, and it’s hard to stop listening even for five minutes. What a chilling, gripping story about mind games and obsession. As the story unfolds, it’s impossible to decide which character to trust. And the final twist? Nope. Did not see that one coming.
Already my top thriller of 2019!
We meet Jessica Farris a makeup artist who manages to sneak into what is labeled an anonymous morality study run by a mysterious Dr. Shields. What starts off seemingly innocent enough with great pay for a girl who struggles with many financial responsibilities soon turns quite disturbing and downright scary for Jessica.
The writing was superb and gripping, very easy to follow and frankly get sucked into. I loved every moment of this fast moving plot, truly unable to make myself put it down each night at bedtime.
I had many favorite lines however this one really stood out: “A secret is only safe if one person holds it, I think. But when two share a confidence, and both have self preservation as their main motive, one of them is going to give.”
It will definitely take quite a bit to knock this out of my top spot for the year, fabulous read!
*Many thanks to St Martins Press for providing an ARC copy to read and review. However, all opinions expressed are my own and are in no way influenced.*
Westbury infested Sox it was good story well-written I was very disappointed in D character at the very end so that does not I really enjoyed it
Slow start but got creapy quick.
Another gripping thriller from an incredible author duo. I couldn’t put it down!
“An Anonymous Girl” by Greer Hendricks, Sarah Pekkanen is a psychological thriller that follows Jessica Farris, a make-up artist Readers immediately get to know Jessica. She is dedicated and harried. She wants to be organized, and is driven by rules and more rules. Most of all, she is in desperate need of money. She stumbles upon an opportunity to make quick money by participating in a research project.
“Seeking women aged 18 to 32 to participate in a study on ethics and morality conducted by a preeminent NYC psychiatrist. Generous compensation. Anonymity guaranteed. Call for more details.”
Thus, Jessica’s unusual and frightening journey begins. In a casual, conversation-style first-person narrative, she talks to friends; she talks to herself; and she talks to readers. She shares her past, her present, her regrets, her dreams, her guilt, and her fears. She finds that an impulsive decision can change the course of one’s life. Many things that were ordinary in the past are somehow no longer run of the mill activities and people; now that she in in the survey group, now that she is “Subject 52.”
The study begins as a computer-driven question and answer session about ethics and morality as described. Of course, Jessica has already lied to get into this study, so her situation is compromised at the start. Money is money, but how far will she go to get that money? Lies pile up one on top of the other, and the study of “ethics and morality” mutates into something very different and very sinister.
The construction of the narrative itself contributes to the menacing tone of impending doom. The account switches from Jessica’s first person present tense narrative to another narrative, this one a second person present tense as if the narrator is speaking directly to Jessica.
“You are the only person here. This venue has been selected because there is little to distract you, facilitating your ability to concentrate on the task ahead.”
The tone throughout is tense and foreboding. Without giving away information, this book filled with deception, treachery, and subterfuge. The plot is complex and develops over time, one puzzle piece at time. And, like a puzzle, the pieces eventually fall into place but not without missteps, variations, and unexpected turns.
I received a copy of “An Anonymous Girl” from Greer Hendricks, Sarah Pekkanen, St Martin’s Press, and NetGalley. It is the quintessential psychological thriller, and one that readers will find hard to put down.
I did not want to put this book down! What a ride I went on with this book!!! Jessica sneaks into a psychological study in order to earn extra money to supplement her income as a make-up artist. Things get really weird with a lot of strange things subsequently taking place. This is the second book that I have read by these two authors and I can’t for their next book. I highly recommend this fantastic book. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of this super good book in exchange for an honest review.
Signing up for a morals study for the money turns a young girls life upside down as she is pulled into an intricately woven web of deceit. She thinks that she has finally found someone who understands her and she needs that human connection that she has been missing for so long. When the study becomes more intense and things are asked if her that she isn’t sure about doubt begins to take hold. How far would you go and what would you do to make money to help out your family? Where does your moral compass fall and how far would you stretch it or would you break it completely? This was an intriguing read that will take you down a path of self reflection creating an interplay between you and its characters. You can’t help but answer the questions asked throughout the read wondering about how your own morals stack up. It definitely makes you question things you’ve done in your own life as the main character reveals her own secrets and doubts.
I honestly did not believe The Wife Between Us could be beat. Not that this one is better, it’s a tie.
I loved this book from cover to cover. I recommend that you read it if you enjoyed The Wife Between Us by the same authors. They do a brilliant job of writing that keeps you turning pages late into the night.
I have to thank NetGalley and St Martin’s Press for an ARC of this in exchange for my unbiased review. It’s such a good book. Great characters and surprise ending. A thriller that will keep you guessing and on the edge.
A big 5 star read.