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Hello, Fellow Book Worms and Book Dragons,
An Anonymous Girl is written by the author duo of Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen, and it is published by St. Martins Press. In it, we are introduced to freelance makeup artist, Jessica Farris. She lives in New York City in a whole-in-the-wall studio apartment and does her best to help her parents afford her sister's special needs care. But money is tight and she needs to catch a break. Her job at BeautyBuzz is not entirely safe since she is asked to go to strangers' homes to do their makeup. There has to be another way. Then she meets Taylor, a college student that has been asked to join a study at her university. But Taylor decides to not attend the study, which is offering to pay her five hundred dollars. Jessica, posing as Taylor, enters the study and no one seems the wiser. But the creator of the study, Dr. Lydia Shields, knows that Jessica is not Taylor. She begins to correspond with Jessica during the study via the computer while she is submitting her answers. Soon Jessica is face to face with Dr. Shields.
As she gets to know Shields, Jessica is given more money and more assignments to further her study. As the assignments grow more and more uncomfortable, Jessica is ready to walk and leave Shields to find someone new for her investigation into human behavior. But as the weeks go by and Jessica's bank account grows fatter from the good doctor's payments, she begins to realize that something far more insidious lies underneath the study she is a part of. As the pieces fall into place and Jessica is further in the mix, she is warned by someone that Lydia Shields is dangerous. And the last girl that helped her with her last project ended up dead.
An Anonymous Girl was a fun and often suspenseful thriller. The writing style of Hendricks and Pekkanen was seamless as the narrative played out its cat-and-mouse game. I enjoyed the way the book dealt with guilt and those who expertly play upon them. Lydia Shields was a complex character that had me on her side as many times as I was against her. She was a calculating individual who knew the right buttons to push and was an expert isolationist. Jessica learned a lot from her relationship with Shields' study. There were moments in the book where I thought for sure that Jessica would be found dead soon. But as the book continued I began to see a fighter emerge that definitely played out well with the finale's numerous shocking twists.
I read An Anonymous Girl in part with the duel narration of actresses Barrie Kreinik and Julia Whelan, handling the parts of Lydia and Jessica respectively. They melded very well together and Kreinik's even tone brought Lydia's manipulation to an often creepy level. Whelan has read many books that I have enjoyed in the past, and her portrayal of Jessica was excellent. If you can, use the narration to read along with. It enhances the experience quite well.
Four stars later I look forward to another novel written by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen. Their writing style is intimate in the way it gets you into the head of their characters. And if all of their finales are like this novel's I am going to be a reader of their works as long as they write. If you want a creepy and twisty psychological thriller this one is for you.
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