Hello Reader and welcome to a special mid-week edition of the blog!

After unfortunately succumbing to whatever mix of illness was going around last week I didn’t blog last week but I’m back with an absolute bang from the book world with a new psychological thriller thats out this week.

Now before I continue I think its important to tell you that I have been participating in the social media marketing campaign of this book together with The Tandem Collective & Harper Collins since last year and I received free copies of this book to enable me to do so. However my review is entirely my own and I am sharing genuine thoughts only, as always.

Now with that caveat out the way, lets talk about the book!

ANNA O, By Matthew Blake

Genre: Psychological Thriller

Publisher: Harper Collins (PR/AD copy was sent to me for early review)

Official UK Publication date: 01/02/2024

Synopsis:

“ANNA O HASN’T OPENED HER EYES FOR FOUR YEARS

Not since the night she was found in a deep sleep by the bodies of her best friends, suspected of a chilling double murder.

For Doctor Benedict Prince, a forensic psychologist on London’s Harley Street, waking Anna O could be career-defining. As an expert in sleep, he knows all about the darkest chambers of the mind; the secrets that lie buried in the subconscious.

As he begins Anna O’s treatment – studying his patient’s dreams, combing her memories, visiting the site where the horrors played out – he pulls on the thread of a much deeper, darker mystery.

Awakening Anna O isn’t the end of the story, it’s just the beginning.“

As we discover, the story of Anna Ogilvy is a media smash hit. It’s the crime that’s stirred up the nation and left the public wanting justice. Anna O, young, privileged, from a high status family, murders her friends and conveniently falls into a 4 year coma and she cannot be tried for her crime.

Enter Dr Prince, who is in a pivotal point in his career and has been handed the infamous ‘Anna O’ case.

He ultimately feels conflicted. The reason why he is beginning treatment on patient Anna O is because the ministry of justice want to take her to court and they can’t obviously because shes asleep. However as a doctor, his interest is in the patient’s welfare. On this occasion, helping the patient with their mysterious sleep condition could ultimately put them behind bars, but it could also absolutely make his career.

This makes for an interesting main character as Dr Prince appears to battle with the medical science, the care he has for his patient and his obligation to the justice system. However, the deeper Doctor Prince studies his patient, learns about her life, her family, her likes and her dislikes in attempt to wake her, the closer he gets to the patient, and towards the truth. He finds himself in dangerous situations on the hunt to prove the medical truth. The real truth however is layered, twisty and dark.

There are many characters in this book, including the parents of Anna O, the ex wife copper of Dr Prince, Dr Bloom and the story of Patient ‘X’ and an armchair detective blogger with the handle @suspect8.

As a reader it makes you question why are these characters important? Who can be trusted? What is their motive? Who and what are they protecting? Why is the blogger insinuating publicly that they were there when the murders took place?

Beyond that, the main question is, was Anna Awake when she committed the crime? Or was she asleep?

My rating: 4.5/5

First of all, the concept of this book fascinated me and I found it totally original, which is fantastic given that this is a debut in a saturated thriller fiction market.

After reading Sarah Pinborough’s ‘Insomnia’ early last year, the concept of sleep based thrillers has become really appealing to me as a psychological thriller reader.

Why? Well, you’ve got the perfect ingredients of:

• Unreliable narrators and characters
• Mysterious timeline gaps
• Puzzle-like moments where both you and the narrating character are trying to work out what has happened
• Real world ‘it could happen’ vibes and relatability. We all sleep!

I love that the only people that could tell us what happened in this story are either dead or in a coma. It means that all of the puzzle work has to be done before the reader’s eyes.

What I found interesting about this book is that the idea came to the author after reading about a real life syndrome called ‘resignation syndrome’, where people fall into deep comas after significant trauma.

Reading like a dark twisted Sleeping Beauty meets medical science, not only does the book educate, thrill and conjure a mysterious puzzle to solve, it also creates philosophical debate.

If you unknowingly commit a crime in your sleep, can you be found guilty if you weren’t conscious? If you sleepwalk, take your keys, drive your car and crash it, are you guilty of dangerous driving?

This is a story so detailed, clever and researched that the back story honestly had me wondering if some of the cases were genuine. They’re not but you could easily believe that they were. You can clearly see that the author is very interested in sleep psychology and acts people make whilst sleepwalking, and how that blurs with the law.

The novel has many methods of media such as emails, research papers, notebooks, combined with the multiple POV, it makes for a tantalising puzzle to solve. 🧩 

What didn’t quite work for me:

I did unfortunately know far too early in terms of ‘who’ and another twist in the book I’d already solved, but I would put that down to my frequent reading of thrillers so I know generally the patterns of who to look out for.

There are a few circumstances in the book that don’t make a lot of sense. Without giving away spoilers, it’s clear from different time line points in the book that the Dr is trying to keep a low profile, but he keeps going on tinder dates and telling everyone who he is. That doesn’t make any sense. I would personally edit those tinder dates out, it doesn’t add much to the story and only confuses the narrative.

There are many Harry Potter references sprinkled in which I thoroughly enjoyed. I grew up as a 90s kid reading HP so appreciate the reading throwback but it did make the characters sound a little samey. It could have just been kept to one character to prevent spoiling that.

To conclude:

A dark, twisted Sleeping beauty for grown ups.

A fascinating debut that will have your head in a spin. The chapters are short and snappy and keep you reading, a true page turner.

If you love thrillers, like to be kept on your toes, like games and puzzles and like debates about ethics philosophy and morality- this one is for you.

It would make a great debate book for a book club. I highly recommend.

After reading my review, what appeals to you the most about this book? Answer in the comment box below!

Until the next chapter,

Emma X0