Book Review: An Anonymous Girl by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen

Book Review: An Anonymous Girl by Greer Hendricks and

Sarah Pekkanen

I read this book as an ARC from NetGalley.com.

Jess Farris, a disillusioned make-up artist living in New York, sneaks into a psychological study about integrity, morality and ethics. Her responses captivate Dr. Shields, who invites Jess to participate in a more in-depth study in which Jess will be asked to do things that will reveal to Dr. Shields more information about how Jess views morality and ethics, but stresses that Jess will always be in control of the situations. And Dr. Shields will compensate Jess for her troubles. Compensate her very, very well. 

And so begins the rollercoaster ride Jess and Dr. Shields take the reader on. Hendricks and Pekkanen create a situation in which the reader, like Jess, wants to know what Dr. Shields is up to, where the study on morality and ethics will lead. Dr. Shields, who always seems controlled, slowly begins to reveal a crack in her facade, a fissure in her composure that threatens to destroy Jess if she continues in the study. But, Jess becomes captive to not only the money Dr. Shields provides, but to the consequences of coming clean about her own demons. And, she wants to understand Dr. Shields, who drew her in with gifts and comfort as she has never known. 

The rollercoaster ride is exhilarating as Hendricks and Pekkanen create corkscrews, sheer drops, and lurches with each encounter between Jess and Dr. Shields. Ultimately, the reader is blindsided as the cart comes to a complete stop. What a rush!

Things I Loved:

1. Jess's believability: She's an ambitious young woman who finds her dreams crushed by a selfish toxic man abusing his position of power. She has a heart of gold, but also an edge. She's complex and fluid. She's real.

2. Hendricks and Pekkanen's choice of voice for Dr. Shields is brilliant. In writing Dr. Shields in passive voice, they add a layer of complexity to her character, emphasizing her dissociation from her actions and her own ethics and morality. Dr. Shields's passive voice also reveals some fragility of her character, that she's not secure in her own thoughts to fully, actively inhabit them and chooses to ride above or below the murkiness she is creating with her morality and ethics study. Dr. Shields's voice rings through loud and clear.

3. Noah's respectability: I love that he doesn't cave to Jess's turbulence. He stands his ground with his expectations and deal breakers. It's nice to see a male character follow more than his hormones.
4. The surprise twist at the end: I love a thriller that really gets in one last thrill when I think all the loose ends are tied up. Brava, Hendricks and Pekkanen!

Things I Liked (a little) Less:

1. I didn't like Jess's promiscuity. While some see it as sexual agency, I felt like her attitude about one-night-stands as distasteful as Noah appears to find them.
2. I wish there was a confrontation between Jess and Gene French, her victimizer. I would have liked to see Jess be part of his fall from grace, if for no other reason than I believe every victim should have the opportunity to witness her victimizer's downfall. Hearing about it just didn't seem enough.

If you like a good thriller, check out An Anonymous Girl. You won't be disappointed!

Book Review: Night of Miracles by Elizabeth Berg

 Book Review: Night of Miracles by Elizabeth Berg

I received an ARC of Elizabeth Berg's novel Night of Miracles through NetGalley.com.

In the little town of Mason, Missouri, readers meet Lucille (an elderly baker who teaches her culinary arts); Tiny (a heavyset taxicab driver); Iris (a middle-aged divorced transplant to Mason); Abby, Jason, and their son Lincoln; and Monica (a lonely diner waitress), and upon entering the community of these characters discover beauty in the mundane.

Lucille, a retired teacher in her 80s, fights off the angel of death as long as she can, is the glue that binds these characters together, even though some of them don't meet her until her death. She hires Iris, who is hiding from facing her marriage that failed due to her shattered dreams of having children while her husband did not want the same, to help manage Lucille's baking classes and the two become fast friends.

Meanwhile, Tiny and Monica maneuver through misunderstandings as neither can put into words their attraction to and admiration for one another, and Monica mistakes Iris's proximity to Tiny as Tiny's romantic interest in Iris.

Further, Lucille babysits Lincoln while Abby and Jason struggle with Abby's diagnosis and treatment of leukemia, but Lucille and Lincoln develop a beautiful friendship as Lincoln matures beyond his years, understanding more of the situation than either of his parents want to acknowledge.

Berg crafts characters who are beautiful, testaments to unforeseen friendships forged in a small town, developed in some of the most difficult times in life, and resulting in the deeply lasting relationships most people search for. These characters reveal miracles in the everyday, little graces we bestow on one another that make life seem miraculous.

The choices each character makes weave a fabric that is strong enough to protect all the members of this makeshift family. I recommend this beautiful story as a quick, enriching, life-affirming story.

Source:

Berg, Elizabeth. Night of Miracles. Random House, 2018.