I received a copy of this via http://www.lovereading.co.uk/ in return for an honest review.
When five year old Anna is snatched from the school gates,
the whole country watches the story unfold.
Mother, Julia is first in the spotlight.
A successful lawyer, the public dissect her life and begin their harsh
judgments online. Newspapers hop on the
bandwagon and use the family's story to increase sales. Father, Brian escapes most of the bitterness
and instead retreats within himself.
Through all this, Anna seems to be forgotten. The story of her mother’s failings as a
parent seem to be what people thrive on.
When Anna is found, her disappearance becomes an afterthought but
Julia's nightmare continues.
Alex Lake has written a story that has echoes of Madeline
McCann's disappearance. A missing child
is bad enough, but add in some 'parental neglect' and you have some serious
newspaper columns and bitter social media campaigns. Throughout the novel the reader hears the
mother’s side of the story and while one can only imagine what it is like to
suffer the fear and desperation of such a situation, Julia is not a likable
mother. She is selfish, completely
self-centred and does not seem to have an empathetic bone in her body. Her treatment of her husband is downright
nasty and some of her snide and hurtful comments throughout the book had me
wince with distaste. She is cruel and
spiteful to anyone she considers below her and she seems to be lacking a vital
part of anyones make up. Niceness. The plot is not too surprising as the blurb
on the cover explains that Anna is found, and the police involvement in the
case is very weak. This is an ok
thriller that could have been a completely different book, had it been edited
differently. More suspense and tension could
have been added by not revealing Anna’s return on the cover. The imbalance between Julia and Brian was too
extreme. He was an annoying weakling
with no spine, she was the hard-faced bitch.
Maybe a bit more realism could have lent some credibility to the
characters. Poor Anna barely gets a
look-in and the ‘investigation’ into her disappearance could have been played
out. The book gains some momentum about
forty pages from the end, but I found this too little, too late. The narrative surrounding social media
activity during, and after, Anna’s disappearance was cleverly written. Twitter is a wild and wonderful source of ‘brave’
yet anonymous opinion and can be full of time-wasting trolls with no conscience. You can almost picture the heart-pounding,
gut-wrenching moments where Julia would scroll through the cruel hashtags and
see what people were saying about her.
Did The McCanns do the same? Do they still?
Although this has
already reached bestseller lists, and no doubt will remain there for a while
longer, I was underwhelmed. Alex Lake is
a pseudonym and while there are many suggesting it may be a female writer, I am
unsure. There is a little lacking on the
‘mothering’ front, which may suggest a male writer. But, obviously, there’s a 50% chance I’m
wrong. This is an easy read, ideal for
dipping into on a train journey and not losing any sleep over. Maybe the next one will have more suspense
from the start. A name to watch out for…
After Anna is published by Harper and is available in paperback and ebook format. You can order your copy, here. The ebook can be ordered via amazon link below:
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