Post 2 is Harder than the First

So the first post is always hard but it’s this second post that makes me really struggle with blogging 😜

First I finished the book that I was sent to review and let me say it was GREAT! Here is my review...

One word comes to mind with this book which is enticing. As a reader you are swept into this book quickly and kept within its pages till you finish and even when you finish you want more.

SPOILER ALERT

The book opens with this narrator, Jessica Farris. She is a make-artist and is heading to her last appointment for the day. She travels to her clients instead of her clients coming to her and states that “more harm can come from familiar faces.”

Jessica enjoys what she does. Her last appointment is with 2 young college girls who are on their way out to a party. While working Jessica loses herself Hi in the art of applying the makeup but she overhears a voicemail from one of the girls phones,

“This is Ben Quick, Dr. Shields assistant. I am confirming your appointment this weekend, for tomorrow and Sunday from eight to ten a.m. The location again is Hunter Hall, Room 214. I’ll meet you in the lobby and take you up.”

Jessica is unaware that this message will change her life. A psych professor needs a subject for a study on morality and ethics. Applicants are being paid to answer questions and Jessica is in need of money. Her client tells her friend that she is not going to go to the appointment Jessica decides to take her place....

Jessica is accepted into the study and signs a confidentiality agreement. She is taken into the room where there is a single computer and is told there are no right or wrong answers she just needs to be completely honest. The questions are personal and may tigger emotional responses. “Could you lie without feeling guilty?”

Jessica surprises herself and the doctor when she does not shy away from the questions. Jessica attends both sessions where she answers questions but is asked by Dr. Shields if she would like to expand her participation in the study which would mean more would be asked from her but she would be compensated SIGNIFICANTLY MORE.

Jessica agrees and she really opens up to the doctor. She talks about the pressures she is under and the secrets she has kept for some years. “Guilt is always the heaviest thing I carry.” Sitting in Dr. Shields office she is able to reveal things she has never talked about before.

As the project continues Jessica begins to question what the doctor is doing with all the information she is learning about her. Then the assignment takes a strange and unexpected turn. Jessica begins to wonder if she is paranoid or if something dangerous is going on?

“An Anonymous Girl” is a thought provoking and wonderful read. The words pulled me in from the beginning and I couldn’t let go. The chapters are good length and alternate between Jessica and Dr. Shields point of view, however it isn’t till chapter 4 that you realize this as the reader.

This book is a phenomenal psychiatric thriller with well developed characters and storyline. It has the twists and turns to keep any reader flipping pages rapidly so you know what happens next. It’s a book you can’t put down and it’s a book that keeps you intertwined into its pages.

Second I walked into my public library for the first time since I was 14 years old (that’s 22 years!). Now let me preface by saying I have been in the library for events and to take my daughter to get books and sign up for the reading program every summer. However I have not checked out a book since I was in middle school. I don’t have a reason why other than I stopped excessively reading for a short time and going to the library was a car ride instead of a bike ride. When I was younger I lived less than a mile from the library so I would bike there every couple of days and spend hours in the library...my mom would even call the library to tell me to come home. However, today I decided to go to the library. Every year our high school posts and encourages the students to read the Lincoln Award: Illinois Teen Reader Choice. Every year I read a handful of the books but this year I am determined to read them all...20 books...by May. It’s a lofty goal but I have to try! So I went to the library to get books and afternoon I checked out my books and was walking out the door I wondered why I stopped going to library to get books? Besides the fact that I love to own books why did I stop going to a place that made me happy?