Your Worst Nightmare

My Name Is Anna by Lizzy Barber is a fabulous compulsive psychological read that drew me in from the start. The book is written in the first person from the point of view of two sisters. Each chapter alternates the voice as we intimately get to know the girls.

The novel deals with the pain of loss. A loss that occurred when you were too young to remember but has defined your every waking moment for fifteen years. Your whole family is frozen in time, unable to move forwards as their focus is one day fifteen years earlier.

The other side of the coin is stifling obsessive love. It feels like something is missing. Your memory has filed a traumatic event away, just out of reach.

Obsessive compulsive behaviour rules a character. Brain washed as a teen, struggling to come to terms with a devastating loss, a character battles to face reality, with denial being the order of the day.

There are some incredibly hard to read scenes concerning abuse and infanticide. No matter which way you look at it, it is both shocking and horrific. No graphic details are given but the reader’s mind fills in the gaps.

The tale concerns a search – both literally and mentally. A search to discover one’s true self,

I thought My Name Is Anna was brilliantly written. The plotline was every parent’s worst nightmare, sympathetically and realistically executed. The reader becomes intimately acquainted with both sisters whom I liked immensely.

A totally gripping and disturbing psychological read.

I received this book for free. A favourable review was not required and all views expressed are my own.

JULIA WILSON