Publisher: MIRA
Release Date: September 3, 2019
Source: Review copy from publisher
Rating: ★★★★½

If your whole life is a lie, who can you trust? Raised in a quiet rural community, Anna has always been taught that her mamma’s rules are the only path to follow. But, on her eighteenth birthday, she defies her mamma for the first time in her life and goes to Astroland. She’s never been allowed to visit Florida’s biggest theme park, so why, when she arrives, does everything about it seem so familiar? And is there a connection to the mysterious letter she receives that same day—a letter addressing her by a different name?

Rosie has grown up in the shadow of the missing sister she barely remembers, her family fractured by years of searching without leads. Now, on the fifteenth anniversary of her sister’s disappearance, the media circus resumes as the funds dedicated to the search dry up, and Rosie vows to uncover the truth herself. But can she find the answer before it tears her family apart?

Winner of the Daily Mail First Novel Competition, A Girl Named Anna is a psychologically riveting read that introduces Lizzy Barber as an outstanding new voice in suspense fiction.

A GIRL NAMED ANNA is an engrossing debut novel that’s part mystery and part family drama. At the center of this book is a child abduction and its aftermath for everyone involved. The story alternates between two teenage protagonists: Anna in Florida, being raised by her very religious mother, and Rosie in England, whose older sister Emily vanished 15 years earlier at an amusement park. On this year’s anniversary of Emily’s disappearance, things happen that propel both girls forward to find out the truth. This was a suspenseful and emotional book that I couldn’t put down! I enjoyed Anna and Rosie’s alternating perspectives as their discoveries brought them closer and closer together. Gripping & unsettling!

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.