hannahfaith25's reviews
101 reviews

Beginning half was really slow and then the pace ramps up out of nowhere. Honestly was a little jarring. Went into it expecting a family drama thriller so the gore & horror element was very unexpected. 

Fredrick Backman yet again finds a way to tell a beautiful, gut-wrenching story. 
With this book being as short as it is I had no idea how much I would fall in love with Noah Noah & Grandpa. This story ends perfectly without needing anymore said. Watching a loved one lose themselves to their mind is heartbreaking and this novella captures that raw feeling with an almost happy ending. Grab the tissues and settle in, this book will wreck you and leave you with the best lessons. 

Overall the story was good and made you really feel for the characters. 

Wow… this book has sat on my TBR since 2019 (5 years) and I finally got around to it. Maybe I should’ve just left it there. 
All of the characters besides the titular Anna are a pain to listen to and half the time made me want to bash my head through a wall. 
Our main characters are Anna, (a 5 year old girl who goes missing and then found as told in the synopsis), Julia (Anna’s mother who is a divorce lawyer), Brian (Anna’s father who is a school teacher), and Edna (Anna’s borderline obsessive grandmother.) 

Now, I can understand that this book is fiction but in order to finish the book there are multiple points you have to suspend reality. After Anna goes missing her mother is dragged through the mud by journalists and Twitter users in a way that would be considered slander. Horrible accusations with no real merit to them yet nothing comes of it at all. 

The “twist” was painfully obvious and could be seen from a mile away; only finished the book to see how it would be executed and that was a waste of time. 

Edna is obsessed with her image and in a vain attempt to save her granddaughter she kidnaps her from school, drugs her, uses her connection to the press to slander Julia calling her a suicidal, drunk, home wrecker all because Julia and Brian were getting divorced.

The first 3/4 of the book dragged miserably slow and given that it’s revealed in the synopsis of the book that Anna is found safely we spend way too much time in the 7 days that she was gone. During this first chunk of the book my biggest pet peeve was how often It was said that Julia didn’t call the school to say she was running late and how negligent of a mother she was when (a) she did call and leave a voicemail and (b) how no one turned their attention to how poor of a child pickup setup the school has. Maybe it’s the American in me that just doesn’t understand British school patterns but I was shocked at how the school responded. 

The ending was too fast paced and felt rushed. Wish we spent more time in that space although it would’ve meant hearing Julia and Brian fight more with Edna sticking her nose in everything. The moment it all begins to be revealed Julia makes one of the dumbest choices throughout the book by

going into the garage where Anna says the big dollhouse is (the dollhouse she slept in while kidnapped). During this she goes into a dark garage alone and leaves Anna with the woman who kidnapped her. Why at that moment she didn’t just call for the police or walked out to the police car that was stationed outside the home I don’t understand.

Honestly this book was bad. Poor Anna and her dysfunctional family who all keep screwing her up more in the attempt to protect her.  Wish I could get back the 12 hours I spent reading it.