Goodreads Summary
To the outside world, Anna appears to be an ordinary high school senior...
Anna has a lot of questions. Should she pursue her desire to leave home for college and live out her dream of becoming a physicist? Or should she stay home and help care for her family, which has struggled ever since her father died in Afghanistan? Is her crush, Steve, really interested in her, or is he only using the highly intelligent Anna to try and boost his grades in school?
These questions, plus the ordinary trials and tribulations of high school, distract Anna from noticing some very... strange things that are beginning to happen to her.
For as long as Anna can remember, she has had a haphazard smattering of freckles on her arm. But these freckles are starting to change, and cause a series of unnerving hallucinations and odd side effects that only Anna seems to notice. When a strange shadow man starts to haunt her nights, she decides to go on a hunt for the truth to discover, once and for all, what is happening to her. The hallucinations continue growing stronger, however, and each new visit by the shadow man appears to become more and more threatening. Eventually, Anna realizes that she can no longer hide from her friends and family what is happening to her.
But as she shares her secret with those closest to her, Anna never imagines that her very life, and the lives of those she loves, will be put in jeopardy.
Who, or what, is Anna?
My Thoughts
I have so many thoughts floating around my head right now, but let's start with the cover. I am so glad that this book has such a gorgeous cover. This could've just as easily been some cheesy girl, laying in the grass, looking at the stars...thank goodness it isn't. Props to whoever picked this out.
I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would. You can tell that Anna was Meghan Riley's first (published) book. I don't necessarily mean that in a bad way, but the writing style makes it known. At times it almost seemed like a stream of consciousness. It added an endearing quality to the book that fit quite nicely with the mind of a teenage main character. However, at times I found there to be too many unnecessary adjectives. Everything had a description. You knew every article of clothing the characters were wearing, the architectural aspects of every house Anna went to, and the exact shade of Jared's eyes. Sometimes it got to be too much.
Although some would say that the description of the book was a little misleading, I didn't entirely mind. I am not usually into science fiction/paranormal type books so this was a nice introduction for me. I did however feel like sometimes there was just too much fluff. Anna was more about Anna the super smart, high school senior and less about the mysterious freckles on her arm. I did love that I felt connected to her (even if I didn't understand the science she felt so passionate about). I admire Meghan Riley for making Anna a physics nerd. I love that she has aspirations that aren't your typical female aspirations. She wants to be an astrophysicist. When was the last time you read a book about a female character that wanted to be a scientist? Never? Ya, me too.
As much as I didn't understand the science aspect, I loved the paranormal parts. The shadow man was intriguing. He was creepy, but I always got the feeling that he was there for a reason. I wish that the book had been more about that and less about Anna being a normal high school student. There was a lot of fluffy build up, a climax, and then boom it was done.
If you usually read contemporary but want to dip your toes into a paranormal book than this could be the book for you. Check it out on amazon.ca!
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