When I requested Anna O, I was very intrigued by the blurb that Matthew Blake had left on NetGalley. I have an interest in psychology and weird things that the mind/body can do.

My general overview of the book is that it’s a slow to medium paced psychological thriller. A who done it, and from an angle I’ve never read before. The ARC that I read on my kindle wasn’t set out great, but feel that this was more of a formatting issue as Matthews name kept appearing in the middle of the page. After a few chapters, I ignored it completely.

The storyline, I found was slow burning. Giving a background to the main characters. Ben Prince, a sleep specialist who built a thesis of waking people up from long term sleeping/coma patients by giving them hope through over stimulation. And of course Anna O, a patient, possible criminal who murdered 2 people on an outting.

Anna O background was written in the form of diary entries which bulked her character out and another mysterious characters of @suspect8, a blogger who seems like rattling up the online community of what happened with Anna O. Was she really asleep while she committed these murders?
The world building is mainly centred around the hospital , Bens home and The Farm, where the nurses took place. I felt like I had a good sense of the area., how far things were and time. The narrative picks up from the second half of the book abs I did find that I wanted to read more and more to find out what had actually happened. The pieces of the puzzle drop nicely into place at the very end. Even if you did figure out the plot twist. It’s still a very good one..

This book is narrated by Dan Stevens; Hannah Curtis; Sarah Cullum; Christine Rendel and they all did a great job keeping this book engaging and compelling.

3.5 for story graph rounded up to 4 for other review sites.

Anna O had an intriguing concept that initially drew me in, but as the story unfolded, I found the execution somewhat lacking. The plot was overly complicated, with too many twists that felt repetitive rather than engaging, which ultimately made the pacing feel sluggish. While the core premise had potential, the narrative struggled to maintain momentum, and at times, it felt like it was dragging rather than building tension.

That said, the audiobook experience was a saving grace. The narrators were perfectly matched to the book’s tone, bringing depth and authenticity to the storytelling. Their performance enhanced the atmosphere and made the listening experience far more immersive than the storyline itself might have allowed.

Overall, while the book had its merits, particularly in its concept and narration, the convoluted and slow-moving plot prevented it from fully delivering.