Anna

by Sammy H.K. Smith

Overview

ANNA IS NOT HER NAME

Anna is a possession. She is owned by the man named Will, shielded from a struggling world by his care.

Anna is obedient, dutiful, and compliant.

When Anna finds the strength to run, she leaves her name behind. But in her new idyllic town, the past—and Will—catch up with her.

Carrying a child and a dark secret, she must face the scars he gave her—and learn to be everything Anna was not.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781786184337
Publisher:	Rebellion Publishing Ltd
Publication date:	05/25/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	400
File size:	989 KB

About the Author

Sammy H.K. Smith lives and works in Oxfordshire UK as a police detective. When not working she spends time with her children, husband and pets, renovates her house, and inadvertently kills plants. A keen writer and lover of all things science fiction and fantasy, she’s often found balancing a book, a laptop, a child, and a cat whilst watching Netflix.

Sammy H.K Smith lives and works in Oxfordshire UK as a police detective. When not working she spends time with her children, husband and pets, renovates her house, and inadvertently kills plants. A keen writer and lover of all things science fiction and fantasy, she’s often found balancing a book, a laptop, a child, and a cat whilst watching Netflix.

Editorial Reviews

03/22/2021

Moving between two anxiety-inducing settings—a postapocalyptic dystopia rife with gendered abuse and a small, isolated enclave that seems perfect but harbors dark secrets—Smith (In Search of Gods and Heroes) attempts to craft a personal story of female resilience, but the empowering moments are overshadowed by relentless trauma. Following the devastation of a vaguely described global war, the protagonist has spent two years surviving in the hellscape of the Unlands—until scavenger Will captures her and brands her as a slave. She protects her selfhood by assuming the false name “Anna” and goes through the motions of obedience as a method of self-preservation. But Will is determined to break Anna’s spirit and force her to embrace her role as his possession. After many months, the now pregnant Anna manages to escape and makes it to the relative safety of a cooperative homestead where she prepares to welcome her son. But the horrors of her past are not as far away as she hoped. Smith presents a cynical view of human relationships while offering little psychological exploration, giving the story a cinematic feel heavy on voyeuristically framed abuse and lacking the emotional depth that would help readers empathize with Anna. What catharsis there is proves insufficient to justify the darkness readers must wade through to get to it. (May)

Publishers Weekly

[A] hard-hitting feminist fable” — The Times

The Times

"The tension lingers right up to the very end of the story and it is not just Anna who the reader ends up fearing for." — The Fantasy Hive

The Fantasy Hive

"Anna is a masterpiece." — John Dodd, author of Just Add Water

From the Publisher

"Gripping, compelling, highly emotional." — FanFiAddict

FanFiAddict

"It is brutal and honest and brave beyond measure. It will pull your emotions every which way, so expect to have quite the book hangover when you’re finished..." — Shona Kinsella, BFS Reviews

The British Fantasy Society - Shona Kinsella

"You’ll experience every single emotion. There are moments of joy in the book, moments of love and laughter... the darkness is lit by those moments, and it is as dark and unforgiving as Cormac McCarthy’s 'The Road'." — Fantasy-Faction

Fantasy-Faction

Selected for LoveReading ‘Indie Books We Love'

"A gritty, intense and powerful read." — LoveReading

LoveReading

"I loved this book. It challenged me, drew emotions to the surface, gave me pause, time to reflect, to think, and created a believable dystopian world for it all to happen in."

G. R. Matthews

"Anna is a totally immersive read. Dark and compelling, you’ll want to clear a schedule to make time to read this because once you start, it will be hard to stop."

Shalini Boland

"A suspenseful read that explores the implications of abuse against the background of a broken and brutalised society. Compelling."

N. M. Browne

"Anna is a masterpiece."

John Dodd

"Smith kicks you in the head, in the heart and in the gut... it felt like I’d had an emotional beating when I finished reading it."

Pete W. Sutton