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Title: Anything You Do Say (you can Buy on Amazon here)
Author: Gillian McAllister
Published: 19th October 2017
Publisher: Penguin Books
Genre: Thriller, Mystery, Suspense, Psychological Thriller
Pages: 385
Format: E-Book
Rating: ***** (5/5 Stars)
About: Joanna is an avoider. So far she has spent her adult life hiding bank statements and changing career aspirations weekly.
But then one night Joanna hears footsteps on the way home. Is she being followed? She is sure it’s him; the man from the bar who wouldn’t leave her alone. Hearing the steps speed up Joanna turns and pushes with all of her might, sending her pursuer tumbling down the steps and lying motionless on the floor.
Now Joanna has to do the thing she hates most – make a decision. Fight or flight? Truth or lie? Right or wrong?
Review: This is the first book of McAllister’s that I have read and I’m hooked.
This psychological thriller is like the film ‘Sliding Doors’ where the film moves between the two possible paths that the character could choose. It works because it involves the reader. By taking this approach it makes the reader also question what they would do in this type of situation.
Joanna is placed in a situation where she must face a life-changing decision after pushing a man down the stairs. The book alternates between the ‘reveal’ and ‘conceal’ options. So each chapter is different. At first, I was a bit confused by this structure, but that was mainly because I was not reading the chapter titles, and just read the next chapter as a continuous flow from the last. It didn’t make any sense, but then I realised my mistake.
I think this is mainly due to the fact that I have never read a book that has been structured like this before. But it works, really well. This book is thought-provoking and very well written.
Further, this book almost feels like you are reading two books at the same time. Instead of this being overwhelming, it made me feel like I was incredibly good at multi-tasking.
To be honest, I dove into this book without any expectation and I found it gave me back so much more than I had hoped for.
I felt a lot whilst reading this book: anger, sadness; frustration, disappointment (because of some character’s actions); happiness and many more.
This book shows that the world is not just black and white. This sentence may sound obvious but this book delves much further into this problem:
Doing the wrong thing is not necessarily the easiest option.
Doing the right thing does not always solve everything.
So, what would you do in the same situation?
This book will suck you, involve you and never let you forget the decision you would make. It’s the perfect book to read when you got some free time.
It’ll make you question everything — what you would do in the same situation, what your friends and family would do. It’s amazingly thought-provoking. It’s clever and a must read, you won’t regret it.
CastlesandTurrets 