Episode Five: The Anna O Files Podcast

Written By Lex Brookman

Lex is joined by booksellers and bookstagrammers alike for our final file from the Anna O companion podcast.

Here’s the full written transcript for Episode Five of our podcast. All cited works will be listed below, along with the content warnings.

Lex:
Welcome listeners to the final episode of our Anna O companion podcast. When we were first devising this podcast we knew we wanted to have a space for reviews, booksellers, and bookstagrammers to share their thoughts on their reading experience of the book and that’s what this episode is dedicated to. 

When Anna O was announced,, it honestly felt like such a flurry of awareness and attention on the visuals and the book - I knew from that moment that this was going to be SUCH an exciting title to read. 

To start with, I’m going to kick us off by reading some reviews from Booksellers, which we’ve been given permission to share with you, as they couldn’t make our podcast recording. 

Sally from Lancaster Waterstones says: 

I heartily recommend… It's a brilliant taut and completely different take on a crime novel.

Laura from Blackpool Waterstones says: 

Thrilling, clever and full of tension.. I thought I had Anna O figured out but nothing was as it seemed

And lastly, when I asked Nicole from Hemel Waterstones which was the weirdest research spiral they’d fallen down after reading Anna O, they said:
I went down such a rabbit hole checking out the crimes people commit while sleeping and it worried me how many people just stand outside houses with Ring bell cameras.

Now, I’m going to hand over to past-me, where I was lucky enough to sit down with three of our readalong Bookstagrammers who took part in our month’s long celebration of Anna O, and two Waterstones Booksellers, who were only too happy to join us and share their love for Anna O.

Lex: 

So let’s start with our Bookstagrammers - Emma Reads Crime that is. I’m very aware,, we got two Emma’s on our podcast today. Emma, could you give us a kick off as to who you are and what part of our company you’ve been involved with.

Emma (Reads Crime):
Hi so I’m Emma and I’ve been a part of the Instagram um, six months read a long campaign for the Anna O book.

Lex Brookman (She/ Her):
Perfect thank you so much. And Kyle I’m just working my way around my zoom screen.

Kyle Davies:
I’m Kyle, um yeah over it, Kyle’s cracking rates um. I’ve also been involved in the, Anna six month campaign. Um kinda promoting the book um reviewing and uh yeah just absolutely loving it .

Lex Brookman (She/ Her):
Awesome, thank you Kyle and then Barbara.

Barbara:
Hi, I’m Barbara from BarbsBookLand on Instagram and like everyone else, I have been involved in the six month campaign with Tandem for the read along and the book you know

Lex Brookman (She/ Her):
Thank you and then Emma lastly, Emma- our other Emma.

Emma (Papyrus & Peppermint):  
Hi everybody, I’m Emma Papyrus and Peppermint on Instagram and I’ve been part of the Tandem campaign on Anna O and I’ve been reviewing and sharing my thoughts on my Instagram and on my blog page .

Lex Brookman (She/ Her):
Thank you team. So joining us today, we also have Steven and Huw who are actual real life Waterstones booksellers out in the world. Steven, do you wanna just give us a quick introduction to who you are and which story you represent and maybe a bit about your reading genre habits as well.

Steven:
I’m Steven I’m from uh Waterstones in Bluewater in Kent and I’m quite an avid crime thriller reader and I’ve written quite a few reviews on waterstones.com for various different crime fiction and I was very happy to receive a copy of Anna O and love it and that’s why I’m here ha ha 

Lex Brookman (She/ Her):
 Perfect, thank you and Huw.

Huw Chapman:
I’m a bookseller from Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk I read popular fiction, generally crime is my go to for a nice kind of cozy, easy kind of not too taxing kind of thing, so I could tend to alternate between crime and, and something maybe a bit more testing. I think we just got an envelope sent to the shop and I picked it up and took it on holiday with me and really loved it, so.

Lex Brookman (She/ Her):
Oh great oh guys. I feel like I’m in such great company of just brilliant crime reading fans. This is the dream. Um, so when I first was introduced to Anna O as a concept, um, I told, I was told that it was for fans of true crime. Um and for psychological crime and I was like yeah tick, sign me up. So before we dive in like what’s everybody’s vibes with true crime? I feel like there’s a lot of true crime inspiration in Anna O. Are you guys big consumers of true crime.

Kyle Davies:
I am, um yeah. I love true crime. I did my Masters in Forensics so..

Barbara:
Wow

Kyle Davies:
 And kind of growing up, my mom always, she always had true crime documentaries on and and yeah. I just absolutely love that. What this book, there’s like so many references to some, some really prolific true, true crime cases like the Soham Murders um and then I felt like just the case of Sally Turner to Stockwell Monster, like it had me doubting now, is this the real case of him. 

Lex Brookman (She/ Her):
Yes Yes Kyle exactly

Kyle Davies:
After I finished that, I Googled that, because when I was reading I was like, I don’t want to Google that and have anything spoiled

Lex Brookman (She/ Her):
No, I was exactly the same as kind of like what I would class as an Anna O true crime fan. I was going ‘everything else in this book has been informed by real true crime case’ So this must be. But why don’t I know it. Why, why haven’t I not heard of this? Because it’s fictional

Huw Chapman:
Yes for me it was quite amusing, amusing to me because I was, when I read it and there’s the whole little bit about the, the case that’s um, decided by Lord Morris. And I thought that was funny my, my uncle was Lord Morris and he was Lord Chief of Justice. And I thought, I’ll just check to see whether this is were really was him and um yes. I was like oh yeah that’s my uncle John…

Lex Brookman (She/ Her):
Oh wow

Huw Chapman:
They really did exist

Lex Brookman (She/ Her):
I bet you that if you were reading on your holiday here, that was a bit of a shock to the system, wasn’t it.

Huw Chapman:
It was, I think I even tweeted to Matthew, as it was said to you, that this is my uncle you referenced in it

Barbara:
Wow, I think I have to say Lex, if I can that um. The attention to detail and those things was just amazing. You know I learnt so much as well from the book about, you know um, sleep sleepwalkers and all of the, that side of things um and how it all sort of works and how the mind works when you’re sleep. What you know, all that background that was given in the book was so, the attention to detail on that was just, it was amazing. I I thought it was very very good and it really, really gave a lot to the book as well. You know it wasn’t just about what was going on in the main story and it was very multi-layered and then you have that part where you were learning also about, you know, sleep paralysis and different things like that. I thought it was fantastic. It was really really good. 

Lex Brookman (She/ Her):
Yeah, I completely agree, I completely agree. The first episode of this podcast is quite heavily based on sleep paralysis and the very specific crimes that Matthew mentioned. And in the research for that episode. I was surrounded on the floor with my iPad, with annotations, with notes, with research papers just going, how is this my job and Matthew is so well researched and he pours it all into the book in a way that doesn’t feel preachy. 

Barbara: yeah like he’s teaching yeah! That's he’s not gonna teach you something yeah. And you can, you can. You can tell that it’s well researched. I, I find that there’s books you know like um. To make a comparison to TJ Newman’s Falling and Drowning. The author was air hostess who wrote that. And you could tell that she knew what she was writing, you know the whole background to the whole on the flight and all the different things. You could tell. You know she knew what she was talking about and I felt like Matthew, the same in this Anna O was very much. Was all very well informed and all very well sort of put in but as you say, it wasn’t like a lesson he was trying to teach you on sleep paralysis and that kind of thing. It was, it was, it was really well done.

Lex Brookman (She/ Her):
No, I agree. Did anybody else go down a major kind of research rabbit hole whilst reading this one 

Barbara:
Massively, yeah.

Steven:
The actual research Matthew put into this book is really incredible and I think it’s already been said, but when I was reading it. I was like oh my God, is, this, did this actually, is this real, is this I know this is a fiction book, and I was like, oh my God you know, I think it was uh apology like a resignation syndrome that I’ve read that and thought oh my God, is this an actual real condition that people have and like it’s been said before. He doesn’t put it into the book and explain it like a teacher who’s just forcing the facts on you. It’s there for a reason and it’s so well explained and it does push the plot to a new level and that’s what I really found fascinating and I'm not an avid reader, true crime but it did make me wanna go oh my God I’ve got to look this up. I’ve got to research this, is it real?

Emma (Papyrus & Peppermint):
I think that was the thing for me um, just picking up your point about the fact it’s a real thing. We all go to sleep. Um we all know people that sleepwalk, does this mean this could happen to any of us? For me, that made it so real. It brought all of this research and the fact that this is a real syndrome made it uh, it drum up those feelings of oh wow, this could really happen. Which I love in a book. I absolutely love it. It absolutely sucks you into the plot

Lex Brookman (She/ Her):
And I think it brings up so much debate as well, doesn’t it. So like if you do commit a crime whilst you’re sleeping, what, what’s the punishment for that. Did you mean to do it? Did you not mean to do it?

Emma (Papyrus & Peppermint):
That was my favorite bit of this was the debate that this brought up. I’ve had so many debates about this with my work colleagues and people haven’t even read the book. They just got me having all of these kinds of chats. Yeah I thought it was, it was really fascinating.

Lex Brookman (She/ Her):
And on that note about research, like going into the legalities of the actus rea versus the mens rea which I think if I’m like, summarizing it correctly is, did you mean to do it or did you not mean to do it. It had me feeling like I was in How To Get Away With Murder, like I was a law student. I was living out my dream just right there and then.

Barbara:
I think as well it it, it made you think about, it made you think long after you read the book because you know also, I just kept thinking to myself what if that was me and and I just woke up one day and, and I’d like. I don’t know, had a knife in my hands you know, what would you do?
I mean what would you do? I love a book that makes you think about it long after, you know when I’m, sort of say to yourself, I’m just going back to what Emma said obviously that um. I’ve chatted to absolutely everybody about it and everybody is so different. It’s not a, it’s not a black or you know, it’s sort of like no, I don’t agree with that but then I would agree with this, you know it does. It throws up a good debate so yeah, It was good.

Lex Brookman (She/ Her):
You’re so right, the best psychological thrillers, they don’t leave you for a while, they keep, they keep playing.

Huw, I would love to hear from you and Steven, what the in store and reception has been to the book.

Steven:
The reception has been really, really full provoking, I think it’s as it’s been said. I described the book to my colleagues and straight away they all give their opinion “no oh no…”
If you’ve committed murder in your sleep, are you responsible for that kind of psychological issue and “oh yes yes, of course she’s guilty.”

But then you say well, if you got no conscious fact that you’ve done it, are you still guilty and it did divide the group. It really did and it got everyone thinking about it and everyone arguing about it for quite some time and so yeah it’s, it is one of those thrillers it is incredibly full provoking and it touches you on so many different levels I think that it does get people who perhaps even don’t read crime fiction will pick it up and they will be interested, they will be fascinated by it and after I think the writing is really, really brilliant. I think Matthew has done a great job not just in research but in writing in general and the characters themselves, they do highlight it and push the whole thing into a whole new level.

Lex Brookman (She/ Her):
Mm hmm

Huw Chapman:
Absolutely, I mean it’s, I mean we have a um, a very large crime readership in our store and it’s, it’s meet and drink really to them, that I mean, they are the archetypal, sweet little old ladies that come in, the serial killer books and all those kind of things so they are um. It’s and it stands out. I mean I will go to the cover. I think the cover is amazingly captivating.

But it stands out on a table. A book from a purely practical point of view, it’s actually really, a really it’s a pleasure to put it there because you know it’s not oh, it’s not orange or it’s not you know the, those awful things that we booksellers do is say oh, it’s the orange one or it’s the blue one on the table…it’s the one with the eye on it and you’ll know it all the way. Um so it does, you know it that much, it just helps our job completely 

Lex Brookman (She/ Her):
Huw, you’re so right. I I am so fickle when it comes to buying books based on their covers, that is exactly who I am as a shopper and I feel 

Huw Chapman:
You’re like everyone else…

Barbara:
Yeah yeah, you’re in good company, I was just about to say.

Lex Brookman (She/Her):
I feel like as thriller readers, we went through a phase maybe God five, ten years ago after Gone Girl came out, all of the covers had like a wash of dark blue with a neon font and that’s only...yeah, like a bright yellow font and it’s only now just phasing out. The proofs for Anna O were gorgeous, it has the white uh eye on the front cover and then the black eye on the back and then of course there’s been the special edition of Anna O as well which has those gorgeous end papers um so yeah brilliant news Huw to see that it’s visually going down very well in the store as well.

Huw Chapman:
Yes, amazing. It’s an easy easy sell which is always good but as you will know us booksellers, we have lots of other things as well today, it’s very hard to spend our entire time plugging one book but not we do a lot of the time… 

Lex Brookman (She/ Her):
No, of course, of course. So question to the whole group I think this is relevant to pretty much anyone- what are you comparing this book to? Like, who are you saying that this is a fan of? If you liked Anna O, you’re gonna love what, what’s the end of that sentence. Should we start with uh maybe Emma Reads Crime?

Emma (Reads Crime):
I’ve got sort of two recommendations, sort of two um ones you compare it to one is um a non- fiction book called Unnatural Causes and it follows in real life autopsies and that sort of medical aspect of Anna O - If you enjoyed that, I think you’ll really enjoy Unnatural Causes and the other book is Bright Young Women and that’s um based on Ted Bundy’s victims.

Lex Brookman (She/ Her): Mhm

Emma (Reads Crime):
And just the writing style is quite similar to Anna O and the sort of darkness behind it.

Lex Brookman (She/ Her):
Amazing, I feel like I’m building a little TBR here has anybody else has anything to add to my list.

Emma (Reads Crime):
Haha 

Kyle Davies:
I will, um I think the Unnatural Causes um Richard Shepard is an absolutely amazing book. I devoured that book um it’s it’s absolutely amazing.

Barbara:
Yep, I’ll third that as well but I’d like to maybe go down the thriller, more thriller rate of Alice Feeney. I’ve just read Good Bad Girl and it may not be true crime but, Anna O has the short snappy chapters. It has the cliffhangers aplenty,  it has the tropes that you want in a crime thriller. It has the multiple POVs timelines all that good stuff and if you’re looking for that kind of thriller, you’re gonna go to Alice Feeney maybe John Mars maybe couple of others that we could talk about Riley Sager, Ruth Ware. They’re all my favorite sort of tropes and and sort of things in thrillers so this was just that’s just hit it for me to be honest with you but Alice Feeney definitely and but that’s more like the writing style on the chapters different things more so than the true crime part of it. 

Lex Brookman (She/ Her):
Oh great suggestions from Barbara.

Kyle Davies:
The short chapters really grab you.. I mean I’m reading John Mars just now and a lot of the chapters are kinda short and snappy and it really grabbed you and for a couple of books, I really would compare this along the same lines of it’s kind of like the Silent Patient meets Before I go to Sleep and in the clinical sense of the Silent Patient and then with Anna’s diaries and stuff um and obviously the kinda sleep aspect um it does kinda make me think of Before I Go To Sleep; both amazing thrillers in my opinion as well.

Lex Brookman (She/ Her):
Before I Go To Sleep was one of the first thrillers that I finished in a day. But I had to put down halfway through because I was getting a bit scared and I had to go. I had to go do something else.
Those are all great suggestions. I haven’t read Unnatural Causes. And the fact that you are all celebrating that one. I will add that to the list for sure. To bring back around to Anna O, Barbara you mentioned some of the things that you loved about the book, themes, the tropes, the way it’s written, I want to talk about characters - no spoilers. But who is your favorite character and why?

Barbara:
Do you know what, I’ve been thinking about this all day because there’s, there’s just, there’s a lot of characters and there’s so much going on within the book itself and, this is maybe gonna sound really odd but but Anna herself and her backstory and every thing that came with her just grab me and intrigue me… I just cannot. I cannot pick one. I mean I you know there’s there’s thrillers out there and there’s, there’s crime thrillers out there where you find yourself saying what were these characters here for I I care nothing for them. They didn’t really bring anything to the story. And I I thought every single character in this book brought something to the book. There was no real you know characters that I would have said no actually they didn’t need to be in the book you know so it’s I, I’ve been thinking all day. I just can’t. I just enjoyed the story as a whole and I think it needed everyone that we read about and up to make it what it was. It that makes sense.

Lex Brookman (She/ Her):
No of course, yes of course it makes sense. I feel you’re so right everybody served a purpose. 

Barbara:
Definitely. 

Lex Brookman (She/ Her)
How about you? Emma from Papyrus and peppermint.

Emma (Papyrus & Peppermint):
I’m gonna say a bit of an off character.

Lex Brookman (She/ Her):  
Um hmm

Emma (Papyrus & Peppermint):
I think actually because they weren’t actually a character we really heard from and mine was Bloom 

Lex Brookman (She/ Her):
Yeah yeah 

Emma (Papyrus & Peppermint):
Because we, we learn about her through um Ben and through her case notes and I was kinda developing this idea of her in my head and there’s a a chapter where it references how she was um as a younger self and how she is as an older and like that blending and thinking of her and and reading through her case. They were great 

Lex Brookman (She/ Her):
Yeah I agree. I really had a bit of a thing for Bloom as well. For sure and I actually um in my kind of like dream world of dream casting the game that I like to play with myself and some of the Tandem Readalong’ers is that I will cast actors and actresses in the roles um and for me young Bloom, is Catriona Scorsone from Grey’s anatomy, she plays uh Amelia Shepherd and then older Bloom is a slightly younger…um oh my God what’s her name Maggie Dame Maggie. Uh what’s her last name 

Steven:
Smith

Lex Brookman (She/ Her):
 Say that again

Steven:
Maggie Smith

Lex Brookman (She/ Her):
Is that, yes, her yes that one 

Barbara:
Yeah I can see yeah 

Lex Brookman (She/ Her): 

But I would love to hear about anybody else’s dream casting. Who are we seeing when we picture our adopted prince?

Barbara: It’s a hard one

Emma (Papyrus & Peppermint):
… and that would be Cillian Murphy

Barbara:
Cillian for every film. 

Lex Brookman (She/ Her):
See I had a slightly similar strategy of just choosing who I would like to see in the role um and I think purely only because I have seen him in The Mentalist uh which is an American TV show but Simon Baker 

Barbara:
Hmm! 

Lex Brookman (She/ Her):
Kind of gives me that intellectual slightly uh like attractive charming um but knows his job and knows what he’s doing um but of course you know he’s potentially a little bit too young and potentially a little bit too Australian… 


Barbara:
Being from Northern Ireland. I may go down the road of Jamie Dornan um if anyone seen The Fall and that character sort of… Specter I think he would be good as I know obviously you know his body in that but I think um he would he might be quite good for not Christian Grey side obviously the full side haha

Emma (Reads Crime):
Yeah I actually imagined him fairer.. So I imagined Tom Hiddleston in my head.

Huw Chapman:
Yeah I was thinking 

Lex Brookman (She/ Her):
Yes does that work for you as well Huw. That fits the kind of visual?

Huw Chapman:
Yea I think so. Yea I think so

Lex Brookman (She/ Her):
And it worked like Tommy doesn’t again kind of works for that intellectual educated British uh person who would look good in a suit conversing with the Ministry of Justice 


Emma (Papyrus & Peppermint):
Yeah ha ha and all of our requirements 

Lex Brookman (She/ Her):
Is there anything that anybody wants to say want to ensure that we’ve included about their thoughts, feelings and or reception on the book? 

Emma (Reads Crime):
And quite a lot of medical people have read it. So goes back to the research but quite a lot of medical people have been reading the book and and sort of saying in their reviews how they thought it was really interesting. That was refreshing to read a book that was so well researched. Cause I get you know, there’s nothing worse than picking up mistakes in a book so just that, lots of medical people have found it really interesting in a good read. 

Lex Brookman (She/ Her):
I love that. It’s gotta be so hard for any kind of police investigator or medical personnel or any kind of social services. Those jobs that are so often woven into crime and thriller books it’s gonna be so hard for them to enjoy genres like that when they’re sitting they’re going well that’s not how that works or well that would that’s not the process for that. That’s not how that happens…

Steven:
I think it’s quite easy for when you go down that route you can sometimes overload the book you if you understand what I mean you can kind of put in too much detail and you can make a bit too heavy and so sometimes particularly as a bookseller you get customers who say “oh it’s not you know it’s not gonna be overwhelming is it the detail?” but I personally, I think Anna O gets it just right. I think the detail is there but it’s written so well and it’s included so perfectly in the book that it enhances it. I think that works and it works on so many levels. In this one.

Lex Brookman (She/ Her):
I agree psychological thrillers have got to like tread the very careful balance of obviously being very pacey and plot driven while still having enough information about the nuance of the plot and the characters themselves to make it feel worth it and meaty and you’re so right, Anna O big tick for me. 

Huw Chapman:
What I like is it with all the best books I read, it surprises me, it doesn’t I don’t you know I mean as you can imagine, I’ve read a lot of books and it’s, It’s nice to read a book where you hadn’t guessed something or you, something is blindsided you and and it’s quite a rarity ha ha I mean, it doesn’t happen than often. It’s happened a few times recently but uh it’s just uh uh. It’s a really good thing to to sell a book to a customer. This is a, you will be surprised by this book cause it you won’t guess what, what’s happened at the end or or what then, how it works out

Lex Brookman (She/ Her):
I think that accolade from a bookseller would absolutely sell me the book because I know how many books that you guys must have to read. Like especially if you are a crime fan. You’re so right. If you said to me, I have read X many books and this one still surprised me. I’ll be like yeah, sold great. Sign me up.

Huw Chapman:
Yes. But I’m a firm believer in less is more in fact. If you tell customers to don’t over give the information about the book. You know I’ll actually leave them with then something to discover for themselves. There’s nothing worse than a customer reading a book, thinking oh they told me everything about that.

Lex Brookman (She/ Her):
Yes. Yeah I think booksellers and bookstagrammers and content creators online have to thread a very careful line of spoilers in the reviews and the way that you guys talk about it because now with the way that kind of digital PR is the way it is, quite lot of people will look up a book online for the reviews before they buy it in-store and if I see reviews of spoilers - I’m immediately turned off.

Like how do you guys particularly the bookstagrammers, how do you guys tread that line between making sure that you’re enticing people because you love the book but also not wanting to give anything away.

Barbara:
The marketing campaign and everything that went along with Anna O has been one of the best things that I’ve seen. Starting six months before five months before the campaign or the book released and I’m just seeing online on Instagram on Booktube on every single media platform it just it just ramped up. I mean you were seeing Anna O on every story - almost every story of friends. You were seeing people sharing Anna O. There was just so much about Anna O in the book community and it was absolutely amazing and as you say spoiler wise it is really really hard not to, not to give away too much but I think if you’ve experienced and you, you sort of know what way, you, you know. You’re gonna sell the book to the people you know that, that are on your, your Instagram and in your book community you know it is, it is okay. But I think if you were to go on good reads and there was a spoiler I mean really you know it’s. It’s not what’s not very good you know and it’s not what what people want to see but um, I just wanted to come in and say that you know that I’ve really enjoyed seeing how, how many people have have jumped on the campaign and have absolutely talked about Anna O and how amazing it is you know.

Lex Brookman (She/ Her): 
Yeah, it’s been a thrill to be a part of but then yeah it feels like you know when a new Netflix series launches and it’s suddenly everywhere, it’s felt a little bit like that even from like the pictures of it everywhere and you know, tube posters and all different kinds of uh like media touch points. It has felt like.
Emma and Emma and Kyle, how did you guys feel about threading that very careful line with, with spoilers for this one 

Emma (Papyrus & Peppermint):
Personally I did found it quite find it quite challenging um. I was obviously sharing what I could on my Instagram when I was received when I’ve received the proof and when I’ve received marketing opportunities etcetera and then I, I was waiting breath to actually write my blog post. And then even then I was writing this blog post, and I was like. Ugh I just wanna talk about how amazing this book is… “Right make sure you don’t give anything away!” So the way that I went about it was focusing on things that I know as a psychological thriller reader that I enjoy. I enjoy unreliable narrators. I like things that are like this book where there’s mysterious time gaps and puzzles to solve, things like that so I was um referencing the book that I would put this in a similar um viewing to which is Insomnia by Sarah Pinborough. 

Because, that is also a book that has got unreliable narrators and it’s based around sleep, it’s drags you in because you know it’s relatable. So I was kind of referencing back to books that I’ve read in the past but also saying you know there’s this big plethora of characters and as Barbara said earlier, they were all there for a reason and trying to basically explain sort of the structure of the book that would entice people in, such as the short snappy chapters.
 

Kyle Davies:
Yeah I I agree. I think the way that the, the read along was structured was, was amazing I think because uh we we all got given kinda case files and things and you were able to share kinda little snippets of what what you can expect and and the kind of the kind of vibe of the whole thing and I think that the the kind of prompts that you get from Tandem they share a lot of the key moments and you can really add your thoughts. There was there was one that always it still sticks in my mind that reference, there’s a quote um about you know famous murderers like uh uh uh about a woman, there’s always a, there’s always a woman and and I thought I was just amazing. I think all the prompts really help you share your thoughts and feelings about the book without giving too much away.

Lex Brookman (She/ Her):
mmm hmm that’s great feedback, thank you Kyle. That’s really good to hear. 

As we come to the end of our final episode of the podcast, I want to extend a huge thank you to everyone who’s listened this far, and everyone who’s picked up a copy of Anna O by Matthew Blake. We have had the best time sharing snippets of the audiobook with you, chatting to booksellers and bookstagrammers, and - of course - mining author Matthew for all of the behind the scenes details. So if you’ve missed any of that, have a flick through our episodes and catch up.

I’m going to share one final review, that comes from crime-thriller Superfan and Bookstagrammer Stu Cummins…

Stu Cummins:
I really enjoyed this book, it was not exactly how I thought it was going to be - but in a good way. So I thought it was going to be a fast paced thriller but it was much more slow burn. But it was  really, really intelligent and I felt like I learned lots of things whilst also enjoying a really tense and gripping story. With that in mind I see this book sitting, in the market, between literary fiction and crime. It’s quite a dense book but very, very, very well  researched and really informative so it’s definitely got a literary vibe to it, but also very thrilling - it’s got short chapters and stuff, so you still manage to get through it very quickly. 

It was very well plotted out, and I loved it because of that, really. It was just way more in depth than I was expecting. That’s what set it apart from a lot of other thrillers that I read - this really felt like the most psychological thriller I’ve ever read. 

I’d recommend this to people  who really enjoy psychological thrillers but ones that really make you  think - definitely for people who have an interest in psychology and maybe even for people for fans of Helen Feilds who, again, writes really great psychological thrillers. And probably people who have enjoyed something like None Of This Is True (Lisa Jewell) where you’re really delving into the psyche of somebody - people who are looking for something  deeply psychological, not just a popcorn thriller.

Lex Brookman:
But now it’s over to you - we want to hear what you think of Anna O, so please do share your thoughts on social using #AnnaO and tagging @MatthewBlakeWriter, @TandemCollectiveUK and @HarperCollinsUK. 

If you haven’t yet picked up a copy of Anna O, I can only urge you to dive in and find out for yourself whether our murdering mistress is guilty or innocent… 


As always, if you’d like to get your hands on this propulsive, powerful novel about a case of a young woman who commits murder in her sleep, then you can order Anna O now from the links in our show notes and in the transcripts, which are always available on our website: thetandemcollective.co.uk.

Thanks so much for listening.



Content Warnings for THE ANNA O Podcast. and the book itself:

Murder

Psychosis / Therapy / Psychotherapy

Suicide

Death

Hospitals

Poisoning

Death of a Child 

Imprisonment 

Refugee Crisis 

Alcohol Dependency 

Drug Addiction 

True Crime / Consumption of True Crime

Lex Brookman
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Episode Four: The Anna O Files Podcast