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OFFICIAL AUTHOR BIO: After discovering that the average person spends thirty-three years of their life asleep, Matthew Blake felt the pull of a story. He began extensive research into sleep-related crimes and into the mystery illness known as resignation syndrome, research that sparked a thrilling question: if someone commits murder while sleepwalking, are they innocent or guilty? And so his novel Anna O was born.

Before writing fiction, Matthew worked as a researcher and speechwriter at the Palace of Westminster. He studied English at Durham University and Merton College, Oxford and now lives in London.

FORMAT/INFO: Anna O was published by Harper Collins in the U.K. on February 2024. It is available in ebook, hardback, and audiobook formats.

OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: Anna O by Matthew Blake is a high concept thriller with a fascinating premise: a sleep doctor who studies people who commit crimes when they sleep is tasked with waking up the titular alleged murderer so she can stand trial.

Most chapters in the book are told from the perspective of the sleep doctor, Benedict Prince, along with some entries from Anna's diary in the lead upto the murders, and well as a few miscellaneous PoVs sprinkled in as they make sense for the story. My thoughts about this book are all over the place because this is one of those rare reads that confused me more than it did intrigue.

The chapters are punchy and zesty, and most of them created extremely engaging hooks to keep me reading. The irony of putting off bedtime to read this isn't lost on me. There are a lot of themes in this book, the most major would be the one that examines how unnecessarily fascinated society can be with true crime and their obsession with taking strong sides despite there being no closure on such cases.

The narration by Dr. Prince is repetitive and contains a lot of unnecessary Harry Potter references. Despite his point of view being given maximum page length, his character felt fairly superficial, and there was no explanation given for the sudden mental shift he underwent, from simply being interested in the medical repercussions of the case, to firmly taking a side in the belief of Anna's conviction. It was not very easy to follow what was happening, and the pacing was uneven to the point of prolonging certain things until the end in an attempt to add some serious twists.

CONCLUSION: The fascinating premise is unfortunately bogged down by complicated and confusing presentation of the intended story. Ultimately, there isn't a character to root for, and it just didn't click. I can't help but feel I need help understanding parts of it, and because of this, I don't really know if I can give it a definitive verdict.