Title: ANNA INCOGNITO

Author: Laura Preble

Publisher: Mascot Books

Pages: 271

Genre: Women’s Fiction

Synopsis

Lots of narrative pull…wonderfully complicated. – Jincy Willett, author of The Writing Class, and anthologized by David Sedaris in Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules.

Anna Colin Beck knows all too well what can happen when things go wrong really wrong. So, she’s spent the last several years living an extremely regimented life at home, doing everything she can to avoid subjecting herself to the torments of a germ-infested world. Everything must be just so, and when things don’t go to plan, she punishes her own body…and that still hasn’t helped alleviate her pain.

After a chance meeting in a laundromat, she finds herself completely infatuated with another person, something that hasn’t happened to her in a long time. Dr. Edward Denture is seemingly brilliant and magnetic…and in the blink of an eye, she’s attending intense somatic therapy sessions as his newest client. The more he draws from her, the further their relationship grows, until it’s crossed countless lines and consumed Anna with a fierce toxicity. And before she knows it, she finds herself buckled into the driver’s seat of a powder-blue El Dorado for a solo cross-country road trip, determined to stop his wedding. It’s a trip that will test every limitation she’s ever set for herself, and though she’s planned extensively for all contingencies, there are some twists and turns you just can’t prepare for.

With wry observations on the intersection of luck, fate, and life, Anna Incognito is a searing, darkly witty exploration of what it means to be alive.

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Praise

5/5 “Rich with witticism in the face of painful realities and evoking lyrical truisms throughout, from of a rating scale of 1 – 5 this novel is so off-the-charts good, it deserves a 10.” IndieReader

4/4 “The writing was captivating…This book would be great for readers who are struggling with mental health or for those trying to understand it better. Are you ready to go for a drive with Anna?. Buckle up, because you are in for the ride of your life!” Online Book Club

“The protagonist’s acerbic wit and mordant tone work well in the difficult material in Preble’s unconventional road novel. A razor-sharp, oddly fun  romp through the American West.” Kirkus Review

Review

I was not sure about this book when I first started reading.  Anna is not a very likable character.  She is OCD to the extreme and has other issues that might be hard for some to read.  She is also obsessed with a therapist/counselor that she meets by chance at the laundromat and ends up his patient.  In the beginning, I wasn’t sure where this story was headed.  But as I moved further into the book, I observed as Anna shared more of herself and we learn why she is the way she is and perhaps there is hope for her to overcome her issues.  Anna moves from being a shallow self-absorbed character to one that is complex and her story is like peeling an onion, it takes many layers to get to the truth.

Anna, who never goes anywhere, decides to drive from California to Colorado for her former counselor’s wedding.  This is a woman that does not have a car and haven’t driven in years.  But she has a plan or the start of one, and with the help of her neighbor, she ventures off to Colorado.  Along the way, she stumbles across a homeless mother and daughter, and for some unknown reason offers them a ride.  That is where the story really takes off because Mellow, the daughter, ends up going to Colorado with her after her mother runs off.  This trip is actually good for both Anna and Mellow because they both realize what they need to make their lives complete.

Anna’s story is told in pieces and by the end, we have a better understanding about her character.  I actually grew to like Anna especially when she realizes that maybe she has more to offer the world.

There are a few lines that spoke to me that I would like to share with you:

“Hope is the admission that things might get better. It’s a risk, though, because there is no guarantee. Despair is absolute. Giving up requires no risk. Brave people hope. Cowards despair.”

“…sometimes, when you can’t get what you want, you get what you need instead.”

This is a surprisingly good book and we give it 4 paws up.  Definitely worth the read.

About the Author

Laura Preble is the award-winning author of the young adult series, Queen Geek Social Club (Penguin/Berkley Jam), which includes the novels Queen Geeks in Love and Prom Queen Geeks. Her novel, Out, dealt with the concept of LGBTQ rights within a young adult dystopia; Alex Sanchez, author of Rainbow Boys, says “Out explores an intriguing, mind-bending, and challenging portrait of an upside-down world that turns the tables on homophobia, acceptance, and love.” She has won a Kurt Vonnegut Fiction Prize, and has been published in North American Review, Writer’s Digest, Hysteria, and NEA Today.

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