Thank you NetGalley for this ARC

This story felt like psychological thriller-lite. The characters were relatable, but the plot was predictable and a little hokey. I could not believe the main character made the choices she did. There were many times I debated giving up on this story, but I persisted hoping for a big twist. It never happened for me. Overall, I was disappointed.

I love that the synopsis of the book is vague and doesn’t give away too many clues as to what will unfold throughout the story. I didn’t know much about this book going into it and that made it even better for me. I loved The Wife Between Us by Hendricks and Pekkanen and this one did not disappoint. If you are looking for a book to keep you guessing and keep you up late at night reading (and even sneaking off at social functions to get more pages in!) then this is the book for you. I hope these two ladies continue writing novels together.

This was an interesting read. I did find it slow at times but that did not take away from my enjoyment of the book. This is a book that I would recommend to others.

I was hooked on this book from the beginning and didn't want to stop reading until I figured out what was going on. Jess sneaks into a psychological study which becomes more much complex than she could ever have imagined. The story is fast-paced and riveting as the reader is never quite sure who to believe. If you're looking for a psychological thriller that you can't put down this would definitely fit the bill.

Oh this was an awesome book! So good! I didn’t want to put it down. I loved the characters and the twisty story. So good with that psychological suspense edge. But if you only enjoy books about likable people stay away from this one.

Jessica Farris seizes an unexpected opportunity to earn some extra money by showing up at an appointment for participants in a morality and ethics survey - one that was meant for another girl. Jessica takes her place and becomes Subject 52. Upon subsequent survey sessions, Jessica's involvement progresses from answering questions to following precise instructions and venturing out into questionable real life situations, causing her to question the morality of what she's being asked to do. Meantime, her curiosity drives her to start searching for information on the illusive Dr. Shields - an action that brings about a game of cat and mouse, leaving readers to figure out who's playing whom?

I highly advise going into this thriller blind. Do yourself a favor, and don't read spoilers. The beauty of this story is in the slow development and peeling back of layers, revealing the true nature of characters and raising the stakes chapter by chapter. Through dual narration, readers are lured into menacing mind games fueled by obsession and paranoia. At times, I felt like I was fighting my way out of a dark maze trying to determine who was telling the truth and who was lying. While I did figure it out, I still wasn't one hundred percent sure I was right until the end. An Anonymous Girl is an addictive, creepy thriller that is hard to put down. The authors have created a dark, tense atmospheric setting that reeks of impending doom. Flawed characters sporting disguises of normalcy keep readers working to unmask the identity of the real villain. I greatly enjoyed the originality and delivery of the plot line and look forward to more from these authors. A Must Read!

Jessica Farris finds her way into a study concerning morality in hopes of earning some easy cash. After the first session of questions, there is something that makes her excited, or maybe even a little nervous, to go back for more. What she doesn’t realize is that joining this study is an event that will take her down a road she never expected going down.
I really enjoyed this book. Twist after twist kept occurring and I couldn’t see where we were going to end up. Having chapters in the therapist’s voice was very interesting. Her clinical voice was weird at first but it fit the character so well.
I highly recommend this book if you enjoy multiple twists! I can’t wait to read more from these authors

Make-up artist Jessica Ferris is burdened with secrets. Instead of working in theater, as she told her family, she’s making her living doing in-home makeovers with BeautyBuzz. She can’t bear to disappoint her parents. But she’s had practice keeping secrets for much longer. . . .

When she learns of a psychological study about ethics that pays participants $500 dollars, Jess doesn’t think twice before attending a research session that was originally scheduled for one of her make-up clients. Ben Quick, research assistant to Dr. Shields, who is running the study, escorts Jess into an empty classroom where she’s asked to respond to a series of questions about lying. To some extent, Jess feels liberated by the exercise and eagerly attends a second session the next day.

Something about Jess comes through in her responses, and Dr. Shields invites her to join a more extensive, less conventional offshoot of the study that challenges ethics in real-world settings. Jess just learned that her father was laid off from his job selling insurance and decided to agree; she also began to see Dr. Shields as a sympathetic confidant.

Over time, Dr. Shields pushes Jess to perform questionable behaviors in service of her study, and Jess, though at time uncomfortable with what Dr. Shields wants her to do, acquiesces in the face of Dr. Shields’ authority--and the large payments she is getting to participate.

But as Dr. Shields learns more about Jess and puts her in increasingly compromising and dangerous position, Jess begins to wonder how much she can trust the doctor. As she tries to uncover the layers, Dr. Shields uses manipulation and deflection to further ensnare Jess until Jess’s very life is at stake.

An Anonymous Girl is told through the shifting perspectives of Jessica and Dr. Shields. Dr. Shields’ sections are written in second person, present tense, passive voice. While I understand Hendricks and Pekkanen likely made the stylistic choice to emphasize Dr. Shield’s distancing from the study, these sections were unpleasant to read. Writers guides advise to write in active voice for a very good reason.

The authors show that they are familiar with some psychological phenomenon: they mention the Hawthorne Effect and the Prisoner’s Dilemma which provide some grounding for the book and lend authority to Dr. Shields. At the same time, there is a decided lack of awareness regarding informed consent in psychological research studies or about research design, in which the hypotheses and research methods are set well in advance of data collection and don’t change. Dr. Shields’ unconventional methods and lack of adherence to commonly accepted precepts might provide some characterization but they also strain credulity.

It’s also hard to believe that Jess would capitulate to Dr. Shields’ demands. Dr. Shield is presented as charismatic and cunning, but still! Jess, though, is a scrappy character if slightly inconsistent, and she has a profession I’ve not seen in a novel before. At times, though, her inner voice was astute and polished while her dialogue with other characters was choppy and unsophisticated, and the contrast was jarring.

Beyond the standard psychological thriller plotting, An Anonymous Girl also incorporates themes of guilt, revenge, making assumptions, and obedience (though they missed the opportunity to reference the Milgram obedience studies). The added interest these themes provides somewhat offsets the stylistic shortcomings and questionable characterizations, making the book a good choice for a plane trip.

THIS BOOK 😍 The twists and turns. The mind games, the moments I felt my heart pound a little bit harder and caught myself holding my breath.. this book is SO worthy of praise! This is going to be a best selling psychological thriller in 2019!!

Subject 52, lied and was deceitful. The survey wasn’t intended for her but she snuck into it. Every move she made was known and/or prepared for; most coaxed even from then on. Morality is huge for Dr. Shields. You should not cross her.

Subject 52 - how will it end for you, Dr. Shields and her husband, those you care for?

Thank you Net Galley for the free arc in exchange of an honest review.

Jess shows up to participate in an anonymous study about morality and ethics at the university for some easy cash. A one hour session of answering questions turns into something more. What she thought was a one time session turns into many more and the requests become stranger and stranger. This story really sucks you in right from the beginning. Every page I was cringing but I couldn’t stop reading and I needed to know how it would end for Jess. Even as the story unfolded, I couldn’t figure out how it would end. It was hard to put the book down once I started reading.

Would you invite someone to dig into your private life? Would you do it for money, for the sake of “science?” Are you sure of your morals and ethics? Jessica needs money and the opportunity to participate in a morals and ethics study for pay is too intriguing to pass up. As she answers the questions from an anonymous doctor, she has no idea she is about to be plunged into a twisted game of power, deceit, mental instability and manipulation.

AN ANONYMOUS GIRL by the edgy and brilliant writing team of Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen is a psychological madhouse of epic proportions as one girl becomes a pawn in the good doctor’s broken marriage.

Jessica becomes paranoid, obsessed with pleasing Dr. Shield, who is obsessed with her cheating husband’s assignations. And the drama feeds off each successive twist. All while I ask myself why she doesn’t just dump him? But there are several reasons why not…and none of them are moral or ethical or sane…

Dark, raw and brutally taut, prepare to feel unsettled throughout as we travel through a maze of mistrust, emotional instability and a need for revenge on all levels. Whose morality is the most questionable? Whose ethics are the most lacking and who deserves to have the tables turned on them?

Certainly not an upbeat read, definitely filled with characters I found most unlikeable, but these two authors pull off a tale that is as repulsive as it is magnetic.

I received a complimentary ARC edition from St. Martin's Press!

Absolutely fantastic! The writing and plot are impeccable. It follows Jess who gets intertwined with dr shields after signing up for a study on morality. It’s twisty and fast paced. I loved it.

I was really nervous going into this one because The Wife Between Us was my top psychological thriller for 2018, I mean I am still recommending it like crazy to anyone who needs a good twisty book to read. So I really wasn’t sure if It could even compare. Sometimes it’s soooo good to be WRONG!

Insanely addicting! This writing just once again was phenomenal. There weren’t too many big twists or anything like that but there didn’t need to be because it was still so dark and entrancing.

This is how much I loved this book you guys, I started it at night when I knew I had to get up early for work the next morning and I have no idea why. I wanted to see if just a few pages would spark my interest. Well, lets just say I was extremely tired the next morning and I couldn’t wait for it to be my lunch break so I could read some more!

The characters were amazing. Jessica was like any of us girls in our twenties, just trying to make it through life one step at a time. She was relatable and naïve. Dr. Shields though, whew. There’s many words to describe this woman. Manipulative being number one. Obsessive, intelligent and defiantly cunning.

The plot though? I’m going to keep that a secret because this is one story you will want to go into blind as a bat!

I hope Greer and Sarah keep writing together because so far they are an amazing team! I was so happy to get an early copy of this gem and I’m sure everyone else who got one too feels the same way. Just like The Wife Between Us, An Anonymous Girl will most likely once again be the top psychological thriller of 2019 for me!

Um wow, what a book!! From start to finish it gives you a thrill. Its suspenseful from page one, you make a guess and you are totally wrong. Jess, a daughter looking to make extra money to help out her family decides to jump into a psychology study and is dubbed "Subject 52". She is asked random questions that leads to her being further studied by a Dr. Shields and becoming what she thought as friends. This book will keep you on the edge of your seat the entire time. Excellent job again by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen.

Just couldn’t connect to the characters or get behind the reasoning for anything anyone did. From the mundane to the extreme, nothing resonated with me.

Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen have done it again! An Anonymous Girl had me so anxious to find out what the next page would say throughout the entire book. I felt for Jess the entire time as she never knew who she could trust.

I have mixed feelings about this book. The story is been told in alternating points of view between the two main characters. I felt a bit confused because my mindset was sequential time frames not this back and forth of the two individuals thinking. This actual made me reread a couple of chapters in the beginning which made it clearer to me what was happening. After that I couldn't stop reading because you become intrigued and want to know where it is going to end. All through the book you are wondering what Dr. Shields is up to. Is this really an academic study or a sinister plot that will cause harm to Jessica or somebody else. You can almost smell Jessica's fear as Jess's paranoia becomes more and more intense and her dependency on Dr. Shields keeps increasing. The ending adds an unexpected twist to story.
This is not an easy book to read and not for everybody but if you enjoy psychological thrillers this is definitely worth your time and will play around in your mind after you finished the book.

4/5 stars!
Thank you Netgalley for the advanced read! An Anonymous Girl follows Jess as she navigates her single life in NYC; desperate for extra money, she gets involved in what seems to be an innocuous research study on morality. But what follows is a twisty, terrifying psychological thriller. I kept reading this at night and had a hard time sleeping! It was a great page turner and in the end, not what I expected. The writing style in some ways was a little off putting to me, jarring in a way, but I feel like that was intentional. If you like thrillers but need something different from everything else that you’ve been reading lately - I recommend this book!

First I’d like to thank the publisher & NetGalley for the Arc of this fantastic read. I loved it from the first to the last page. First time reader of these fantastic authors Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen. I loved this book I cannot say it enough. I will not give any spoilers and Highly recommend to all my friends and people who love a good mystery book. I’ve read it twice, if you get the chance please check it out.

From the authors of "The Wife Between Us," An Anonymous Girl is even better than their first collaboration! Another psychological thriller, the reader is never QUITE sure what is going on. I loved the research study premise and without giving anything away, I can just say: GO READ THIS BOOK!!