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A review by amiewilson
Anna Incognito by Laura Preble
5.0
At first I wasn't too sure about Anna. I had compassion for her and her struggle with OCD, and several other issues, but found her to be brusque & really rude to the few people she allowed (grudgingly) into her life. As the story unfolds a little more the reader starts to glimpse the personal loss & grief at the root of Anna's mental health issues. My compassion for her grew as her humor and insight were slowly revealed.
Anna sets out on a trip that the reader knows will be really hard for her given her issues, but the trip becomes the catalyst for her to face her problems. Her relationship with a lonely, homeless teenager she finds on the road also really opens her up & helps the reader to relate to her. We start to see why she pushes people away. Throughout the story Anna remembers sessions with her psychiatrist as he tries to get her to face her past & her grief. It turns out the relationship between the two is very complicated- I felt really torn about it and realized that the biggest theme I took away from the novel is that nothing is how it appears on the surface. Anna's compulsions aren't black and white. She thinks they are but she learns she has to bend her own rules for comfort in order to just get by on the road. People & relationships are complicated and messy. Lines are blurred. In the end I wasn't sure how I felt about her shrink and his actions but I did like Anna & felt heartened by her journey & knew that although she wasn't suddenly going to change her behavior she was certainly on a path to healing & a life less closed off from the world.
Anna sets out on a trip that the reader knows will be really hard for her given her issues, but the trip becomes the catalyst for her to face her problems. Her relationship with a lonely, homeless teenager she finds on the road also really opens her up & helps the reader to relate to her. We start to see why she pushes people away. Throughout the story Anna remembers sessions with her psychiatrist as he tries to get her to face her past & her grief. It turns out the relationship between the two is very complicated- I felt really torn about it and realized that the biggest theme I took away from the novel is that nothing is how it appears on the surface. Anna's compulsions aren't black and white. She thinks they are but she learns she has to bend her own rules for comfort in order to just get by on the road. People & relationships are complicated and messy. Lines are blurred. In the end I wasn't sure how I felt about her shrink and his actions but I did like Anna & felt heartened by her journey & knew that although she wasn't suddenly going to change her behavior she was certainly on a path to healing & a life less closed off from the world.