After Anna // Lisa Scottoline
After Anna is a mystery thriller about what happens to a family when a long lost daughter comes to live with her mother and her husband.
I picked this book up because I really am starting to enjoy books that have alternating timelines and voices. But this book let me down. I think it was trying to show how one accusation could ruin a life so completely, but books like these are dangerous for a number of reasons…
I just realized this whole thing is going to be a spoiler.
The first reason being that the moral of the story is don’t believe the girl. I know that in the end, it’s all a ploy and the guy is really innocent, but that’s what you want to put into the world? that men like that are railroaded when girls are afraid to come forward all the time because people won’t believe them. Especially the fact that he is a respected member of society (a doctor in a small town) makes this plot exceptionally implausible.
From the beginning, I knew that Anna wasn’t Anna. The simple reason that not ONCE did the author mention an accent and in fact, in the audiobook, Anna sounded like a Valley Girl, but that wouldn’t make sense if Anna has spent her entire life in the South of France until three years ago. Maggie was characterized as a woman who loved her daughter so much that she would lie for her about something so heinous as sexual abuse. She wholeheartedly believed this girl and started to hate her husband, just because he had a relationship before they were even together and she gets a picture of him walking out of a hotel room. She doesn’t even let him explain that he told her that he didn’t see Jordan there because she would get jealous and overreact and he was right. Then to spare her feelings because she’s “sensitive”, Noah even messes up his testimony on the stand because he believes Maggie is in the courtroom and refuses to let his lawyer make her testify. Maggie is so weak and Noah coddles her and I’m sick of women being characterized that way.
The last few chapters were unbelievable. I don’t mean good “unbelievable” I mean, on what planet is this a real thing? The fact that Noah is released after Connie’s confession is not a thing. He was still convicted of the crime which means that he would have to file an appeal based on new evidence with the appellate court. They would then review the evidence and overturn the conviction, and THEN the DA would have to formally drop the charges. That would another 6 months or so of adjudication. You don’t get out of prison just like that *snaps fingers*.
And randomly it’s about sex trafficking? It gets revealed in the last 30 minutes of the audiobook. Seriously? What was the point of bringing something up that isn’t alluded to at all in the book. “Anna” was trying to get in with the misfits so that no one would miss them?
There were so many ends that are still loose after Scottoline does her happily ever after. Like what happened with the school, were they held liable at all? Did Noah get his practice back? If not, how are they supporting themselves? What happens with the Range Rover? Does the real Anna keep it?
Also what was that epilogue? “Noah owed her for saving his life”, what kind of crap is that? So now their marriage is unequal and is ruled by eternal penance? If anything Noah should be pissed off and get an apology. Not only did she not discipline her “daughter” at any point in time, but signed off on a document that expelled Noah from his own home and ruined his career.
I didn’t want them to get back together. I think Maggie needs more therapy. She is supposed to be acting like an adult but somehow has it in her mind that she deserves no consequences for the part she played in all of this.
Stop writing women like this.
2 stars.
Reading Reckless : Rants and Raves 