Book Review: Anything You Do Say by Gillian McAllister (Blog Tour)

I am so honoured to take part in this blog tour.
Doe to some private reasons I wasn’t able to post my review on Saturday when it was my turn to be the host. I am taking this opportunity to apologize to everyone involved.

I really enjoyed reading this book (and talking about it with my colleagues), so I hope that Anything You Do Say will be a huge success.

I’d like to thank Jenny Platt from Penguin Random House UK, for giving me this opportunity.

About the book:

Joanna is an avoider. So far she has spent her adult life hiding bank statements and changing career aspirations weekly.

But then one night Joanna hears footsteps on the way home. Is she being followed? She is sure it’s him; the man from the bar who wouldn’t leave her alone. Hearing the steps speed up Joanna turns and pushes with all of her might, sending her pursuer tumbling down the steps and lying motionless on the floor.

Now Joanna has to do the thing she hates most – make a decision. Fight or flight? Truth or lie? Right or wrong?

My Review:

So… Do you know that case when you read a book and you want to talk about it with everyone around you, even though they didn’t read it nor they’re familiar with the story? And you just want to question them all the time “What would you do?”

That is what happened to me with this book, and I dare to say it will happen’ to most of the readers. I just couldn’t help it! I wanted to know what would my colleagues do if they were in Joanna’s shoes. It got so bad, I started guessing what each colleague would choose before they even had a say (I guess I’m weird like that).

One good thing came out of that: many of them want to read this book now (so my mission is completed! Gillian McAllister, you can now just sit and wait for the croatian translation (hopefully, fingers crossed!)).

 

So… what is this book about?
It is about a woman who’s story showed us how one single impulse decision can have a power to change lives complitely.

Joanna, our protagonist, is a woman who decided to have a night out with her friend. While they were in a bar, one guy asked them to pose for a selfie. They agreed, but after that the guy just wouldn’t let them be. He was way too pushy and he even sexualy assaulted Joanna, by rubbing his dick onto her, all while he had his clothes on (maybe I’m not describing all the details right, but it was some similar scenario if not the same).
After a while, when it was time to go home, Joanna parted ways with her friend and, alone in the dark, she had heard footsteps behind her. They were loud, coming after her, and she had an impulse, defensive reaction and as the guy touched her, she pushed him down the stairs, and he fell with his face down in a puddle.

What should she do now? Call 999 and take the blame, or just walk away, as it never happened?

From that moment, the story parted into two stories, Reveal and Conceal, that give you a see what happened with each decision.

I feel like there is so many ways you can actually read this book. You can read it as usual, parallelly follow each story, or you can read one story, then the other (or just one).

I was thrilled by both of them, but I have to admit that Conceal grabbed more of my attention. It was more intense and it kept me on the edge of my sit. One reason for that is McAllister’s writing style, because she did a great job picturing Joanna’s paranoia and her many trains of thought.

Reveal was also very good, even though it was passive at times. What I mean is, sometimes I just read the story and watched what will happen’ to Joanna, not being too engaged in the story.
However, there were some moments when I was pretty nervous.

What I liked the most in both of these stories is how well we got to see what was going on in Joanna’s head. All the chaos, every little decision after the big one that chose her path, had an impact on her and we got to see how she was changing every day, but also how her behaviour and everything that was going on played a role in lives of people aroud her, and how they were changing too.

This is definitely one of the best books I’ve read this year and I highly recommend it.
Trust me, you don’t want to miss this one!

I only wish Anything You Do Say was already out so we could disccuss it properly, because I’d really like to know what you’d choose if you were in Joanna’s place: to call 999 or to walk away?

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