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Hunting Annabelle

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Set in the 80's this is a creepy dark love story that reminds me a bit of Dexter. Heard is a new author and if this is her debut look out for more creepy fun to come. Sean spends most of his days at Four Corners sketching and wandering around. Diagnosed with Schizophrenia he is on a lot of medication that leave him missing time and in a haze. The drugs are supposed to stop hallucinations and curb his desire to hurt people but Sean can still see colors swirling around other people and his desire to hurt hasn't gone away.

Annabelle is a med student looking for a place to scatter her grandmothers ashes. She takes a liking to Sean and then suddenly she disappears, her screams echoing in Seans head. The police think he had something to do with it and his missing time and violent past don't help his insistence that he is innocent. Determined to find her Sean goes on a quest to discover what really happened to Annabelle. While experiencing symptoms of withdraw from his medication, he starts to feel more clear headed and more like himself, but is that a good thing or a bad thing? What Sean finds is not what I expected and the ending almost felt like a cliff hanger. I could totally see this turning into a series.

This is a fast paced thriller that leads you down twists and turns and has you routing for our flawed hero. Did he hurt Annabelle or is she really missing and if so who took her? Who are the bad guys in this book? The cops who set their sites on Sean because of his past, the mother who seems to want to keep her son medicated and locked away, or the well hidden predators that lurk and prey on innocents or is it Sean? Heard keeps you on the edge of your seat turning page after page just so you can find out the answers. Excellent.

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Sean Suh doesn’t do much with his days other than sitting in a park and drawing people he sees. He was in a psychiatric prison for three years and is considered rehabilitated but he’s not at sure he has been. He still has thoughts and urges that he shouldn’t have and his meds make him feel terrible. When he meets beautiful Annabelle, he has hopes that he hasn’t felt in years. But when Annabelle is kidnapped right in front of his eyes, the police give Sean a hard time and have difficult believing anything he says. Sean’s determined to find Annabelle before it’s too late.

I initially was pulled into this book. The main character, Sean Suh, reminded me of Norman Bates in The Bates Motel TV series. Both were characters with psychiatric problems with controlling mothers but they were trying so hard to get better and redeem themselves for past deeds. That was enough to keep me reading though I don’t think the book was very well written. I did have sympathy for Sean. Then I hit the last fourth of the book. That’s when the author completely lost me. The book ended up going in the direction I thought it would but I thought it was done in a very silly, cheap and gory way. I don’t want to ruin anything for anyone who wants to give this book a try but the last part of this book just turned me off and ruined anything of substance that I thought I had found in the rest of the book. It may well just be me but this isn’t one I can recommend. It had potential to be much better.

Not recommended.

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Thriller? Romance? Mystery? I have no idea how I would classify this compelling debut by Wendy Heard, but I know whatever it is…I want more!

Though predictable and a tad more Young Adult than I was prepared for, Hunting Annabelle is a thrilling ride with an adorably confused hero you just can’t help but love. With a fast pace and intriguing twists, you won’t want to put this one down.

With a debut like this I can’t wait to see what Heard comes out with next!!

I received this ebook through NetGalley and the publisher to read and provide my honest opinions.

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A phenomenal debut that masters both the art of writing memorable characters, and the art of pacing in this horror / psych thriller mashup.

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Hunting Annabelle
Wendy Heard
MIRA (December 18, 2018)
http://www.mirabooks.com
13-digit ISBN number 978-0778369349
$16.99
Suanne Schafer
suanneschafer.author@gmail.com
SuanneSchaferAuthor.com


Wow! Hunting Annabelle grabs readers from the start. Told in first person by Sean Suh, who has served three years in a psychiatric prison, the reader is immediately dragged into his lonely, dark, seemingly-twisted mind. Diagnosed with schizophrenia, Sean lives with his Korean mother, a well-known, well-respected physician, but a cold unloving mother.

Sean is an anti-hero deluxe. He knows he’s a monster and does his best to stay away from temptation, to avoid giving in to his urges to throttle women. Sean “loses time,” frequently feels drugged out by his psych meds, and has some PTSD symptoms from his time on the psych ward. There are enough hints that perhaps he isn’t as crazy as his diagnosing physicians assumed when they planted the schizophrenic label on him.

One day, at his usual hang-out, he is attracted to Annabelle—and, surprisingly, she to him. When Sean sees her being kidnapped, the lack of instant access to information slows the police investigation, so Sean launches his own investigation.

Heard does a superlative job capturing the 1980s with its lack of cell phones, faxes, and email. Also the milieu of the psychiatric world and the medications used to treat schizophrenia at the time. Heard also does a terrific job getting the reader to empathize with the oddball Sean.

Underneath the book lurks a current of menace—enough that I almost put the book down, fearing I wouldn’t be able to sleep. However, I was completely sucked in to Sean’s twisted mind.

Hunting Annabelle is twisted and dark and a bit creepy with a couple of totally unpredictable, yet very logical, twists at the end. I read this back-to-back with Joe Clifford’s upstate New York noir The One that Got Away and found the two books really complemented each other.

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I’m going to give this a 3.5. It was a twisty page turner. I like the unreliable narrator and the time period of the 80’s.

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Oh wow. Put some time away for this book. It has all the ingredients for a terrific psychological thriller.

No spoilers from me. Book is great with lots of lies, deception, tragedy, and twists. Also, loved the unpredictable ending. Can't say enough great about this. Read it today!!

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read this fabulous book.

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A quirky, unique and fascinating read; I absolutely loved this book. The choice of a schizophrenic main character with a history of violence makes for a truly different perspective & a very unreliable narrator. This lends a real sense of confusion and disorientation to the story and makes for a compelling page-turner. Highly, highly recommended.

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I loved that I had no idea what was going to happen. It wasn't a book I knew the ending two chapters in. I highly recommend this book to all mystery/thriller lovers. You will not be disappointed! A gripping read that will have you second guessing everything!!

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This was a tailspin of a read.

Sean Suh has a history of killing and has been diagnosed schizophrenic, but he has served his sentence and is released into the wild. Following his release from a psychiatric prison after three years, Sean is confident he is done with killing and is determined not to hurt anyone again. Until he meets Annabelle and his urges are reignited.

On their first date, she is abducted and Sean witnesses the entire event. Given his history and his laundry list of medication, Sean’s credibility is unreliable at best; but he is determined to find her. Will Sean’s hunt for Annabelle release his inner demons and set him back in his rehabilitation and recovery? Who can he trust when he’s been isolated from the outside world for years.

This was a dark and twisted read with A LOT of creep. I was hooked immediately at page 1 and never looked back. Wendy Heard is genius with this fresh take on a psychological thriller – I never saw that ending coming. I thought I had it all figured out (I initially thought it was all in Sean’s head and he was hallucinating all that had transpired the night Annabelle went missing). Wendy Heard’s version was much better than what I had anticipated. Truly TWISTED. My compliments to the author on this debut.

I’m still reeling from all of the curve balls this book threw at me. I highly recommend this one to psych thriller fiction fans.

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Hunting Annabelle is one of those titles I have been looking forward to for quite some time now. The blurb sounded fantastic, with a mental health angle and a potentially dangerous and unreliable main character. And there is no doubt that Hunter Annabelle isn't your ordinary thriller read. While I do think the story read more YA than adult despite the twenty-something characters, this doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it any less. And the fact that the story is set in 1986 instead of the present is an interesting touch, because although not as present in the plot as a whole, it does show in the little details (mostly referring to the developments in mental health and police investigation). All in all it definitely wasn't the story I was expecting, but mostly in a good way. The writing on its own is engaging and the use of the unreliable narrator method well developed. The main character Sean is the perfect unreliable narrator candidate and him being both the good and bad guy at once is refreshing. While I did have some issues with the credibility and some of the plot twists, I do think that overall it was quite an interesting and original read. I wasn't sure about the final twists and chapters though... It seemed a bit farfetched and too big of change for me. But all in all I can still recommend Hunting Annabelle to any mystery/thriller fan looking for something different and refreshing.

If you are looking for an interesting thriller read with an original touch, Hunting Annabelle is a good option. Set in 1986, this story doesn't follow the typical thriller structure and plot and with the help of unreliable narrator Sean you will find yourself spinning in circles while you try to figure out what is happening. The final twists were a bit too farfetched and over the top to be credible for me, but it definitely isn't something you will see coming... Dark, intriguing, a healthy dose of blood and serial killer and a very interesting mental health angle: Hunting Annabelle has it all.

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HA-Hunting Annabelle is a 1st person POV about a Korean man and twenty three that after two dates with a mysterious girl, she is kidnnaped and he is trying to find out if its true or not and what come out of it.

Sean the main character had spend three years in a psychiatry hospital after an awful event. He lives with a controlling mother who has reasons to make he seems helpless. Throughout we learn more about him and his family dinamic and why his mother wants him to stay away of the investigation about Annabelle.

The book has a lot of potential and yet we really to sympathize for what he has suffer but I did not feel that he needed to go beyond his safe zone to save her.
I get that he likes and could feel that he wanted rede em himself.
We learn some things about Annabelle but I did not seems real, the last 80% was rushed and the things that were happened was unreal. I thought if she had some POVs I would have understood her. Sean is in a limbo and I am not sure with will be a good solution.

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This was a thrillingly good read. It was cool to read the book from the point of view of an unreliable narrator with serious mental health issues. It reminded me of the excellent books “You” and “ Hidden Bodies” by Caroline kepnes and the one of my favorite TV shows, Dexter. Thanks to the publisher, author and NetGalley for the free copy in exchange for an honest review.

4.2/5 stars

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3.5 stars. My introduction to Wendy Heard was the new podcast, Unlikeable Female Characters, which I listened to because one of the other co-hosts, Kristen Lepionka writes the marvelous Roxane Weary series. So when I saw Wendy's book on NetGalley, I had to check it out.

<i>Hunting Annabelle</i> is gripping and I was completely engrossed in the experience of reading it. I thought being inside Sean's head was fascinating, and I was eager to find out what happened, especially because Sean was such an unreliable narrator. I liked the writing style, the sense of the setting in 1980s Texas, and it was super suspenseful! Still I'm having a hard time deciding whether to round up or down, because I don't love the feeling I was left with at the end. In any case, it was an absorbing read and I will definitely be looking for more of the author's books in the future. I would recommend it to anyone who likes their thrillers extra twisted and who doesn't mind if the bad guys don't necessarily get what they deserve in the end.

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Sean is a loner with psychological problems. He meets and falls in love with Annabelle, who then disappears. He seems to be the only one worried about her but that backfires and the police are convinced that he is complicit in her disappearance and they believe he killed her. Wow a few twists and an unexpected ending.

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Sean is schizophrenic. His mom thinks he should just get over it. Sean meets Annabelle and is immediately drawn to her. Annabelle gets kidnapped and no one believes Sean so he goes off to find her on his own. What could possibly go wrong?

This book is VERY dark with a very creepy twist. I recommend it for thriller lovers who aren't easily creeped out (or who enjoy being creeped out).

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3.5 terrifying stars
Sean is quite a troubled young man, recently released from a mental institution after being convicted of a grisly murder. Sean is mentally ill, raised by what seems to be an uncaring brilliant neurosurgeon mother, he tries to escape the hallucinations, the psychotropic drugs the delusions, and the overwhelming urge to kill. He sees auras indicative of his schizophrenia, and then one day in a park he frequents he meets Annabelle and there is an instant connection. Could this be love for Sean? Can he believe he is somewhat normal? What about Annabelle, a young brilliant woman from a troubled past working her way through medical school. How can she be attracted to a man such as Sean?

Then the awful happens and Annabelle is kidnapped in sight of Sean. He runs to save her but is too late. What now, now that he is involved in this with a history such as his, how will this end? Is Sean ever the least bit reliable or is he a born killer? As Sean works his way in a desperate attempt to find Annabelle secrets and lies emerge sending him on a chase where no one will seem to win.

This was quite a tale of a contorted tangled web. The suspense stay at a fevered pace as Ms Heard takes us on a journey with characters who are demented, maniacal and unhinged. Recommended for those who like to travel with characters who are teetering on the edge of sanity versus insanity.

Thank you to Wendy Heard, Harlequin-Mira, and NetGalley for a copy of this frightening tale.

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3.5 “Dexter in the 1980’s” Stars

ARC via NetGalley

Thank you, Harlequin – Mira

This book isn’t coming out until December, but it’s been on my “most anticipated reads for 2018” for a while. I was lucky enough to get to it now and I can tell you, if you’re a fan of Dexter, you’ll probably really enjoy this.

Told from the POV of a killer—no spoilers, since this info is on the blurb—Hunting Annabelle is a psychological thriller filled with twisted and interesting characters, tension and even some moments that made me laugh a little (even though I know I shouldn’t).

The first chapter is so freaking good. It had a lot of mystery involving Sean (what he was/what he had done) and the chemistry between Sean and Annabelle was undeniable. I was so ready to fall madly in love with them and ignore the fact that Sean was a freaking killer. I’d done that with Dexter, so why not again, right?

Well, I did like Sean a lot, but there was a few things that kept this book from reaching first-couple-of-seasons-Dexter level of perfection to me.

First, I went into this under the impression that Sean and Annabelle were a thing. Don’t know why. I just read the blurb that way. So I expected a relationship (old or newish, but still something solid). Problem is, Sean and Annabelle spend so little time together before she’s kidnapped that it was really hard for me to connect with them and Sean’s love for her. Insta-love rarely works for me, and despite the awesome chemistry in the first chapter, this one didn’t. And because I couldn’t connect with “their love”, I ended up questioning a lot of Sean’s later thoughts and actions.

Second thing that didn’t work for me was the big twist. Not that there was anything wrong with the twist per se. It was a good one if you didn’t see it coming. Unfortunately for me, I guessed it on Chapter 4. I can even tell you the exact paragraph that made it all clear for me, because I highlighted it on my Kindle and added a note. Because of that, when the twist was revealed, it ended up having little impact on me.

BUT, big BUT here, the story was still intriguing, so I kept reading. I think what made this book the most interesting was the choice of POV. Being inside Sean’s head was at times confusing (in a good way), entertaining and disturbing. He was going through so much and trying so hard to keep it together, I couldn’t help but root for him. And the times he let go and embraced the darkest parts of him made for some shocking and entertaining scenes. Those were probably the moments I got Dexter-feels the most.

I love Dexter-feels.

I can’t get into details about the last part of the book (after the reveal) and the ending because of spoilers, but let’s just say those of you who didn’t guess the twist and enjoy messed up characters doing messed up things will enjoy the heck out of some scenes.

Overall, Hunting Annabelle was an interesting read from a debut author that shows promise. The fact that it, at times, reminded me of one of my favorite TV shows only made it better.

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I couldn't get into this one and ended up DNF-ing. Thanks for the consideration. The premise sounded interesting but I was having a hard time relating/liking the main character.

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One thoroughly dark and delightfully evil romp of a book. Perfect for fans of I AM NOT A SERIAL KILLER and PROVIDENCE!

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