This was a complete and total mindf*ck. I couldn't make heads or tails of who was the "good guy" and who was the "bad guy," which means the authors totally did their job and did it well. However, because of the manipulation and feeling uncomfortable the entire time, I had a hard time giving this any higher than 3 star rating. It's a good book, it was a little overwhelming to me though but that's 100% on me. Defintely worth a pick-up if you can stomach master manipulators and feeling uncomfortable during a read.

I really enjoyed this book. What starts out as a harmless way to make a little money turns into a life altering event. Everyone has an ulterior motivative so who can you trust? It will keep you guessing till the end.

Seeking women ages 18–32 to participate in a study on ethics and morality. Generous compensation. Anonymity guaranteed.

Jessica Farris’ life isn’t going as she hoped. She has rent due and decides to crash a study on morality being run by Dr. Shields. All she has to do it answer a few questions and collect a check…..easy enough! The questions become more personal and intense, but Jessica powers through.

Jessica does so well in the study that she moves onto phase 2 – real life application. She is paid even more to complete little “jobs” for Dr. Shields. As Jessica’s unease grows with each “job” she wonders if this is worth it.

An Anonymous Girl is told in alternating voices, Jessica’s and Dr. Shields’, both unreliable. Both characters are manipulative and deceitful to each other and others. Plenty of twists and turns to keep you guessing until the very end. An Anonymous Girl will provide you with deceit, jealousy, doubt and passion! The suspense builds at a nice steady pace, which kept me engaged and reading too late for a work night.

Jessica scams her way into an anonymous survey about morality and ethics with the elusive Dr. Shields; it pays $500 for two days and she could really use the money. The questions are deep and she finds herself thinking about them for days afterwards, so when Dr. Shields contacts her and asks if she'd like to be part of a new survey that involves real-world tasks, she doesn't hesitate to say yes. Except nothing is what it seems and she soon finds herself in a web of lies as she tries to figure out who to trust, and if she can even trust herself.

AN ANONYMOUS GIRL pulled me in very quickly. Hendricks and Pekkanen write very well together; even though there are two distinct POVs, it seems as though one author has written the whole thing. I liked the plot, I thought it was fresh. And Jessica! She was very real imo, she had flaws that weren't brushed off as quirks.

The story wasn't necessarily predictable, but it also didn't shock me in the twists & turns it took. I enjoyed it a lot!

With a totally intriguing plot, this book captures the reader and keeps them on their toes until the very last word. A psychological suspense that you will want to curl up and devour page by page. Hendricks and Pekkanen are a team to be reckoned with.

The Anonymous Girl unfortunately is not for me. The story was interesting but overall I wasn't wowed by the characters. I found the storytelling to be very predictable. Around the halfway point the story just fell flat, there was not much going on, and the main characters became very redundant. I found myself reading but not focusing on anything in particular. I was very sad, since I really was excited about this book based on other reviews and that amazing cover. The book was well written, and I was able to understand where the story was trying to go. Despite this, I am not giving up on these authors, I look forward to reading books from them in the future. Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for my advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

In An Anonymous Girl a young woman impulsively enters a computerized study on ethics and morality - and her life and things get stranger and stranger. This is a very suspenseful read. Jessica finds herself in the middle of a very twisted relationship and I had no idea of how this would end up. You may think you know how it’s going to go, but NOPE, it’s not. It is full of mind games, insecurities, jealousy, and paranoia. This is the second book I have read by these two authors and I’ve enjoyed both very much. This is a Cat & Mouse thrilling read!

A makeup artist is at a client's home when she hears a voice mail on her client's phone, confirming an appointment for a paid psychological study. The client mentions that she is not planning to attend, so Jess shows up in her place. The study is concerning morality and although she is nervous about some of the questions at first, she soon relaxes. What she has no idea of is that the professor who is doing the study is not only reading what she types as she types it, but also has a camera trained on her to watch her every move.
This story is told in alternating chapters from Jess's point of view and from the professor's. This book grabs you from the very beginning and I couldn't put it down until the very end. I have to say, this is one of the best psychological thrillers I have read lately. I highly recommend it!

4+ stars

What would you do for money if your family’s wellbeing depended on it? Would you participate in a study about ethics, revealing the ethical boundaries you’re willing to cross? Would you get drawn in further, and do some real life role playing for the sake of the research? What if it slowly dawned on you that there was more to what was going on than a research study?
These two authors sure know how to come up with clever, original, on the edge of your seat stories. I liked The Wife Between. An Anonymous Girl is just as good. There are a few good twists -- what’s up and down keeps shifting -- and the ending is very clever.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy.
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I really love a good thriller and this book delivered just that! At first I wasn’t sure where this was going but I am so glad that I pushed through. So many twists in this one, subtle twists but twists nonetheless. The plot was solid and character development solid too! I would recommend this book to anyone who loves a great thriller. Once the story got started and we’re told more of why all the players are involved it was hard to put down. Although long/drawn out and the ending seemed sort of rushed (IMO all thrillers wrap up rather quickly) I honestly enjoyed this one! 3.5 stars rounded up to 4 in my book!

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.

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.

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.