Although this is the second book in the "Jane Anonymous" series, you definitely don't need to have read that book to appreciate and understand this one. They are only peripherally related to each other. They have story elements in common (both are books about teen girls who were abducted) but the characters don't interconnect.

This is the story of Terra, told "Then" and "Now". After losing her parents in a house fire that she survived, she is now living with her aunt. Terra was abducted from her own bed after attending a college party, spent four days at the bottom of a well, and was able to escape and return home. But there are suspicious holes in what she has told everyone and pretty much no one believes her, thinking that she made the whole thing up for attention. She goes online to a chat room for other survivors and finds another girl named Peyton that she connects with who has a similar story. Then Peyton disappears.

This is definitely a YA thriller and at times the angst of a teenager and the histrionics got a little too much for me. I was invested throughout because I wanted to know if Terra's abduction was real--I went back and forth many times because she's a terribly unreliable narrator-and I wanted to know what was going on with Peyton.

I can't say that I was entirely satisfied with the way things wrapped up. It was a little strange and not believable to me. The ultimate resolution of Jane Anonymous was so much more believable and frightening, this one just left me a little flat. It jumped around a bit too much and wasn't as cohesive a story as it could have been.

Overall, it was a fast-paced worthwhile read, it kept me turning pages and invested throughout.

I've read lots of unreliable narrator books, but to me, there has to be an element of believability in order to keep the reader engaged, and that was missing from this. And so, when the reveal happened, it was just as unbelievable as the story itself.

I really enjoyed this! Terra’s story was interesting and unpredictable, I love an unreliable narrator. I had no idea what was going to be happening. I didn’t even put all the pieces together until Terra herself did. I was suspecting of everyone but who I should’ve been.

Highly recommend for thriller lovers! I didn’t realize this was a companion novel to the author’s previous book, but I’m definitely going to be checking that out

This just didn’t end up being a book that interested me. When I first read the premise, I was very excited and invested, but getting into it made it clear that it just wasn’t for me. Hopefully it works for others out there!

I would like to extend my gratitude to the author, publisher and NetGalley for sending this advanced reader's copy in return for a fair and honest review.

What I read of this book was alright; nothing special. I did not know, however, that this was a sequel, and it was definitely a first book that had to be read to understand what was going on here.

This thriller uses an unreliable narrator which can be hit or miss with me. I thought it was written well. Unfortunately, this thriller played into the stereotypical horror movie, the teenagers don't make smart choices trope which I really dislike.

3.5 stars

This book was pretty good. I didn't like it as much [book:Jane Anonymous|45045194]. This one moved a lot slower. The narrator was the definition of unreliable though, which got a little tedious at times. All in all it was pretty good and I will definitely keep trying Laurie's books.

This book seems very interesting, however I failed to realize that it was a sequel. I don't know if I'll ever read book one to get to this one, but if I do I will update my review then.

A DNF -- got about halfway through but this book left such a bad taste in my mouth from the beginning. I don't know where it came from, but having the protagonist be someone with a mental illness who didn't take her meds, is such a messy trope. It's a dangerous trope.

This was such a great thriller!! I was at the edge of my seat the entire book. Terra was abducted and kept in a well for days, when she finally escaped nobody believed her until she meets someone online that has a similar story as Terras. I had never read anything by this author but will be looking for future books!

For the most parts I really enjoyed this book. It took me a while to get into, but the more I read the more I wanted to find out what was going to happen next. I liked all the twists this book had and did not see all of them coming.

After reading this one I might pick up Jane Anonymous at some point.

As much as I wanted to love this, I think a few things held me back from being able to immerse myself. I'd read this author's previous work, which is a companion novel to this one, and here the writing style seemed less inspired. It had moments in the heroine's POV that didn't sound like her voice, and if that was an intentional choice due to the unreliable narrator trope, it fell flat for me. I also guess the decision to have her be unreliable being the decision not to take her medication made me uncomfortable. That's definitely a "it's not the book, it's me" situation that I saw another reviewer discuss - I'm certain plenty of people would be okay with that, I just wasn't.

The mystery was intriguing enough, despite it's shaky catalyst. I was decently gripped throughout, only stopping when I felt the writing style dip. I think more consistency in voice would have saved that in my opinion, and I tried to ignore when some scenes seemed less fleshed out.

I will say with the time skipping, the ending felt very satisfying for me. I think the author did an amazing job with that. I would still be interested to read from this author in the future given the potential, I think this book just had some tropes and choices that made it personally hard for me to appreciate.

Twisty, mind bending and CRAZY. I was not at all expecting that twist. Unreliable narrator makes for such an interesting and layered story. I love this author so much.

I could sympathize a lot with main character of this book. A lot of people don't realize that mental illness is real and would rather brush the truth off as make believe.

The main character of this book was abducted. She was held against her will until she was lucky enough to escape the hell that was thrust upon her. The problem is that nobody believes her. Everyone things it was a symptom of her psychosis.

When one of her friends in an online chat seems to be in trouble there isn't anything she wouldn't do to help. Even when nobody seems to believe that this is transpiring either.

It's up to her to help the ones that have been there through thick and thin. The ones that's she's come to trust blindly. A trust that really should have been given more carefully.

I was thrilled to find out this was the second installment of Jane Anonymous. I really enjoyed the first book in the series.

First of all, I didn't realize this was the second book to something, so maybe that influenced how much I understood it. My real problem though was that it was too angsty. Terra spent so much time feeling sorry for herself, and it really got on my nerves. I don't think this is something that will bother everyone, but personally I hate angst. I do think the mystery was interesting, but it wasn't anything groundbreaking. Overall I think this was just okay.

Well, this book was not for me. It wasn’t a book that I hated but it wasn’t one that I liked all that much either. I realize that I am not the target audience for the book but I decided to take a chance on it anyway. A lot of times those chances work out well but sometimes they don’t.

Terra hasn’t had an easy life. She has lived with her aunt since her parents died and she has survived an abduction where she was kept for days inside of a pit. There is one problem though since most people don’t believe that she made the whole story up. Her aunt never reported her missing and there is no evidence supporting her claims but Terra knows what happened to her. She looks for support on a website for survivors, Jane Anonymous, where she really connects with another user. When Peyton disappears from the website, Terra knows that she needs to do something.

I didn’t connect with any of the characters in this book. The book does jump around in time quite a bit and I didn’t think that the transitions from one period of time to the next was always as smooth as it could have been. I was never invested in the mystery of the story since Terra was always sure about what happened so either it happened as she said or she was an unreliable narrator. I realized that the book wasn’t clicking for me about halfway through when I was more focused on how much longer I had to listen to the book before it was over than what was happening to the characters.

I thought that Stephanie Willing did a great job with the narration of this story. I thought that she did a wonderful job voicing the different characters. She had a very pleasant voice that was easy to listen to for long periods of time. I do believe her narration is the reason that I never even considered not finishing the book. Unfortunately, her narration alone couldn’t save this book for me.

I would encourage anyone who thinks this book sounds like something that they would like to give it a try. It wasn’t the right book for me but it might be for another reader. I would be more than willing to try more of Laurie Faria Stolarz’s work in the future.

I received a digital review copy of this book from St. Martin’s Press via NetGalley and borrowed a copy of the audiobook from my local library.

I enjoyed some parts of this book more than others. Maybe I should have read the first book in the series before starting with this one. With that being said, I would be open to reading more from Stolarz and perhaps will go back and read the first book.

3.5/5

It’s taken a while for me to read this book, I couldn’t get in to it, didn’t find it thrilling as I’d have expected and I found it repetitive

I think everything about this book embodies "YA thriller," moreso than any other book I think I've ever read. No other book has filled me with the sense of dread the way this one has. Once I started reading it, I couldn't stop because I HAD to know how it was going to end.

Terra has lived through some serious trauma. After her parents died in a fire, she doesn't really have any idea which way is up. As if this wasn't enough, she is abducted from her bed by a man she does not know, and after four days at the bottom of a well, she escapes, stumbles her way home, and deals with her trauma. Except there is no evidence that anybody can find about what she remembers. Terra is sure she experienced this abduction. She enters an online chat to find other survivors and finds a friend who has gone through a similar experience. Once it appears that she has disappeared again, Terra will do anything to save her friend, even if that means putting herself at risk once again.

This book is intense. It was difficult to read in places. Terra's guilt after the death of her parents was tangible. Having to have lived an experience which nobody believes actually happened is trauma on a whole different level. I felt so terrible for her. She lost her family, she lost her friends, and her own aunt doesn't believe her. Terra feels entirely alone, but is determined to prove that her experience really happened.

I think teens will love this book. Terra's story keeps twisting and turning until the reader doubts Terra, and she experiences her trauma, we do too. It was very well done. I wish I could give Terra a great big hug. I wasn't quite satisfied with the ending, but that could be because the author left it open for a sequel (YES PLEASE)

Content: Abduction, fire, bullying, other potentially triggering situations for survivors of trauma. Recommended for older teens.

I want to thank NetGalley & Wednesday Books ​very much for providing me with a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review

This is certainly a difficult story to read at times because it focuses much on an extremely traumatic event where the main character is the survivor who escapes from her captor. I enjoyed the plot a lot, due to how it’s told and from what point of view it is played, and also I find it extremely intriguing, although heartbreaking, to see how the veracity of the victim’s kidnapping story is questioned a lot to the point of humiliating and treating her as a liar. Of course, all this makes it a hard-hitting book, but you still can’t stop reading because there are many unknowns things to which you want to know the answers.

First of all, I want to mention two things, first I didn’t read “Jane, Anonymous” before reading this book, and I don’t think that’s really necessary, even so, if you want to do it you’ll surely have a greater context and a better idea of what you’ll find yourself with & second, I wanted to clarify that some scenes can be quite graphic and some descriptions are painful to read, so I recommend discretion if you’re a sensitive person.

Regarding the story itself, it’s very interesting. I love the mystery. This book has a great element of mystery in it, which I liked because it’s written in a way that you feel the frustration that the characters feel. And you can go on creating your own ideas and conclusions about each action. It’s a book that calls you a lot to reflect on, and that’s a very interesting complement. In addition, I also appreciate the pace of the book because despite being a fairly short book it’s not a story that passes quickly, on the contrary, it has a slow pace that I think is very correct for this type of more intense, dark and dark plots.

One factor that I absolutely adore and it’s something I usually love in thrillers is that this is a book that makes you wonder what’s real and what’s not, it has moments when you think “oh, well this makes sense” and then something happens and make you question your previous thoughts. All these elements make this a very addictive and entertaining book to read.

On the other hand, something that prevented me from enjoying the book completely is that I didn’t like the characters very much, in general, I feel that they need more development work or depth in their personalities, this doesn’t mean that I haven’t felt the emotions for what they’ve to go through, especially the main character who is Terra, but I would have liked a little more development there.

I don’t really have much more to say about the book, especially since everything is a potential spoiler, so I try to tell you a little about what I felt and what happened to me without revealing too much, which is a challenge. Basically, this is a pretty solid story about a girl struggling to be heard after going through a totally traumatic situation that no one seems to believe 100% of. Keeps you intrigued all the time wanting to know what will happen. It has something very dynamic due to its small details and because it makes you wonder many things, it’s also very interesting to see how it develops and everything ends up making a lot of sense. On the other hand, the ending wasn’t the best, I think it lacks the impact and that vibe that the book knows how to maintain very well at the beginning, so I don’t think the ending is something to highlight, but I would still recommend the book as it has many intriguing factors to discover and also solid revelations and twists that I’m sure you can enjoy if you like this type of genre.