Anne by Zarina Macha – Book Review
Anne by Zarina Macha – Book Review
Anne
Author – Zarina Macha
Pages – 268
Release Date – 3rd June 2019
ISBN 13 – 978-1916132603
Format – ebook, paperback
Review by – Marcia
Rating – 3.5 Stars
I received a free copy of this book.
This post contains affiliate links.
‘Are you okay, Mummy? Did Daddy hurt you again?’
Anne Mason’s childhood in Richmond emulates suburban bliss, with a wealthy father and a loving mother. But behind the polished windows, Anne’s father terrorizes her mother, shattering their utopian home life with beatings and beer. Home-schooled on a diet of books and museums, knowledge becomes Anne’s only saviour.
One night her dad comes home with the news that her mother has left them forever. Unable to care for his daughter, Anne is sent to live with her kindly aunt and uncle. Struggling to settle into day school, Anne enrolls in Lakeland Boarding School. She meets and falls for gentle Karen, whose friends torment Anne and her troubled roommate Simone.
Forced to confront her traumatic upbringing, Anne learns the horrors of the past and present. Will love, hope, and inner strength prevail?
To the outside world, Anne Mason’s life looks ideal. Her father is wealthy and her mother is loving. But behind closed doors, her father is a bully. He’s an abusive husband as well as an alcoholic.
Anne is home-schooled because her father wants to have as much control over her as he can. Learning and knowledge soon become her saviour.
One night after years of abuse her father comes home telling her that her mother has left. He places Anne in the care of his sister, her husband, and their children. There she does find some happiness, but the past keeps coming back to haunt her, especially when she is sent to boarding school.
Her ordeal is relieved through the help of a therapist. As she assesses her past you get to witness everything the young Anne endured at the hands of her father and what impact that has had on her young adult life.
Anne is a highly emotional book that will make you understand what it is like to live with an abusive parent. Young Anne is a lovely, sweet girl who didn’t ask to be brought into a world of torture and pain at the hands of someone who should have been there to protect her. Her mother did all she could to isolate her daughter from her father and take the brunt force of his temper but no matter how hard she tried she never fully succeeded.
The book deals with some difficult issues in an accessible way and it is written is a sort of diary/journal style. It will have you reaching for the tissues on more than one occasion as some scenes will have your heart-breaking. I was a little surprised by the ending but can fully understand why the author chose to end the book that way she did.
It was a hard read at times and I wouldn’t choose to read it again, however, it was a decent, slow-paced read with characters that get under your skin and the main character you will take into your heart.
Book Reviewer – Marcia
Purchase online from:
Amazon.co.uk – Amazon.com – Amazon.in – Blackwells
About the Author
Zarina Macha is an author, blogger and musician born and raised in London, UK. She studied Songwriting and Creative Artistry at The Academy of Contemporary Music in Guildford. She regularly writes a social comment blog titled ‘The Zarina Macha Blog.’ In her spare time she loves reading and fan-girling over Game of Thrones.
She has independently published four books. Every Last Psycho and Anne are her young-adult fiction novels that deal with mental illness, drug abuse, domestic violence and coming-of-age. Art is a Waste of Time and Single Broke Female are her two poetry books.
