Reviews

The Anniversary by Stephanie Bishop

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beclupton's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

louisek96's review

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reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

This book hooked me in very quickly, but lost me just as fast. Though I did enjoy the unreliable narrator and the exploration of relationships, I think that the pacing was off and there were too many unnecessary details. The ending was interesting, but I felt it took too long to reach it.

hellalibrary's review against another edition

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I love a book about power dynamics in relationships and I really enjoyed The Anniversary because of this. It’s definitely a slow burn and it’s a domestic mystery - I don’t want to say thriller because it was slow in parts. But I did enjoy the discourse on how writers “see” truth as well as the older professor/younger student he marries discussion. However, it was just a big too slow for me. Might pick it up again at another time.

anthea_christie's review

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dark emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

lissgriffin's review

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dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No

3.75

lastpaige111's review against another edition

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3.0

Twisty dark and taut but based on a too frequently employed trope.

tasmanian_bibliophile's review

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4.0

‘We’d not done anything like this before, never been so extravagant. In fact, we’d hardly celebrated the date in any way.’

JB Blackwood and Patrick Heller have been married for 14 years. She is a novelist; he is a renowned filmmaker. They met when she was a university student, and he was a visiting professor. He is twenty or so years older than she is, and as she makes arrangements for a cruise to celebrate their wedding anniversary, they seem to be drifting apart. Patrick is reluctant to travel, but JB is determined. And, while she’s making the arrangements, she learns that she is to win a literary prize for her latest novel. JB is sworn to secrecy, unable to tell Patrick. She goes along with this: although the timing is tight, she’ll have time to make the award ceremony in New York.

‘How is it that we find ourselves so easily persuaded by this idea of our own greatness, the vision of our invincibility, when really what we know we need is an acknowledgment of our real, if only passing feeling of weakness and incapacity?’

While on the cruise, Patrick goes overboard during a storm. He was drunk and they had argued: he is lost at sea. JB is in shock, and seemingly unable to remember what happened. JB is interviewed by the police. Patrick’s body is recovered. JB travels to New York for the award ceremony, and then to Australia for a book tour.

‘It’s easy now to see the events of that night from a distance. To recognise a trajectory of inevitability that was closed to me at the time.’

I was about one hundred pages in before this novel tightened its grip on me. JB releases information in drips: we don’t even learn her given name until well into the story: is she an unreliable narrator, or is she (simply) being miserly with the details? At its heart, this is the story of a complicated marriage, one in which the roles of the partners are changing. And, after Patrick’s death, JB is measured (or continues to be measured) against his achievements and existence. JB is haunted. In part there’s the rejection she felt when her mother left when she was young, and the changing relationship she has with Patrick who seemed to resent her achievements.

‘I have come to understand, too late perhaps, that my life has been defined by the very relationship I’d sought to escape.’

While it was easy for me to dislike Patrick, I didn’t much care for JB either. And yet … I could appreciate the struggles JB faced to establish herself, to try to step out of her husband’s shadow. Would Patrick have been judged the same way if their situations had been reversed? I wonder.

This is a complex, multi-layered novel. It’s the situation I will remember rather than the characters. I am left wondering whether Patrick fell overboard …

Jennifer Cameron-Smith