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A review by rhifallows
Ana by Joanne Louise Hardy, James Redfield
4.0
It feels weird to say that I enjoyed this book given the fact the subject matter within it is so bleak, but I really did enjoy this book.
Ana is a fictional tale but it is based on a true story, which makes it all the more harrowing in my opinion. We follow Ana as she makes her way through a difficult childhood into an equally difficult adulthood. Poor Ana didn’t have a great deal of positivity happening in her life! With that in mind there are many trigger warnings attached to this: abuse, rape, addiction, miscarriage and probably more that I forgot to note down.
The story is told almost as a memoir, looking back on her life events with the benefit of hindsight and her now spiritual outlook - the spiritual side of things only comes into the book right at the very end but there are little comments on it peppered throughout the book and it also means that the story is told in a very to the point manner, no self indulgence or wallowing.
While reading this I was almost imagining that I was reading from the perspective of Agnes (Shuggie Bain’s mother). She was a character I really struggled with in Shuggie but because of the way the character was written in this book I found myself feeling a lot more empathy towards Ana than I did towards Agnes. She was a mighty flawed character and had good reason to be the way she was, but she shows grit and determination that really had me rooting for her!
The last little section of the book was the more spiritual element, which I understand was important to the way the story was told, however I did feel this bit to be a tiny bit rushed in comparison to the rest of the book and I could have read more about this part of her journey.
A very interesting story that I somehow found very easy to read despite the subject matter being so dark.
Ana is a fictional tale but it is based on a true story, which makes it all the more harrowing in my opinion. We follow Ana as she makes her way through a difficult childhood into an equally difficult adulthood. Poor Ana didn’t have a great deal of positivity happening in her life! With that in mind there are many trigger warnings attached to this: abuse, rape, addiction, miscarriage and probably more that I forgot to note down.
The story is told almost as a memoir, looking back on her life events with the benefit of hindsight and her now spiritual outlook - the spiritual side of things only comes into the book right at the very end but there are little comments on it peppered throughout the book and it also means that the story is told in a very to the point manner, no self indulgence or wallowing.
While reading this I was almost imagining that I was reading from the perspective of Agnes (Shuggie Bain’s mother). She was a character I really struggled with in Shuggie but because of the way the character was written in this book I found myself feeling a lot more empathy towards Ana than I did towards Agnes. She was a mighty flawed character and had good reason to be the way she was, but she shows grit and determination that really had me rooting for her!
The last little section of the book was the more spiritual element, which I understand was important to the way the story was told, however I did feel this bit to be a tiny bit rushed in comparison to the rest of the book and I could have read more about this part of her journey.
A very interesting story that I somehow found very easy to read despite the subject matter being so dark.