Annaliese wakes up and finds herself covered in blood with no idea where she is or even WHO she is. As she finds help, she comes to find out who she is and is reunited with her parents. She finds out that the last time she was seen was in the woods at a party and she came screaming and soaked with blood and then was never seen again. While her memory still evades her, she has the sense that she is not the real Annaliese and she’s having strange dreams and visions that support her theory. These dreams show her other girls and some grisly things and slowly she starts to put together the pieces as these memories come more frequently. What she finds out is more frightening than she could have ever imagined.
My brain is one big pile of mush after this book and I’m really so confused about my thoughts. Is it possible to not know what I thought about this book? Because that’s what my brain is telling me. It’s all, “Jamie. Just give up. I can’t give you definite thoughts about this matter and it hurts to try” Seriously, a whole lot of mind WTFery going on here with this book. I can’t tell if I loved it intensely or if I was just confused in a bad way so I’ll just share my reading experience instead.
So basically, if you’ve read the synopsis, you know that the main character has no idea who she is. She’s been missing and then suddenly is found wandering in a town far away from her own with blood on her. They tell her who she is and she just suspects that she’s not that person. She can’t remember anything but something tells her she’s not. So immediately I’m like is this a Pretty Girl-13 situation? WHAT IS HAPPENING? What did she block out because it was so terrible? Is this in her head? Is there something dark and paranormal going on? And then, as these dreams/memories start happening while she’s trying to settle into this weird life that seems to not be hers, it gets creepy and I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough because it was so fascinating. I was just clamoring for some clarity as to what was going on!
I’ll be honest — you need to be a very patient kind of reader for this one because it is more madness and confusion for most of the book and it takes a while for things to come together and form a semi-clear picture as to what is happening and even then I spent a lot of time being confused and throwing out “WTF’s” like it was my job. If you like books that mess with your mind a bit and can be patient, this might be your thing. I know a LOT of people who had to put it down because the confusion wasn’t worth it which was the opposite for me. I personally was more intrigued than anything and the strangeness of it kept me reading — it wasn’t like anything I had ever read before — very macabre, disturbing and dark and not altogether what I expected. There are a lot of flashback sort of things interspersed with the present story and those flashbacks jump around a bit so that adds to the confusion in ways. It’s one of those really disjointed styles that just leaves you unsettled, disoriented and not quite with a grasp on what is happening — you feel like you are losing your mind a bit.
I don’t want to say a lot to give anything away plot-wise or to make it easier for you to guess what is going on. I’ll say the one area of certain disappointment came for me more towards the end. I had been wided eyed, furiously turning the pages and feeling upside down and inside out while reading and then when things came together more it wasn’t AS compelling (still compelling though). BUT I was still curious to know the origins of what was happening and I felt like at the end I still didn’t understand what fully happened (physician, brujas). I think if I wouldn’t have felt that way at the very end this book would have been a damn near perfect book for me.
Undoubtedly one of the strangest books I’ve ever read in my entire life. I don’t know what way is up or down with this book. Written in this terrifyingly beautiful and haunting way, it completely sucked me into Annaliese’s story of not knowing who she is and then slowly putting the pieces together to learn who she is. I spent most of the time confused — a good confused for the most part — and it was very motivating for me as a reader because I was dying to know what happened and my brain couldn’t even comprehend what was going on in this very macabre and creepy story. I’m a patient reader and I think you need to be one, as well as love wildly strange things, to enjoy this book. I can’t make a sweeping recommending for it for that reason. The only thing I’m certain that made this perfect NOT a perfect book for me was that I just still wasn’t sure at the end if I really GOT what happened. I think I did but I don’t know.
Let’s Talk: Have you read this one?? Heard about it? If you’ve read this one, what did you think? I know some people either HATED it or couldn’t even finish it but then there was those that LOVED it. It was definitely daring and different. PLEASE TALK TO ME ABOUT IT! Mark your comments as spoilers please if discussing with me 🙂
Nina @ The Sea Of Pages says
I read this one and then got to the part where she’s sitting in the bleachers and salivating after the, I think he”s a football player, and I just couldn’t decide if I was disliking it or not. Your definitely right it was strange and I’m not entirely sure if it was a good strange or bad strange. Either way it wasn’t what I was expecting.
Stormy @ Book.Blog.Bake. says
I read this book over Halloween, and I’m definitely one of those who loved it, despite the insanity and confusion of it all. I’m not sure I quite “get” the ending, but the more I think about it, the more I hope it’ll come to me in time. It was definitely a weird book, but I found it rewarding in the end and such a page turner! I definitely had to skim over some parts, though, because this book was really bloody and there were definitely some ew/horrifying moments.
Dragana @ Bookworm Dreams says
I liked the chilling atmosphere and unexpectedness of ‘Another Little Piece’ but the more and more I read the book felt ‘less’ to me. All characters were so tragic, there was no normal ordinary person… And there were left so many unexplained holes in paranormal background… And is it just me or are everyone just too much obsessed with sex? Sadly, this was one of those book that got the label not-for-me.
Tammy @ Books Bones & Buffy says
Oh yeah, I know just what you mean! I personally loved it but I had no idea what was going on either. When I did find out, I was in denial. Like, “No that cannot possibly be happening. No I must have misunderstood that!” It was a complete mind f*ck. I wish she had been clearer and explained better what was happening, and then the book would have been brilliant.
Danie @ The Bookish Brunette says
I completely and totally agree with every single bit of this review. I really liked the creepiness factor. It weirded me out and made me read with the lights on. But it was really confusing at parts, and it seemed like I almost had to “work to hard” to understand what’s going on. Like you said though, it’s an experience.
Katrina @ Bookish Things says
Seriously loved this book, and agree with everything you said. The explanation didn’t make a whole lot of sense, but the story was a big confusing mess that kept me pulled in. I loved how it was disjointed, definitely added to the creep factor.
Jen @ Pop! Goes The Reader says
If I’m being entirely honest, I had very little interest in reading this novel – That is, until I read your review! I love novels with unreliable narrators and don’t mind a little confusion and uncertainty along the way as I tend to be a patient reader who likes to become engrossed in a convoluted mystery, particularly when it’s interwoven with the possibility of the paranormal. I’m intrigued by the fact that both you and many of those who have commented have touched on the fact that the ending is relatively open ended and open to interpretation, as that’s something I normally enjoy too. While I’m sorry that you weren’t left with an entirely positive impression of this novel, I find that sometimes the best books of all are those we’re left to continue to think about long after we’ve finished them. Another Little Piece definitely sounds like one such story!
Rashika says
I read this book earlier this year and absolutely adored it.
I’ll admit I was going to give up at one point, half way through the book I couldn’t take the confusion any more. It was just mind boggling and extremely confusing. The only thing about the book that kept me going on was the lovely poetry. When I started the second half, I was so glad I continued because I fell in love with the book. It’s one of the most unique books I’ve ever read.
Great review Jamie 🙂
Wendy Darling says
I love love love the weirdness of this book. When I finished, I was the same way–I think my initial placeholder review on GoodReads was “WTF did I just read?!” I agree that there were some aspects that definitely could have been better explored (even if she didn’t want to give us explanations for everything) or detailed, but I found the moodiness and cray-cray extremely compelling reading. I’m glad you enjoyed it overall, too!
Wendy @ The Midnight Garden
Ashley @ Backstage Book Lover says
I’ve been wanting to read this book for awhile. I’m not sure if I’ll like it or not, but the it sounds so different from anything else I’ve read. I know going in that I’m going to be SO frustrated, but reviews like yours make it seem worth it.
Kaylee says
That’s EXACTLY how I felt after reading this a week or two ago. Except you may have liked it more than I did. I feel like I was left with too many unanswered questions to be fully satisfied. It was definitely an interesting read like no other.
Alexa Y. says
This book sounds so very strange and intense! I’m not particularly a fan of macabre, confusing reads, so I’m probably not going to read it BUT I am glad to know that you liked it when you read it.
Lesley says
I finished reading this maybe the day before yesterday, and honestly I’ve decided I wasn’t a fan. It took until the final quarter for me to decide I wasn’t a fan, I’d been sitting on the fence all the way through. I just found it a bit boring, actually. At first I was curious and wanting to know what was happening, but it took so long to get anywhere that I stopped caring. And the bits with the brujas made me want to throw the book at a wall, but that’s just a personal preference thing!
Glad to hear I wasn’t the only one who was unsure about this one, though!