Anna is living with her family in Ireland, recouperating after an accident. Everybody is taking great care of her, but she can’t shake the feeling that people are tip-toeing around her. And she can’t seem to reach Aidan, who is still in New York. As soon as she’s healed she decides she must go back to her old apartment, her job as a PR for a beauty brand, her old life.
Anybody out there is written in a light, breezy language with a likable main character. Anna is strong, she is flawed and she is deeply entrenched in her family and her relationships. Her voice feels believable and it’s nice just to spend time with her.
So much so that when the real themes of the book happen they almost surprise you, yet they never overwhelm. As the book progresses it becomes less of a romance story and more of a tome on loss and moving on. Anna turns to the occult trying to reach out across time and space and borders between worlds. She is vulnerable, but there is nowhere to turn when you have to move into the world with the loss of a person. The book raises the question of growth and development, of life after death as Anna grapples with moving on and growing as a person without losing all the wonder the ones who lose did give?
It’s a perfect book to step into another world where you can safely examine some of your own losses. The book navigates warmly and respectfully between some pretty sad events and, while a happy ending is probably too much to ask for, it does wrap up nicely with hope for the future