In The Anniversary by Stephanie Bishop, author J.B. Blackwood, takes her husband, Patrick, a famous film director, on a cruise to celebrate their anniversary. J.B. is nursing a secret – she has won a yet-to-be-announced major literary prize. A storm hits, and Patrick falls from the ship. That might sound overly dramatic, but actually, this book is a moral thriller, and the story unfolds from that point onward (and there’s a lot more to it).

In a story… the feeling of not knowing what happens next is often a thing of pleasure: the cornerstone of our delight… But the same feeling of not-knowing, as it happens in one’s real life, is rarely so pleasurable…

Although I’m busting to reveal more elements of the plot, I won’t. Instead, I’ll highlight some of the major themes.

1. Power in relationships

There’s power in every relationship – sometimes one person holds the power, and sometimes it shifts.

Patrick was J.B.’s  former professor. He was also much older than J.B. When they met and then married, he was a cult figure. Years later, as his success was starting to wane, J.B.’s star began to rise. The story moves backwards and forwards in time to reveal the changing dynamic in their relationship, which in turn raises questions about some of  J.B.’s decisions.

I had known for some time that our successes were out of step. His work overshadowed mine for years, and so when my own triumphs finally arrived I let myself look away.

He was burnt out and I had made it. I had made it, as we say, not because but perhaps in spite of him – that long shadow of the sugar daddy.

I realised then that in the wake of the accident I had become his widow, above and beyond anything else.

2. Mothering

There’s a parallel story in The Anniversary, which gathers pace as events following the cruise unfold. We learn about J.B.’s childhood, her role as a sister, an aunty, and as a stepmother to Patrick’s son from his first marriage. It adds another layer of oomph to an already compelling story.

Every woman who does not have a sister wants one. Every sisterless woman imagines a kinship that fate has denied her.

3. Women ‘not behaving’ as they ‘should’

Remember when Lindy Chamberlain didn’t cry? I wondered if that was on Bishop’s mind when she created the character of J.B. From a plot point-of-view, it’s a brilliant move because it makes J.B. less ‘likeable’ and possibly an unreliable narrator.

There was nothing to equal the rage I felt when I realised he had taken our own story away from me.

We couldn’t display our feelings in our art and then refuse to talk about them, refuse to acknowledge them as real and not fictional. But what if the fictional was the trigger of all that then became real?

…I understood that in this moment of greatest triumph I was again – and perhaps always would be – overshadowed by Patrick, maybe now more than ever. Even in death he had the power to eclipse my own achievements.

I’m not generally into suspense novels but, when I do read them, I want them to be like The Anniversary – thought-provoking, with motives that aren’t clear-cut.

I received my copy of The Anniversary from the publisher, Grove Atlantic, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

4/5

I tore the paper from the notebook and, having no bin in which to throw it, shoved it into my pocket as Patrick returned, jovial, with our negronis.