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Zero Anaphora
Anna is a professional escort with a disturbing and supernatural secret – something she is scarcely able to understand herself, let alone explain to others…
Despite her adoring clientele, she leaves her career behind when given the opportunity to take control of an underground circle of fetishistic materialists, who provide her with an unprecedented source of money and power. While others are oblivious to her past, a former client is slowly piecing together the clues, but becomes dangerously infatuated with her in the process. Will his obsession lead him to inadvertently discover the truth that lies behind her many methods of disguise?
Meanwhile, a new lover is slowly drawn into Anna’s inner social circle, placing yet more pressure upon her to find a way to preserve her true identity. But not every secret can be kept forever…
Despite her adoring clientele, she leaves her career behind when given the opportunity to take control of an underground circle of fetishistic materialists, who provide her with an unprecedented source of money and power. While others are oblivious to her past, a former client is slowly piecing together the clues, but becomes dangerously infatuated with her in the process. Will his obsession lead him to inadvertently discover the truth that lies behind her many methods of disguise?
Meanwhile, a new lover is slowly drawn into Anna’s inner social circle, placing yet more pressure upon her to find a way to preserve her true identity. But not every secret can be kept forever…
375 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 17, 2014
2 people are currently reading
226 people want to read
About the author
Luke Brimblecombe
1 book11 followersStarted writing during last year of high school, producing a novella that wasn't read by more than a few people (2001). Studied Philosophy and Linguistics at Auckland university, and produced a fantasy novel that again, didn't get much exposure but was a significant learning milestone (2004). After ten years of being focussed on other activities - music, gaming, work - finally self-published the psychological thriller Zero Anaphora as an e-book and softcover (2014).
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 4, 2014
Professional escort turned financial domination expert, Anna has a secret so different, no-one but Stephen can understand. This secret allows Anna to get the personal thoughts and feelings from those around her in an underhanded way so that she can wreak her havoc and mischief on the world. She is a drinker and a smoker and can dress to kill, bringing all sorts of men into her inner circle where they can’t help but get caught up in her magic.
“She’s a bit of a mystery to me, that Anna. Never really met anyone quite like her. She seems to be motivated in quite unusual ways. Oh well, everyone’s different.” (Kindle Locations 2741-2742).
Anna begins the novel and Anna ends the novel, but she is not the half of it. The novel focuses heavily on the characters and their present actions and lies and manipulations. Anna is the spotlight because she is the one with the secret. Wendy is the first and the great in findom (financial domination). Lola is the copycat wannabe. Dan is the near hapless client. Dom is the man from afar. James is the relentless outsider trying to squeeze his way into the action. This cast of characters proves a perfect blend of uniqueness, while at the same time the author continuously points out and exploits their similarities. The characters start and end in the book, there is very little background or upbringing or childhood description given. They are who they are and they do what they do. At times more motivation backed by background would have been handy to get a more clear understanding of the characters; however, they are fascinating in their own right.
This book is cemented in the philosophical. Much of the narration focuses on societal tie ins, even telling an unrelated story near the end to get a point across. In my opinion, I thought these philosophical musings made the novel seem dry and almost like a fictionalized textbook. I became tired of every chapter opening with several paragraphs of the author arguing with an unseen character. It got to be too much and made the book longer than it needed to be. The philosophy also took away from the action and didn’t move the plot along, just added to the depth of understanding the reader might take away from this type of book if that is what he/she was looking for.
Much of the action is also sifted through the narrative and philosophical perspective of the author, happening neither in the present nor in the past, but in the interpretation of a scene by this narrator. The writing style was at times ripe with beautiful turns of phrase and wordings that were sometimes distracting to the narrative, but fit in with the philosophical pontifications.
“The Art Museum garden was identical to every picture ever taken of it – an image of the utopian free world, idyllic and tranquil. Free entry, fifteen bucks for parking. Humming birds hovering by the honeysuckle hanging like hilarious, holographic harriers.” (Kindle Locations 4995-4997).
It is always difficult to assess a book that doesn’t follow the popular story arc of beginning, middle, and end with a climax and resolution such as Zero Anaphora. The climax was almost unrelated to the main story, if one could be pinned down as the main story, and the same questions that were posed before remain unanswered. This ties in with much of the content not being related to the story, but with the premise and theme of the book: the philosophy. I won’t spoil the philosophical conclusion here, you will just have to read the book to find out.
“She’s a bit of a mystery to me, that Anna. Never really met anyone quite like her. She seems to be motivated in quite unusual ways. Oh well, everyone’s different.” (Kindle Locations 2741-2742).
Anna begins the novel and Anna ends the novel, but she is not the half of it. The novel focuses heavily on the characters and their present actions and lies and manipulations. Anna is the spotlight because she is the one with the secret. Wendy is the first and the great in findom (financial domination). Lola is the copycat wannabe. Dan is the near hapless client. Dom is the man from afar. James is the relentless outsider trying to squeeze his way into the action. This cast of characters proves a perfect blend of uniqueness, while at the same time the author continuously points out and exploits their similarities. The characters start and end in the book, there is very little background or upbringing or childhood description given. They are who they are and they do what they do. At times more motivation backed by background would have been handy to get a more clear understanding of the characters; however, they are fascinating in their own right.
This book is cemented in the philosophical. Much of the narration focuses on societal tie ins, even telling an unrelated story near the end to get a point across. In my opinion, I thought these philosophical musings made the novel seem dry and almost like a fictionalized textbook. I became tired of every chapter opening with several paragraphs of the author arguing with an unseen character. It got to be too much and made the book longer than it needed to be. The philosophy also took away from the action and didn’t move the plot along, just added to the depth of understanding the reader might take away from this type of book if that is what he/she was looking for.
Much of the action is also sifted through the narrative and philosophical perspective of the author, happening neither in the present nor in the past, but in the interpretation of a scene by this narrator. The writing style was at times ripe with beautiful turns of phrase and wordings that were sometimes distracting to the narrative, but fit in with the philosophical pontifications.
“The Art Museum garden was identical to every picture ever taken of it – an image of the utopian free world, idyllic and tranquil. Free entry, fifteen bucks for parking. Humming birds hovering by the honeysuckle hanging like hilarious, holographic harriers.” (Kindle Locations 4995-4997).
It is always difficult to assess a book that doesn’t follow the popular story arc of beginning, middle, and end with a climax and resolution such as Zero Anaphora. The climax was almost unrelated to the main story, if one could be pinned down as the main story, and the same questions that were posed before remain unanswered. This ties in with much of the content not being related to the story, but with the premise and theme of the book: the philosophy. I won’t spoil the philosophical conclusion here, you will just have to read the book to find out.
July 4, 2015
Taken from my review on Amazon:
Think a twisted 50 Shades of Grey with body controlling voodoo, material girls, and testing psychological/gender boundaries, and you've got Zero Anaphora (a kind of reductive list, but it works). It is a completely unpredictable and eye-opening experience. There were a few lulls in the middle of the book, but it's totally worth getting to the finale. This is the kind of book that could generate meaningful discussions, I believe.
Think a twisted 50 Shades of Grey with body controlling voodoo, material girls, and testing psychological/gender boundaries, and you've got Zero Anaphora (a kind of reductive list, but it works). It is a completely unpredictable and eye-opening experience. There were a few lulls in the middle of the book, but it's totally worth getting to the finale. This is the kind of book that could generate meaningful discussions, I believe.
March 16, 2020
Interesting premise but a no go for me.
November 12, 2014
Really liked this book and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys an exciting and well-researched story.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews