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Anna's Sister
Following the death of his girlfriend Anna, Stephen must fulfill her dying wish: he has to fly to Sweden and scatter her ashes on the remote farm where she grew up. The same farm where her sister now lives all alone.
As soon as he reaches the farm, Stephen can tell that something's wrong. Anna's sister is behaving strangely, and the land surrounding the farm is clearly dying. The old farmhouse has changed, from a happy family home to little more than a ruin. And Anna's sister seems very keen to get hold of the ashes...
As soon as he reaches the farm, Stephen can tell that something's wrong. Anna's sister is behaving strangely, and the land surrounding the farm is clearly dying. The old farmhouse has changed, from a happy family home to little more than a ruin. And Anna's sister seems very keen to get hold of the ashes...
162 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 15, 2021
66 people are currently reading
153 people want to read
About the author
Amy Cross
664 books1,677 followersAmy Cross writes novels and short stories in a number of genres, mainly horror, paranormal and fantasy. Books include The Farm, Annie's Room, The Island, Eli's Town and Asylum.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
May 26, 2025
Solid story here. There was a fair amount of themes explored here, ranging from grief to love to the supernatural, and Amy Cross blended it all together like the true talent she is. Stephen plays his part well, and you truly feel the emotions of his circumstances throughout, especially at the very end. Therese is a very convoluted character that makes you struggle as to whether you appreciate her talents and ambitions, or despise her actions. So readers will have to eventually choose a side, but it takes the entire length of the book to make your decision. Going back to the supernatural aspects, there was plenty here, but nothing was overdone. The pacing of the plot and everything within was perfect. My only critique here is that I thought Anna needed a bit more development, possibly through additional flashbacks. I wanted to feel that love and connection to Stephen, but it just felt like a missing piece. That would have benefited the entire book. Otherwise, this was a very positive experience and is another reason why I’m running through this author’s collection.
December 5, 2021
ANNA'S SISTER, by Amy Cross was nothing like I was expecting it to be--and that is high praise. This one was so unique, with explicit details, that I found it impossible to put down. I read this in one sitting (who needs sleep?). I won't go into the details, because I was unprepared for this, and enjoyed it so much for that! Some (one part, in my case), was a little predictable, but it didn't take away from the horror (and I only say "predictable" based on what already occurred in the book).
A great new read from Amy Cross!
Recommended.
A great new read from Amy Cross!
Recommended.
Read
November 27, 2021This one didn't do it for me
I love Amy's books, and have read all of them. She's improved a lot over time, but this one just didn't do it for me. It didn't have the same creepy ghost factor that her other books have. I rely on her for that and didn't get it from this book.
I didn't care about the characters. They weren't very well developed. There was supposed to be a deep love between two of them that was nor built up in the story. The main character popped up out of nowhere, without being pre-developed, so her looniness was not hyped up (so much more could have been done with her), and the plot was just, meh?
I'm not a fan of this book.
Amy shines when she writes full length novels where she can take time to develop the plot and characters. Not released in several books weeks apart, but one long, 300 page novel, is perfect for Amy and her writing to really come thru. I'd love to see more of those!
I love Amy's books, and have read all of them. She's improved a lot over time, but this one just didn't do it for me. It didn't have the same creepy ghost factor that her other books have. I rely on her for that and didn't get it from this book.
I didn't care about the characters. They weren't very well developed. There was supposed to be a deep love between two of them that was nor built up in the story. The main character popped up out of nowhere, without being pre-developed, so her looniness was not hyped up (so much more could have been done with her), and the plot was just, meh?
I'm not a fan of this book.
Amy shines when she writes full length novels where she can take time to develop the plot and characters. Not released in several books weeks apart, but one long, 300 page novel, is perfect for Amy and her writing to really come thru. I'd love to see more of those!
January 29, 2022
This was a good book. I really wasn’t sure what I was expecting when I started to read it but I’m glad I did.
April 13, 2022
A decent horror read. Amy Cross is definitely an author whose work I'd revisit in the future.
December 10, 2021
A very different kind of story!
A grieving woman, able to access the powers of Wicca, turns in desperation towards the dark arts of witchcraft - with tragic results. I really enjoyed this story.
A grieving woman, able to access the powers of Wicca, turns in desperation towards the dark arts of witchcraft - with tragic results. I really enjoyed this story.
January 29, 2022
When that possessive person turns evil, there’s no stopping their depravity for happiness.
April 15, 2022
I’m a little disappointed with this book. There was so much potential but it fell short. I felt the storyline was rushed, all of a sudden it was all action and then it was over. The witchcraft aspect could have been taken so much further and delved further into. It was a missed opportunity.
December 12, 2021
“The human mind can do very powerful things,” she told him, as tears ran down his face. “It can lie to us, and make us think we see things that aren't real. It can make us do things that we'd never ordinarily do, almost as if we become different people for a short period. And that's just under normal conditions. When we're stressed, or grieving, our minds become a cauldron of chaos and it can feel impossible to hang on. That's when we need friends, and people we can talk to, and probably not too much booze.”
Stephen Weathers hasn’t been able to escape the fog since the horrific death of his long time girlfriend of ten years, Anna Johansson. Losing her life very quickly to what doctors diagnosed as a vicious form of cancer, Stephen spent the next month unable to cope that she was truly and honestly gone. Moving through the world in a daze, he held onto her run filled with her ashes as he makes the trip to Sweden from London, to scatter her ashes on the old family farm she seemed to love dearly from her childhood. Yet upon arriving, he noticed something strange in his girlfriends sister, Therese. Locked inside with her with a brutal snow Storm, they together scattered her ashes, yet they were milky white suddenly and no longer the normal hues he saw when he opened the urn at his hotel in London. Yet this was far from the worst door he could open, as he would soon discover. His cell phone constantly losing service and no home of a plane ride back home, he was forced to co-inhabit with Therese, leading to her seduction of him one night as they shared a bed for a night. Just as the tempers seemed to be meeting a breaking point, he heard a cheese that’ll force his hand. Anna, her body so broken, sewn back together with twigs and soil from the land, he couldn’t believe his eyes. In incredible pain, she tried to plead with her sister to let her go, yet her refusal was adamant. With Anna’s strength retuning and Stephen torn on how to feel, it didn’t take a lot of convincing for her to try and flee the old farm, yet her body began tearing away with the sticks rolling back towards the house. Finally, she jumped behind the tractor and forced her body past the threshold, before literally dissolving into morning before her sister and Stephen’s eyes. Now, back in London he’s shocked to see Therese here, and as she seemingly holds him in place with her mind he’s struck and killed by a bus. Waking up dazed and confused, he once again will relive the nightmare as he’s being crafted into the same kind of monster his beloved Anna once was.
“Welcome home. It can be so hard for a woman to admit that she needs a man about the place. Everyone else left me, but I know you won't do that, not like my ungrateful sister. She betrayed me, but everything will be fine, just so long as I'm not alone.” She leaned closer and kissed him on the cheek. “I know you'll stay here with me forever and ever...”
Stephen Weathers hasn’t been able to escape the fog since the horrific death of his long time girlfriend of ten years, Anna Johansson. Losing her life very quickly to what doctors diagnosed as a vicious form of cancer, Stephen spent the next month unable to cope that she was truly and honestly gone. Moving through the world in a daze, he held onto her run filled with her ashes as he makes the trip to Sweden from London, to scatter her ashes on the old family farm she seemed to love dearly from her childhood. Yet upon arriving, he noticed something strange in his girlfriends sister, Therese. Locked inside with her with a brutal snow Storm, they together scattered her ashes, yet they were milky white suddenly and no longer the normal hues he saw when he opened the urn at his hotel in London. Yet this was far from the worst door he could open, as he would soon discover. His cell phone constantly losing service and no home of a plane ride back home, he was forced to co-inhabit with Therese, leading to her seduction of him one night as they shared a bed for a night. Just as the tempers seemed to be meeting a breaking point, he heard a cheese that’ll force his hand. Anna, her body so broken, sewn back together with twigs and soil from the land, he couldn’t believe his eyes. In incredible pain, she tried to plead with her sister to let her go, yet her refusal was adamant. With Anna’s strength retuning and Stephen torn on how to feel, it didn’t take a lot of convincing for her to try and flee the old farm, yet her body began tearing away with the sticks rolling back towards the house. Finally, she jumped behind the tractor and forced her body past the threshold, before literally dissolving into morning before her sister and Stephen’s eyes. Now, back in London he’s shocked to see Therese here, and as she seemingly holds him in place with her mind he’s struck and killed by a bus. Waking up dazed and confused, he once again will relive the nightmare as he’s being crafted into the same kind of monster his beloved Anna once was.
“Welcome home. It can be so hard for a woman to admit that she needs a man about the place. Everyone else left me, but I know you won't do that, not like my ungrateful sister. She betrayed me, but everything will be fine, just so long as I'm not alone.” She leaned closer and kissed him on the cheek. “I know you'll stay here with me forever and ever...”
December 3, 2021
First of all I want to state that I mean this review as constructive criticism and do not intend to steer anyone away from Amy Cross work in general, because other times they are actually very good.
I did enjoy the suspense for around the first 60 pages or so of the book. I'm not much of a fan of suspense as I can find it quite boring, but the way Amy Cross wrote that build up was well-balanced between suspenseful and fast paced, so I was eager to turn each page for all the good reasons.
After the important details of the book were explained, it started to go downhill. The story was losing it's entertainment and creepiness factor for me. I don't think it was because of what everything turned out to be, actually that was a good idea, I just think it wasnt written as well as it could have been.
I found all 3 main characters rather flat and unlikeable as well. There's not really anything likeable at all about the main character Stephen, especially, who seems to lose all critical thinking skills during times of stress. Also, for a man who has only very recently experienced the bereavement of the love of his life, he seemed downright apathetic towards her death. There were times when his love for Anna was mentioned, and how tough her illness was, which were delivered with no indications that he actually felt those ways. So, unless he was intentionally written to be such an annoying and nonsensical person, I can only conclude that writing a grieving character isn't a strong point for this author.
There was a mistake that proofreading didn't pick up which was that names got mixed up at times, but that didnt bother me so much. It was only momentarily confusing and wouldn't have mattered to me at all if that had been the only fault I could find with this book.
Overall, Amy Cross is a great writer, and usually I find the books this writer has penned very enjoyable. The Root and The Beast on the Tracks are two great reads, so I'd definitely recommend those are two of the books I'd recommend by this author, instead. Haven't read the ghost stories yet, which is apparently where this author thrives the most.
I did enjoy the suspense for around the first 60 pages or so of the book. I'm not much of a fan of suspense as I can find it quite boring, but the way Amy Cross wrote that build up was well-balanced between suspenseful and fast paced, so I was eager to turn each page for all the good reasons.
After the important details of the book were explained, it started to go downhill. The story was losing it's entertainment and creepiness factor for me. I don't think it was because of what everything turned out to be, actually that was a good idea, I just think it wasnt written as well as it could have been.
I found all 3 main characters rather flat and unlikeable as well. There's not really anything likeable at all about the main character Stephen, especially, who seems to lose all critical thinking skills during times of stress. Also, for a man who has only very recently experienced the bereavement of the love of his life, he seemed downright apathetic towards her death. There were times when his love for Anna was mentioned, and how tough her illness was, which were delivered with no indications that he actually felt those ways. So, unless he was intentionally written to be such an annoying and nonsensical person, I can only conclude that writing a grieving character isn't a strong point for this author.
There was a mistake that proofreading didn't pick up which was that names got mixed up at times, but that didnt bother me so much. It was only momentarily confusing and wouldn't have mattered to me at all if that had been the only fault I could find with this book.
Overall, Amy Cross is a great writer, and usually I find the books this writer has penned very enjoyable. The Root and The Beast on the Tracks are two great reads, so I'd definitely recommend those are two of the books I'd recommend by this author, instead. Haven't read the ghost stories yet, which is apparently where this author thrives the most.
April 22, 2023
A fairly quick read that is as creepy as hell. Everything seemed sinister and created such an eerie atmosphere, from the state in which Stephen found the farm house, the trees, the birds, the bees, the wood pile, the ashes, to the later developments that I cannot name without giving away the plot. No blood and gore, just spine chills. Yes, Anna and her relationship with Stephen should have been developed better, but this was a short read, after all. And I don't mind if authors occasionally give us shorter reads; they're very welcome for when we don't have days and days to spend reading something like "The Stand".
February 23, 2022
A Nightmare!
The story moves at a good pace, none of the drags I feel many novels have, I feel just to create more pages.
Although I’d guessed what was going to happen the story kept moving on and I along with it. As a good book should, it captures you throughout wanting to find out the whys?
I do recommend the book, I think that the readers will like it’s plot and come away with feelings of satisfaction. Not necessarily like the ending, but an acceptable ending.
The story moves at a good pace, none of the drags I feel many novels have, I feel just to create more pages.
Although I’d guessed what was going to happen the story kept moving on and I along with it. As a good book should, it captures you throughout wanting to find out the whys?
I do recommend the book, I think that the readers will like it’s plot and come away with feelings of satisfaction. Not necessarily like the ending, but an acceptable ending.
January 18, 2022
What a sister
I could not wait to read the next page if this book. I could find myself walking along with each character and caring for them. Only one person in the book I hated and I will let the people reading the book figure out who I wanted to hurt as bad as she hurt others.
I could not wait to read the next page if this book. I could find myself walking along with each character and caring for them. Only one person in the book I hated and I will let the people reading the book figure out who I wanted to hurt as bad as she hurt others.
October 11, 2022
A good, quick read
The story was interesting and kept me entertained throughout. It didn't drag and the pacing was well set, there was a small paragraph where the female cast's names were mixed up but it was fixed very quickly and didn't cause any confusion due to the context. All in all it was a pleasant read and a good way to pass time on a plane ride.
The story was interesting and kept me entertained throughout. It didn't drag and the pacing was well set, there was a small paragraph where the female cast's names were mixed up but it was fixed very quickly and didn't cause any confusion due to the context. All in all it was a pleasant read and a good way to pass time on a plane ride.
November 15, 2021
A bewitching story
A man on his way to his girlfriends sisters home , delivering her ashes. Her wish was to be spread on her family’s farmstead. Of course that’s when all the evil begins.
A man on his way to his girlfriends sisters home , delivering her ashes. Her wish was to be spread on her family’s farmstead. Of course that’s when all the evil begins.
November 18, 2021
worth a read
An interesting story with several twists and turns a bit slow to get going but once it does it has you hooked?
Enjoyed the story and will be reading more from this author
An interesting story with several twists and turns a bit slow to get going but once it does it has you hooked?
Enjoyed the story and will be reading more from this author
January 1, 2022
Torture
Only read this if you are into torture. I didn't like it at all. After six chapters I had enough, cause I could see what was going to happen. Went to last chapter, and yup, I was so right.
Only read this if you are into torture. I didn't like it at all. After six chapters I had enough, cause I could see what was going to happen. Went to last chapter, and yup, I was so right.
January 11, 2022
Worth a read!
a terrified, agonized scream rang out from somewhere far off in another part of the house. Stephen looked at Therese as the scream continued, and he immediately saw the horror in her eyes.
a terrified, agonized scream rang out from somewhere far off in another part of the house. Stephen looked at Therese as the scream continued, and he immediately saw the horror in her eyes.
February 26, 2022
Different twist not what you expect.
Amy Cross has a way with her stories that take a different approach that surprise me. Not to many authors do that. Creepy stories with a twist. This one is a page turner I couldn't put it down.
Amy Cross has a way with her stories that take a different approach that surprise me. Not to many authors do that. Creepy stories with a twist. This one is a page turner I couldn't put it down.
March 9, 2022
I tried to get into this book... and read a good half of it but it was just too weird and I didn't bother finishing it. Life is too short to read books all the way to the end that you're not enjoying.
October 18, 2022
Oh stephen
I thought the beginning dragged a little the detail that put into the grieving was so truthful. Theresa had a little too much good time with Stephen and one sisters heart wrenching is the others demented joy.
I thought the beginning dragged a little the detail that put into the grieving was so truthful. Theresa had a little too much good time with Stephen and one sisters heart wrenching is the others demented joy.
November 16, 2021
Dumb
Very childish and not scary. This concept of has been done time and time again. I expected better. Don't bother with this rubbish.
Very childish and not scary. This concept of has been done time and time again. I expected better. Don't bother with this rubbish.
November 22, 2021
Brilliant book!👍
This is another of Amy's awesome horror story's! 😊
Great twists in every page! Loved it she's my favourite horror author from now on!! 😊
This is another of Amy's awesome horror story's! 😊
Great twists in every page! Loved it she's my favourite horror author from now on!! 😊
November 28, 2021
A fun read
There were a lot of typos and grammatical errors that should have been caught in editing. Otherwise, this was a fun book to read.
There were a lot of typos and grammatical errors that should have been caught in editing. Otherwise, this was a fun book to read.
December 6, 2021
I was so caught up in the book that I didn’t realise i had read 90% in the one sitting!
January 11, 2022
Good story but ...
Amy really needs to invest in the services of a good editor once in a while. Too many errors like mixed up names and such.
Amy really needs to invest in the services of a good editor once in a while. Too many errors like mixed up names and such.
January 17, 2022
Crazy concept.
Parts were slow but you had to keep going and it was worth it.
Give it a try, why not
Parts were slow but you had to keep going and it was worth it.
Give it a try, why not
January 21, 2022
Creepy
Imaginative storytelling, but several times the wrong character's name is used which makes the story confusing. The twist at the end is amazing.
Imaginative storytelling, but several times the wrong character's name is used which makes the story confusing. The twist at the end is amazing.
February 1, 2022
Would read this book again
At first I didn't know where this book was going but it turned out to be a great read i would recommend this book to other readers
At first I didn't know where this book was going but it turned out to be a great read i would recommend this book to other readers
May 28, 2023
RA
A very original tale of weird witchcraft. A touch of Mary Shelley. Amy Cross has such a wonderful imagination. Implausible? Yes! Brilliant. YES!!
A very original tale of weird witchcraft. A touch of Mary Shelley. Amy Cross has such a wonderful imagination. Implausible? Yes! Brilliant. YES!!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews