Review: Anatomy of a Scandal

Anatomy of a Scandal by Sarah Vaughan
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Anatomy of a Scandal is one of those books where I couldn’t decide if I wish to read it or not – it sounded interesting, yet I wasn’t crazy about the notion. In other words, I was on the fence. As so often happens when I’m on the fence about a book, I decided to try my luck with a Goodreads giveaway. It’s my usual basis for when I cannot decide if I want to read a book or not – if I win the giveaway then great, if not I do not consider it much of a loss. As has been the case on a handful of occasions, an indifferent Goodreads giveaway resulted in a win – thus, the choice was made, I was to read Anatomy of a Scandal.

I will be completely honest about my rating of this one by saying I was unsure as to what rating I would give it. A part of me screamed to give it a two-star rating, another part of me screamed to give it a three-star rating. In other words, this was a two-point-five-star rating where I had difficulty deciding on my final rating. Initially I was going to round it up to a three-star rating, yet I’ve read quite a few three-star books recently and decided this wasn’t quite enough to round it up, therefore it became a two-star rating after some consideration. There is no doubt, however, that this is one of the most difficult books I’ve had when it comes down to deciding on my final rating – it really could have gone either way.

Anatomy of a Scandal was an interesting storyline, I cannot deny that. For those who are interested in courtroom dramas, I’m sure there is plenty that will appeal throughout this one. My issue is that I have a love-hate relationship with courtroom dramas. If a courtroom drama does not hit all of the right buttons, then I cannot enjoy the story. I think my issue is that I know too much about what goes on within a courtroom, thus making it difficult to get into the deep of things. Working with victims of crimes, hearing their stories, has me analysing factors of such stories that most people would not. Although I can appreciate such stories, I do find it more difficult to enjoy them than I would like. When I do find a good one, however, I tend to love it – hence why I continue to try the genre despite how I find it to be a bit hit or miss with me.

With this one, there is certainly plenty of things that will be enjoyed by readers. There is a great interplay between the past and the present, leaving you interested in seeing how everything comes together. There are plenty of questions in your mind, and you cannot wait to get the answers. There is also a lot to be enjoyed by anyone who likes a book filled with characters you cannot trust. You never know who to trust with this one, leaving you unsure throughout.

However, I never really came to care about any of the characters. I didn’t care for the individual storylines, I just wanted to find out the truth of the situation. Moreover, when details started to come together relating to the past, I felt as though some things were a bit anticlimactic. Things were interesting, I cannot deny that, but I had expected something bigger.

Personally, this book wasn’t it for me – there were some good points, I was more than willing to work through it to see how everything came together, but I had been hoping for more.

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