I Was Anastasia by Ariel Lawhon

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⭐ 3/5 Book Review: I Was Anastasia by Ariel Lawhon

👉 Grab your copy of I Was Anastasia here: Amazon Affiliate Link

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🚨 Trigger Warnings

• Suicide attempt

• Institutionalization in psychiatric hospitals

• Violence & executions

• Sexual assault (on secondary characters)

• War trauma

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📖 Spoiler-Free Thoughts (Before We Dive In)

I had high hopes for this book. Ariel Lawhon is one of those historical fiction authors I usually trust to deliver an immersive story (and I loved her Code Name Hélène). For the first half of I Was Anastasia, I was hooked — the alternating timelines, the suspense of “is she or isn’t she?” kept me turning pages.

But somewhere around the midway point, my excitement fizzled. I remembered just enough about the real history of Anastasia and Anna Anderson that the suspense was gone. Not the author’s fault, really — I just think if I know where something’s heading, it’s harder for me to stay invested. (This also happened to me with The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule. On the flip side, I loved Daughter of Shandong, so I know I can enjoy books based on events I know — this one just didn’t land for me in the second half.)

Overall? Enjoyable premise, excellent writing, but the payoff didn’t quite match my early excitement.

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⚠️ Spoiler Warning: Full Plot Summary Ahead ⚠️

👑 Dual Timelines

Lawhon structures the book around two perspectives:

• Anna Anderson — the mysterious woman who claimed for decades to be Anastasia Romanov. Her chapters are told in reverse chronology, beginning in the 1970s and moving backward in time.

• Anastasia Romanov — the youngest daughter of Tsar Nicholas II, whose timeline moves forward from 1917 through the Bolshevik Revolution.

This structure is clever — it builds suspense while slowly peeling back layers of Anna’s identity.

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🧳 Anna Anderson’s Story (Told Backwards)

We meet Anna in her seventies, awaiting the verdict in her long legal battle to be recognized as Anastasia. The court rules inconclusive — there’s no proof either way. Anna seems resigned, but her husband Jack Manahan (quirky, eccentric, and fiercely devoted) is furious.

As we move backward, we see:

• Anna in Germany, where her friend Prince Frederick gives her refuge.

• Her strained friendships, including with Maria Rasputin.

• Her confrontation with the Schanzkowska family, some of whom claim she’s actually Franziska Schanzkowska, a Polish factory worker.

• Her years in New York, where wealthy benefactors both supported and later institutionalized her due to erratic behavior.

• Her stint in a psychiatric asylum after a suicide attempt.

Ultimately, the “big reveal” is that Anna was Franziska Schanzkowska — a Polish woman injured in a munitions factory explosion during WWI. Pregnant, grieving, and traumatized, Franziska reinvented herself as Anastasia.

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❄️ Anastasia’s Story (Told Forwards)

We also follow the Romanov family as the Russian Revolution forces them from their palace into exile in Siberia. Anastasia is only 16, but she shows resilience, wit, and youthful spirit even under dire conditions.

• The Romanovs live under house arrest, first relatively comfortable, then increasingly harsh.

• Anastasia befriends a guard named Tomas, who promises to help her escape.

• The family sews jewels into their clothes as a hopeful means of survival.

• In Ekaterinburg, they’re moved to Ipatiev House under Bolshevik watch.

And then — tragedy. The Romanovs are brutally executed in the cellar. Anastasia’s chapters end with her semi-conscious body being carted away, leaving a lingering “what if?”

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📜 The Ending

In the Epilogue, Anna directly addresses the reader. She admits she went along with the pretense of being Anastasia because people wanted to believe. She never quite confirms or denies, but the backward timeline and Franziska’s story leave the truth clear: Anna was not Anastasia.

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💭 My Final Thoughts

I Was Anastasia is ambitious in scope and beautifully written. The dual timeline is smart and often engaging. But personally, once I recalled the historical outcome, my momentum disappeared. The suspense fizzled, and I stopped caring by the end.

That said, if you love historical fiction about Russian history, or you’re fascinated by identity mysteries, this could still be a great pick for you.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ (3/5) from me.

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📚 If You Liked I Was Anastasia, Try These:

• The Romanov Sisters by Helen Rappaport (nonfiction, in-depth and heartbreaking)

• The Kitchen Boy by Robert Alexander (another Romanov-inspired historical novel)

• Code Name Hélène by Ariel Lawhon (if you want Lawhon at her absolute best 💯)

• The Family Romanov by Candace Fleming (a YA but very well researched)