The Taking of Annie Thorne by C.J Tudor

One night, Annie went missing.

Disappeared from her own bed. There were searches, appeals. Everyone thought the worst.

And then, after 48 hours, she came back.

But she couldn't, or wouldn't, say what had happened to her.

Something happened to my sister. I can't explain what.

I just know that when she came back, she wasn't the same.

She wasn't my Annie.

I didn't want to admit, even to myself, that sometimes I was scared to death of my own little sister.

After the major success of The Chalk Men by …………. I was eager to see what the author had up her sleeve for her second book which is entitled The Taking of Annie Thorne. I love what seems to have become the authors signature look to the cover design and I had expectations of this book being just as chilling as her debut.

The storyline has a dramatic opening that had me hooked immediately when a gruesome scene is set in front of my eyes and I was desperate to find out what on earth happened to the two bodies that were found. Joe Thorne receives a message that will mean him returning to his bleak childhood town of Arnhill after the tragic and suspicious event occurred but he has no idea who wants him back. This brings the memories of his loving sister Annie who disappeared from her room one night when they were younger only to return two days later but no one knows where she went or what happened to her. Is history repeating itself?

This was a haunting and chilling plot that was completely unpredictable and has a sense of horror and supernatural to the storyline which is not typically my go to choice in a book but the authors storytelling managed to keep me turning the pages.

We are kept in the dark the whole way through, it is quite clear that our main character Joe Thorne has many skeletons in his closet and is a flawed character with his drinking and gambling issues so I never quite trusted him.

The storyline jumps back and forth between the present time and then back to the events that happened in Joe’s youth surrounding the disappearance of his sister and I must admit it was the past that I was more interested in

There are certainly parts of the book that will have your skin crawling and these have been written so vividly personally I have always had a phobia since I was young about things coming up the toilet so this book particularly creeped me out at a certain point in the storyline!

The only thing I would say is because there are no characters that you warm to or are routing for or even slightly like, it meant that although the storyline was gripping and unpredictable, I didn’t actually care ( although I was intrigued)  and so when things were revealed it didn’t have the shocking impact it may have had if there was a connection made between the reader and the characters.

Fans of The Chalk Man I am sure will not be disappointed with The Taking of Annie Thorne and will be eager to see what chilling storyline we will eagerly be awaiting for the author to release next.

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