The Taking of Annie Thorne by C. J. Tudor

One night, Annie disappeared.

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.

Earlier this year, I read and very much enjoyed A Sliver of Darkness, a collection of short stories by C. J. Tudor. This prompted me to try one of her novels (quite how I’ve avoided her work until now, I’ve no idea!) and I chose The Taking of Annie Thorne because I love the idea of “the cuckoo in the nest” and was intrigued to see Tudor’s take on it. Reader, I was not disappointed.

The novel starts with Joe Thorne returning to his hometown of Arnhill, Nottingham. This is ostensibly to take up a teaching post at his former school, although the reader soon learns that he has an ulterior motive. As a teenager, his younger sister, Annie, disappeared for 48 hours before returning with no memory of what happened to her. But from the moment she came back, Joe felt that she was different. Terrifyingly so. With history now repeating itself, Joe returns to finally discover what happened to Annie all those years ago.

Joe is an interesting character. I didn’t like him all that much, but I thought that he was very well created and developed. He takes a morally ambiguous stance, thinking very little of lying on his resume and falsifying his references in order to obtain the teaching position in Arnhill. We also learn that he has struggled with a gambling addiction and is now in debt to a mysterious and menacing character known as the Fatman. While trying to discover what happened to Annie, he must also avoid the Fatman’s rather unusual and utterly superb henchwoman, Gloria, who is the epitome of not judging a book by its cover. Joe does have some redeeming features – it’s clear that he loved Annie despite the difference in their ages, at least until her disappearance. And he does look out for his pupils, recognising the bullies and their victims and standing up for the latter, even where it results in more trouble for Joe.

I found this novel to be an incredibly quick read, and I read the first 70% in a single sitting stopping only when life rudely interrupted. I love the way in which the plot develops, combining the present-day storyline with flashbacks to Joe’s youth and the circumstances surrounding Annie’s disappearance. We learn more about Joe as a child and his history with local bigwig, Stephen, with whom he immediately clashes upon his return. The flashbacks are spread out in such a way as to drip feed information through to the reader while enhancing the current events as we start to understand more about what’s going on. That does lead to the question of what the hell Joe is going to do about it – he’s not hero material, although his heart is (mostly) in the right place. I think that this novel is bound to draw comparisons to another novel (which I won’t name as it would reveal some of what’s going on here), and while I found myself thinking on it at times, I will say that this is Tudor’s own take on the premise, and perhaps even better than that other novel.

One thing that I absolutely love about this novel is the setting. I’m originally from Nottinghamshire, and while Arnhill is fictional, it felt very familiar to me. I grew up in a former mining town, and Tudor accurately captures the town’s pride in its heritage and the gradual decline following the closure of the pits. Arnhill could very easily be based upon where I grew up or any one of the similar communities in that area, and it’s lovely to see it brought to life in this way.

I really enjoyed The Taking of Annie Thorne. I loved the combination of a thriller with a supernatural / horror element, and I really liked Tudor’s writing style and the beautiful little twists that she added to the narrative. I’m looking forward to reading more of her novels, and any recommendations for which one to try next are gratefully received.