The Taking of Annie Thorne book review

The Taking of Annie Thorne by C.J. Tudor
on February 5, 2019
Pages: 346
Goodreads

The new spine-tingling, sinister thriller from the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Chalk Man.
One night, Annie went missing. Disappeared from her own bed. There were searches, appeals. Everyone thought the worst. And then, miraculously, after forty-eight 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.

I read The Taking of Annie Thorne with a friend, I had heard great things about it and I thought that it would be one that we would both enjoy, however, it fell more than a little short of expectations. I think the biggest problem with this book was that it started off in one direction but then ended up going off in a completely different direction. I’m not sure that the new direction was the right one, because it left a lot to be desired and there were a lot of unanswered questions when it got to the end. There was no point of this book that left me completely satisfied, and I was sorry that it didn’t carry on the way that it seemed to be going at the beginning.

The characters in The Taking of Annie Thorne were I think part of the problem. I didn’t find them or the way that they told their story in the least bit compelling and also some of it was so disjointed and unrealistic that it sort of pulled me away from the story and what could have been a great sense of action. I wished that there had been more of a connection with each of them and they would have become more well-rounded and we would have learned more about them in a more organic way. There just wasn’t one character in this book that I actually really loved, and cared about which was a little bit of an odd experience especially when it came to the emotional parts of the story.

I don’t think there were any specific best bits when it comes to The Taking of Annie Thorne but I will say that the book kept me gripped throughout and I did want to know what it was that was going to happen throughout. I will say that the writing was very atmospheric in the way that everything moves forward and comes apparent. I just wish the execution of everything would have been handled better, and I think I would have enjoyed the story a lot more.

For me, the worst bit would have to be that once the story changed course it began to feel like a really bad retelling and I think the original had a lot more involved with it. There was something missing throughout this book, and a lot had to do with the fact that there was no context for anything that was happening with the characters or what they had found. I still don’t know what went on and why I just think that some of it was down to not having the mythology in place. I would have enjoyed it more if there had been more built around it rather than just having things happen without much explanation. I have far too many questions at the end and nothing was satisfactory, and that is one of the reasons why The Taking of Annie Thorne was a bit of a flop for me.

I don’t think I would recommend The Taking of Annie Thorne, there are better books out there and they all contain better characters and better mythology running through them. I wish I would have enjoyed this one, but there was a definite disconnect between me, the characters and the story.

How did you enjoy The Taking of Annie Thorne? Were you disappointed or have I missed something? Let me know!