The Taking of Annie Thorne

by C. J. Tudor

[zooloo1983]

This book keeps you up! This book had me burning the midnight oil with the short ambiguous chapter. Part thriller, part horror this book does not relent. It just takes takes takes, it draws you in, whispering to you to read another page, not to put the book down, a bit like “the pit”.

This is my first rodeo with Ms Tudor, but I can see why everyone has gone mad for her! Her writing is exquisite, drawing you slowly into the world of Joe Thorne. The night leading to his sisters’ disappearance is not forthcoming and when you do learn the truth it appears it might not necessarily be the whole truth. A piece of the jigsaw doesn’t quite fit and you realise you are missing a vital piece. I can wholeheartedly say I did not even attempt to guess any part of this book, I knew quite frankly I would be wrong. There were no red herrings per se, just a lot of misdirections and a lot of things implied. I allowed myself to just go with the story of Joe and Annie and hope I made it out alive.

Following Joe on his return to his home village, you are not quite sure of his intentions here. Even when do you find out you aren’t quite sure if you have been given the truth or not.

I absolutely adored (if you can adore this book), there was just the right amount of creepiness, felt a lot of Stephen King influence fore-sure, it was intense and thrilling. Put this all together and you are easily going to fall prey to one more chapter. It was so atmospheric with scenes in the graveyard slightly disturbing and the scenes in the pit had me imagining all kind of things. Especially as there were a few unanswered questions in this books, where normally I would get frustrated by, in this instance, I am sooo happy not to have them answered and adds to the magic of the story. Not only did I feel like this book channelled Stephen King, but there was also an essence of Matt Wesolowski and his Six Stories supernaturally scares. With the creepiness that ensued throughout the book with the house and that freaky ass doll!! One scene with that doll and it makes me want to throw out all my little ones’ dolls, never liked them anyway.

I haven’t read Chalk Man but I have it on my kindle so I can not wait to lose another night of sleep reading that book! I am so thrilled I got the chance to read this and discussing further with some of my blogging friends that Richard Armitage has narrated this book I may just have to pick this book up again and have a listen. Well if I dare, maybe only in the daytime would be good.