After having The chalk man on my wanting to read list for most of the year I was excited to be accepted to read this new book by C.J. Tudor. This book didn't disappoint and has made me want to go out and get the previous book.
This book is very easy reading and keeps you guessing throughout the book, and at times was also creepy.

I picked this up with the expectation that I might not like it much – and ended up reading it very quickly, racing through it in a handful of sittings. It's a grim, gritty thriller with elements of horror. The latter were why I couldn't quite bring myself to put it down, despite the style not really being my thing.

Arnhill is a nondescript, depressing village somewhere in Nottinghamshire. The book opens with two police officers surveying a gruesome scene: Julia Morton – a well-liked and apparently stable English teacher – has murdered her son Ben and shot herself. Around the same time, Joe Thorne, who grew up in the area, returns. He's taking over Julia's job, and running away from the debts created by his gambling addiction, but there's another reason he's back in Arnhill. 20 years ago, Joe's father crashed his car, killing himself and Joe's little sister Annie. Joe believes something links Annie and Ben, his dad and Julia – something to do with the children disappearing and coming back 'changed'.

While the protagonist isn't especially likeable and the narrative voice is typical thriller fare, the plot has a hook I found irresistible: did something supernatural happen to these families? Though the surroundings are significantly more down-at-heel, the combination of crime and horror reminded me of Elly Griffiths' recent The Stranger Diaries.

I don't want to give anything away, but the plot is quite satisfying and at the same time totally ridiculous (especially the final twist – or should that be twists?!) Not the most subtle of stories, and no doubt it will be too silly for some, but I enjoyed myself.

I really enjoyed Tudor’s last book, The Chalk Man, so was keen to read this one. It has a similar feel - a grown man faced with a troubling event from his childhood, trying to make sense of things. The plot is full of twists and turns, and the story of what happened to the narrator’s little sister Annie is haunting. You really have to pay attention as you read, because seemingly minor details come back with renewed significance later - a trait I really enjoyed.

There was an additional and slightly clunky sub plot regarding the narrator’s gambling addiction that I found quite distracting - I feel like it could have worked just as well without it. That said, Tudor’s writing is so detailed that it may well have played a more crucial role than I realised.

Sinister, creepy and told with impressive skill, C.J Tudor has done it yet again in her second book, following on from the cult favourite The Chalk Man released earlier this year. Combining "old school" horror (there's dolls, there's beetles, there's graveyards, there's witchery) with the twistiest twists, macabre backdrop and many, many secrets. Again, there are elements of Stephen King's horror/supernatural, and the kind of ghost stories you'd tell your friends at sleepovers, but told in a way that, apart from a few paragraphs, is actually not as graphic as her previous novel in it's gruesome nature, but more psychological; the fear and terror leaks out of the chapters and fills you with an overwhelming sense of dread. Just magnificent.

If you have read The Chalk Man (and if not then you definitely should, immediately!) you'll spot some excellent "easter eggs" in this book which I loved and instantly wanted to tweet about them but then couldn't because spoilers, so that was frustratingly brilliant. Actually, just like The Chalk Man, you want to talk about SO MUCH of this book, your brain frantically left trying to figure out the mysteries and how you feel about the characters (most of whom are pretty unlikeable).

Set in Nottingham (my birthplace), the perfect setting for a horror story, because the scars of industry, particularly collieries, are still visible and relevant in these villages, even when the green hills hide the spoil tips and the pit wheels have flower planters around them. Here are working class communities where families would (and still do) all know each other, and their secrets, are proud of their heritage, loyal, and suspicious of strangers (you only have to check out a few Nottinghamshire "Spotted" pages on Facebook to see this). This all plays beautifully with the idea of returning to a village you'd left behind as a teen in tragic circumstances in the 90's, as Joe Thorne did. All his old friends, and enemies, are still there, and a terrible secret they shared and hoped had been eradicated, has drawn Joe back. Can he unearth the truth and importantly can he survive it?

Bullies, gangsters, friends, teenage crushes all feature along with a sense of nostalgia, juvenile misadventure and folklore, as well as sheer terror. This book is for anyone that ever explored somewhere they shouldn't have done with friends as a kid and never told their parents.

I predict this will be a bestseller for 2019 and is ripe for a TV miniseries/drama so add it to your wishlists/preorders now.

Special thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for allowing me to read this book in advance, my review is entirely my own thoughts and written in my own words.

Really enjoyed this book. Another creepy offering from this author. The writing style is excellent and you can tell the progression from the first book to this one.

Would highly recommend this book. 5 stars

Loved The Chalk Man, and absolutely love The Taking of Annie Thorne just as much.

C. J Tudor has again written a book that absorbs you into the past and present of the characters.

Unfolding a story full of mystery and horror that keeps you in suspense all the way through.

C J Tudor is a unique writer, can't wait for book 3.

Thank you netgalley, Penguin and C J Tudor for allowing me to read and review this book.

3.5 stars
MAJOR SPOILERS

Somehow this managed to be quite fun,and a lot creepy.
The fun bit comes from the attitude of our main character,and Brendan and Gloria.

The creepy part comes from dead bodies,beetles and burial pits,sinister demented murderous children.

Throughout the whole book,I kept thinking of the phrase "sometimes they come back'
Apparently a short story by King.
I think Tudor has done it better.
Some good twists along the way,and a cracking opening chapter.... definitely looking out for further books.

Well written novel that would appeal to the fan of urban legends and mysteries in a creepy small English village. Stephen King's influence shows through the pages that are filled with horrors and creepy black critters. Thanks for the opportunity to read this ARC.

My first experience of reading C.J Tudor and found it very absorbing. I was epecting a detective story but was pleasantly surprised by something a bit different. This is an unusual take on a man returning to his childhood village and as it gradually becomes clear, his motives are not totally altruistic. I found the characters were mostly well devoloped and the suspense built nicely. Several fashbacks helped set the scene for the unexpected climax and overall 'The Taking of Annie Thorne' kept me reading until late at night. Probably not a book for the squemish but I will read Tudor again - I've already bought the 'Chalk Man'.

Oh jeepers I think CJ Tudor is trying to make me never want to leave the house again. Certainly never to visit an old pit village and given that I'm from the North East of England, there are a few of them about here! Haha this was a creepy CREEPY novel from the start..

There's lots of elements here which thriller fans and horror fans will love - the abandoned pit village where only the most stalwart of people are living now. A troubled man returning to his childhood home, an even in the past which scars him and which people in the village do not want him to reveal. A missing girl who returns, 'changed'

The sense of foreboding is strong throughout and it makes you want to read on that's for sure. There are some troubled,troubled people in this story mind!

The village of Arnhill is fictional but somewhere in Nottingham. If it were real, no one would go after reading this! The novel does fall into the category of supernatural and it was this side of things which for me lessened the grip of the novel and later events made the novel go beyond the realms of what I felt I could believe and invest in. This is hard without giving anything away.!

It reminded me of certain Stephen King books I used to scare myself with when I was younger and this one was creepy and unsettling. Not a strong one for locations but the setting was very memorable.

A bit too unsettling and strange for me in the end.

Loved the main character in this book and the author does a great job in making him extremely likeable. He''s the kind of character you want to do well and see winning. The interactions between him and the other characters are well written, witty, intelligent and bemusing. It's a good storyline and an easy read this book. If you're a fan of mystery books then this one is for you. It also has a twist at the end i certainly didn't see coming.Well done.

I loved this book, another fantastic read by the author. It's full of atmosphere and mystery, and with the creepy Arnhill pit at the centre of the story, and the cottage, it was hard to read late at night.

It's really well written, and I can't wait for the next book by this author.

Wow, I've been waiting for this, certainly didn't disappoint, absolutely fantastic, this is one to be read again and again, this is one of those books that you can see as your reading like a movie playing out in your mind, can't wait for the next one from C.J Tudor

The Taking of Annie Thorne is a slickly entertaining horror / thriller, with undertones of Stephen King but with a feel that is particularly English. Were i to be picky, the denouement feels a little too easy and rushed, but with a story like this it’s all about the build up and the tension, and this book delivers on that front.

Joe a teacher with a history.He moves back to a Nottinghamshire school to teach,one that he himself. went to.
The village he was brought up in has a past that is both haunting and terrible.

Joe ,who has a problem with gambling tries to escape his debtors,hence the move. His past soon start to overtake him as he looks to find the answer to why his sister Annie went missing for two days and returned a different child altogether.

The book is well written with ironic humour laced through it, a defence mechanism of Joe. The book is very much a Stephen King type novel but not so imaginative and certainly lacks that insight into the troubled mind that King so illustrates for us.
Never the less ,a decent read but not so rewarding as it's pretty shallow and obvious .

Superbly written the story got me guessing until the end. It was very gripping a great page turner couldn’t put it down. The story flowed so easily with lots of twists and turns and got you guessing until the end and certainly didn’t guess the end. It was a bit creepy and gruesome in places I liked the characters they were very interesting and overall a very good read I would definitely recommend it.

Great book, easy reading style, and a encapsulating storyline, which reminded me of Stephen King’s Pet Semetary. I now need to read this author’s previous book, as this one was so good and the ‘Chalkman’ received such rave reviews

The Taking of Annie Thorne is the follow-up to C.J. Tudor’s stunning debut novel The Chalk Man, which I reviewed on this blog last year. As with its predecessor, Tudor’s use of language allows her to create a genuinely unsettling thriller that spans across two time periods, revealing how the hidden secrets of childhood resurface and impact on the current day. The book shares a lot of the same DNA as The Chalk Man, even referencing the standout twist in a rather meta-callout. However, while The Chalk Man was rooted in realism, The Taking of Annie Thorne pushes the boundary into the supernatural, hinting at mystical forces behind events. As well as crafting horrific sequences, laden with gory descriptions that crawl under the skin, Tudor is a master at drip-feeding clues and hints throughout the novel, knowing exactly how and when to reveal a plot point to the reader.

Tudor’s work is often compared to Stephen King, with the author himself even proclaiming “If you like my stuff, you’ll like this” as a cover quote. The Chalk Man was reminiscent of Stand By Me and IT, whilst The Taking of Annie Thorne bears strong similarities to another of King’s books – however, to name the title might be considered a significant spoiler. Tudor manages to take King’s style of writing, particularly his horror, and adapt it to English shores – and to be quite honest, these are some of the best Stephen King books, not written by Stephen King. My only issue with The Taking of Annie Thorne is that it feels a bit too derivative of one of King’s books, which actually weakens the story. Tudor does introduce her own elements to the story, such as the loan shark angle, which does distinguish it slightly from King’s original novel, but it will be easy for critics to dismiss it as a copy.

The novel’s protagonist, Joe Thorne, is a complicated character – presented as both sympathetic and selfish. Despite the family tragedy that haunts his childhood, he returns to his childhood home for less than virtuous reasons and is immediately presented as a con artist. There are glimmers of responsibility seen, particularly when he gets a job as a teacher, but it is the character’s inability to face up to his actions that causes drama and conflict. The book’s ending is shocking and chaotic, and ultimately, the protagonist is the cause of much of the disaster that ensues. As with Eddie in The Chalk Man, Tudor is great at creating ‘unreliable narrators’ and revealing the imperfections of her leads.

Tudor also demonstrates an enviable ability to blend nostalgia and horror together in a toxic soup, haunting her protagonists with the actions of their youth. The small mining village of Arnhill is the archetypical creepy village, swallowing up the many tragedies and amplifying that atmosphere out into the residents. With Joe choosing the site of a horrific murder-suicide as his base of operations, Tudor has plenty of opportunities to scare the reader with psychological horror, blurring the line between the real and the imagined. The opening prologue is extremely grim and bleak as two police officers investigate a crime scene, setting the tone for the entire novel.
 
While Tudor excels in cultivating that ‘edge of your seat’ tension throughout the book, it was the brief sparks of action where when I found myself leaving finger-shaped indentations on the edge of my Kindle. One flashback scene, which evoked memories of The Exorcist, was extremely visceral in describing the violent behaviour of the possessed individual. The slow build-up, culminating in those vivid scares and bursts of violence, demonstrates the cinematic potential for The Taking of Annie Thorne. Even the ending, which is abrupt and shocking, would translate brilliantly to the screen – lingering in the mind long after the book has concluded.

As with The Chalk Man, Tudor attempts to deliver another last-minute reveal but it lacks the same impact as its predecessor and merely resulted in an intrigued eyebrow raise, rather than a jaw drop. The Taking of Annie Thorne suffers the fate of being compared to two books; fans of The Chalk Man will notice the similarities in Tudor’s writing style and naturally compare the two; and the specific plot of the book invites, unintentionally or not, comparison to a certain iconic Stephen King novel. Unfortunately, this is often the case for sophomore novels and while The Taking of Annie Thorne is a brilliant read in its own right, it does stand in the shadow of two other books. Brilliantly unsettling, and rich with horror, it is great to see C.J. Tudor grapple with more supernatural elements in her writing and she proves herself not to be a one-trick pony, and a wonderful new talent in British Horror Fiction.

This was a fabulous read. It (and I am not the first person to say this about the author) had undertones of Stephen King type tension and terror but also, for me, a little Harlon Coben wisecracking and dark humour. For the latter imagine Myron Bolitar dropped into the disused coalfields of Nottinghamshire.

Joe Thorne was fifteen when his little sister went missing for forty-eight hours; she came back but for Joe she really didn’t. Twenty five years later Joe is back in the small ex-mining village of Arnhill. He is up to his eyes in gambling debts and is looking for a bolthole. In addition he has had an anonymous email: ‘I know what happened to your sister. It is happening again.’

Recently the village has suffered a murder and suicide; a mother has killed her son and then herself. Scrawled on the wall of the boy’s bedroom are the words NOT MY SON. This is a seriously creepy story which is very well written. The characterisation is tremendous. In particular I loved sardonic Joe, psychotic Gloria and laid back Brendan. The atmosphere of a rather desolate village is beautifully drawn, along with the hopelessness of a lot of its inhabitant, very good sympathetic background.

Joe has to face old friends and enemies, what they did in the past and what is happening now. Is history going to repeat itself?

I received a complimentary copy of the book from NetGalley and publisher in exchange for an honest review. Thank you.

"When Joe Thorne was fifteen, his little sister, Annie, disappeared. At the time, Joe thought it was the worst thing in the world that could ever happen. And then she came back.

Now Joe has returned to the village where he grew up, to work as a teacher at the failing Arnhill Academy. Not an act of altruism, but desperation. Joe has bad debts – and bad people – he needs to escape. He also has an anonymous email: I know what happened to your sister. It’s happening again.
But coming back to the place he grew up, means facing the people he grew up with, and the things they did. Five friends: Joe, Stephen Hurst, Marie Gibson, Nick Fletcher and Chris Manning. They were the five who were there that night. Something they haven’t spoken about in 25 years.
Coming back means opening old wounds, and confronting old enemies and Joe is about to discover that places, like people, have secrets. The deeper you go, the darker they get.
And sometimes, you should never come back."

Firstly i would like to say thank you to Netgalley.co.uk and Penguin House UK for the letting me read an ARC of this fantastic book by CJ Tudor. I was excited to read this second novel as the debut (The Chalk Man) was so good!

The writing keeps you completely hooked and on the edge of your seat, this book has mystery, thrills, horror mixed up with a bit of the supernatural. During reading i really thought i'd got it, but no! Every time i got it oh so completely wrong! I read the entire book in two sittings as it was so gripping, i just needed to know what was going on. The characters were as strange as the going on's in the book so that just felt as though it fit with the whole genre of the book.

The reason i have only given it 4 stars is because when i got to the end i still felt slightly confused and had questions, questions that weren't going to be answered.

All in all, i thought this book was excellent and i would definitely recommend it! I will be buying it to re-read definitely!