Book: The Hiding Place (aka The Taking of Annie Thorne)
Author: CJ Tudor
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Pages: 346
Read On: Kindle
Plot Summary: 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.
Things I Liked:
1. My sister and I read C.J. Tudor's first book- The Chalk Man- and we really liked it. It was sinister and based in small-town UK and was just all kinds of intriguing. So, we were really excited to read her second book and the premise sounded really eerie. Annie Thorne goes missing for 48 hours when she was eight years old. She returns home, but her elder brother, Joe, is convinced that whatever has returned is not his sister. Nice, right?
2. The build up of the story is done really well. We have 40-something Joe return to the little mining town he grew up in after almost 25 years. He had received an anonymous email saying that the events from 25 years ago are happening again. So, as a reader, you are immediately intrigued about the past wondering about what happened to little Annie Thorne and if those events had any supernatural basis to them. So, we see Joe's life as he returns to his hometown and starts teaching English in his High School and the challenges he faces there.
3. The book is very atmospheric and as you read it, you feel the claustrophobia of a small town that's not doing too well, where there is a distinct power structure and the rich get away with anything, where bullying is rampant and there is some sort of a town secret that nobody talks about. I liked how the story had these multiple sinister moments.
4. The book's narrative switches between present day, Joe's life just before he returned to his hometown and the events of 25 years ago- the days leading up to Annie's disappearance. Each of these narratives are interesting and each has enough hooks of intrigue to keep you wondering what next. The events of the past are really interesting because that's where we get to learn about this big secret that the town has and, of course, what happened to Annie.
Things I Didn't Like:
1. The only major complaint that I have against this book is that the big secret of the town is never properly or fully explained. Clearly, it is something supernatural (don't worry, I am not spoiling anything that you wouldn't have guessed from the Plot Summary) going on but what it is, what it does and why it does what it does is not explained at all. So, even once the book ends, you are left wondering what the hell the nature of the evil was with no sense of closure. I guess, the author wants the readers to make their own assumptions and take some leaps, but I believe that in quasi-horror books, the onus is on the author to do the world-building around the spooky/ supernatural element and not leave it to the readers' subjective interpretation. Since C.J. Tudor is being labeled 'U.K.'s Stephen King', she should, perhaps, take a leaf out of the master's books and attempt to explain the supernatural element in her book.
Rating: 3.5/5
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