THE THING WITH ANNIE
Annie's eyes: rimmed in black, shadowed with hues of blue and purple. Bright green flecked with brown. They glow in the dark. If Annie had asked me to jump off of any building, off of any height, I would have. Not now, of course. But before, yes. Back then, without question. The thing with Annie is that she doesn't let go. The thing with Annie is that I can't let go of her. The thing with Annie is that there are many things with Annie, and maybe I was just one of the things.
On the verge of 17, introverted Veronica "Ronnie" Miller flees with her mom to the rural town of Brilliant, Illinois to escape their troubled past. Feeling marginalized in her new town, Ronnie is quickly drawn to the enigmatic Annie Sommers, igniting an intense friendship sparked by shared experiences of trauma, denial, and defiance. When Ronnie's dangerous past catches up to her, she turns to Annie for help. Annie, however, has plans of her own.
“The thing with Annie is that she doesn’t let go. The thing with Annie is that I can’t let go of her.”
From award-winning author David James Parr comes The Thing With Annie, a gripping psychological thriller that delves into the complex landscape of memory, abuse, and the devastating cost of silence. Oscillating between the mid-90s and present-day, this haunting tale depicts the journey of a woman unraveling the teenage friendship that transformed her small-town adolescence — and left scars that linger even decades later.