Annie

Annie is Gideon’s older sister and one of the people who knows him most completely: she remembers the embarrassing details he hides from everyone else, and he turns to her when he cannot work out what to do about Ava. Two years older than him, she has built a life that does not follow the expected route from academic achievement to university. Her sharp opinions, resourcefulness, and affection for Gideon make her more than a reassuring sibling: she can tease him, challenge him, and invite him toward a life he has not yet dared to imagine.

Identity and Background

Annie is introduced through Gideon’s admiration as much as through her achievements. She was the school dux and won scholarships to several universities, but politely declined them, choosing instead to work in a pub and travel around Europe. Fiercely opinionated and political, she loves mathematics and paints large murals in pastels. Her intelligence is matched by a practical talent for making money: at fifteen, she helped fund her European travels by joining a friend’s father’s pyramid scheme.

That enterprise had a childhood precedent. At eight, Annie ran a tuckshop-side sweets business, buying lollies with her pocket money, repackaging them, and selling them at a profit. The school shut it down after one of their mothers discovered what she was doing. Gideon’s affectionate account turns the scheme into an early portrait of Annie’s entrepreneurial instinct: she is not merely clever in the classroom, but quick to see how an idea might work in the world.

Family and Closeness

Gideon describes his family as unusual because its members genuinely like one another. Annie is part of that intimacy, and the family’s closeness is also visible in her parents’ enduring relationship. For their twenty-fifth anniversary, Annie and Gideon arranged a surprise party in the backyard. Their mothers got drunk and went skinny-dipping in the pool; Gideon judges the party a success. The story gives the family’s affection a playful, unceremonious form, rather than presenting it as solemn sentiment.

Annie’s bond with Gideon includes knowledge of the parts of him he finds least cool. He tells her about his childhood My Little Pony collection, which he had so he could play with her and her friends, and the time he cried hysterically at All Dogs Go to Heaven when he was twelve. She also knows about his disastrous experience vomiting on himself on a roundabout. When he talks to her about Ava, he does not maintain the coolness he tries to project elsewhere. He gushes about Ava’s laugh, their letters and kiss, and the giddy feeling she gives him. Annie’s familiarity with his history makes that unguarded confession possible.

Advice and Emotional Support

Annie’s support is affectionate but direct. When Gideon is anxious about an upcoming poetry competition, she appears on an iPad screen and recommends that he perform her favourite poem. Her suggestion gives him a concrete option amid his cycling worries about what to read and how the evening might go. In a postcard from London, she tells him, “You’d love London like I love you, which is lots and lots,” joining an invitation to imagine the city with an unmistakable declaration of affection. She also urges him to be brave.

Later, after Gideon has told her about Ava, Annie asks whether he has shared his feelings with her. When he admits he has not, Annie insists that he should, reminding him that people deserve to be openly cherished. Her practical instruction is to tell Ava and not walk out again, but to remain present for the good parts of the relationship. The advice matters because it does not promise Gideon that fear will vanish. He still feels dread after his first kiss with Ava and wonders whether relationships are simply a perpetual source of it. Annie’s response offers a way to act while afraid, rather than treating fear as proof that he should retreat.

She also asks about Gideon’s mental state, distinguishing his heart from his brain and checking whether the latter is getting better. Her concern sits alongside the teasing and enthusiasm, not in place of them. When he answers that it is improving, she asks whether he is sure. The exchange shows that Annie’s attention extends beyond the immediate romance: she wants to know how he is doing, even while encouraging him to take a risk with Ava.

London and the Future

Annie’s life in London gives her presence a distinctive shape. Gideon sees her through a screen, including a call in which she shows him the rainy view outside her window. Later, when he is struggling with the question of what to do next, she listens as he tells her about Ava and their relationship. She proposes that he come to London, either for a holiday or to live with her. Gideon says he cannot, and the evidence does not establish that he accepts the offer. Its significance lies in Annie making a place for him in the life she has chosen, while leaving the decision with him.

The invitation also makes their sibling closeness tangible across distance. Annie is not only a confidante who can help Gideon interpret his feelings; she offers the possibility of sharing a home and a future. Her own path—from academic distinction and scholarships to pub work, travel, and life in London—gives that invitation a personal context without making it a prescription for Gideon. She opens a door; he remains free to decide whether to walk through it.

Narrative Role and Characterization

Annie is chiefly presented through Gideon’s memories, reports, and conversations with her. This perspective makes her vivid through selected particulars: a childhood sweets business, pastel murals, a pixelated video call, and her readiness to high-five him through a screen. Her confidence does not make her remote. She is accomplished and politically outspoken, yet also funny, teasing, and intimately familiar with Gideon’s most ridiculous stories.

Her responses repeatedly convert affection into action. She gives him a poem to consider, encourages him to tell Ava what he feels, checks on his mental health, and offers him a place in London. At the end of this sequence of support, news of Gideon’s first sexual experience reaches her while she is finishing a trip in Marrakech. She does not receive Susan’s message until she lands, then calls straight away. Two days pass before the call, despite Gideon’s expectation that Annie would hear and ring sooner; she immediately gives him a hard time and makes him high-five her hand on the screen. The moment preserves the balance that defines their relationship: she celebrates his milestone without losing the teasing ease that lets him be embarrassed, giddy, and loved all at once.