Annie John, a novel written by Jamaica Kincaid in 1985, details the growth of a girl in Antigua, an island in the Caribbean.

The book ends with her physically distancing herself from all she knows and loves by leaving home for nursing school in England.

[3] Barbara Wiedemann writes that Kincaid's fiction is not specifically aimed at a young adult audience.

[5] Asked if the relationship between Annie and Gwen was meant to suggest "lesbian tendencies," Kincaid replied: "No…I think I am always surprised that people interpret it so literally."

Symbolic references to water (including the sea, rain, and other forms) illustrate Annie's development from childhood to maturity.

Near the novel's start, the reader learns that Annie has a regular baby bottle and one shaped like a boat - and that is only the beginning of her water-connected choices in life.

Jan Hall, a writer for Salem Press Master Plots, Fourth Edition book, states in an article about Annie John that "because the novel has no years, months, or dates, the story has a sense of timelessness.

Jan Hall writes: "the themes of Annie John, Jamaica Kincaid’s first novel, are continued in Lucy (1990), a novel about a young woman’s experiences after leaving her Caribbean island.