The Chalk Man by C.J. Tudor

[gilda_elise]

In 1986, Eddie and his friends are just kids on the verge of adolescence. They spend their days biking around their sleepy English village and looking for any taste of excitement they can get. The chalk men are their secret code: little chalk stick figures they leave for one another as messages only they can understand. But then a mysterious chalk man leads them right to a dismembered body, and nothing is ever the same.

In 2016, Eddie is fully grown, and thinks he's put his past behind him. But then he gets a letter in the mail, containing a single chalk stick figure. When it turns out that his friends got the same message, they think it could be a prank . . . until one of them turns up dead.

That's when Eddie realizes that saving himself means finally figuring out what really happened all those years ago.


I was completely surprised by this book. I thought it was a horror story, and it is, but a horror story that’s totally of the mind. There are so many twists and turns to this story; every time I thought I knew what was going on, something else would come up, and I’d be sent in another totally different direction.

The story is set in two different times: 1986 and 2016. And there’s plenty going on in each time. We see, not exactly innocence but the hopefulness of youth, turn into the disillusionment of adulthood as Eddie grapples with deaths to which he’s witness.

I don’t usually care for stories written in the first person; this one was the exception. The writer does an excellent job of building the character of Eddie, the speaker in the story. Do we know what he knows? How much is he hiding, even from himself?

I loved the story, and look forward to reading another of the author’s books.






Links are to more information regarding each book or author, not to the review.

1. The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History by John M. Barry
2. Polaris (Alex Benedict #2) by Jack McDevitt
3. How Democracies Die by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt
4. Mikhail Baryshnikov's Stories From My Childhood: Beloved Fairy Tales from the Queen to Cinderella by Mikhail Baryshnikov
5. The Fateful Lightning (Civil War: 1861-1865, Western Theater #4) by Jeff Shaara
6. Circling the Sun by Paula McLain
7. The Petticoat Men by Barbara Ewing
8. Lily Pond: Four Years with a Family of Beavers by Hope Ryden
9. Running with the Demon (The Word & The Void #1) by Terry Brooks
10. The Gentle Giants of Ganymede (Giants #2) by James P. Hogan
11. Ararat (Ben Walker #1) by Christopher Golden
12. If It Bleeds by Stephen King
13. American Ulysses: A Life of Ulysses S. Grant by Ronald C. White Jr.
14. The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates
15. Desert Queen: The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell Adventurer, Adviser to Kings by Janet Wallach
16. Snowblind by Christopher Golden
17. Women of Ashdon (Bridges Over Time #3) by Valerie Anand
18. Unworthy Republic: The Dispossession of Native Americans and the Road to Indian Territory by Claudio Saunt
19. The Family Plot by Cherie Priest
20. The German Girl by Armando Lucas Correa (translated by Nick Caistor)
21. Roses are White by Lesley Lambert
22. Giants' Star (Giants #3) by James P. Hogan
23. Duma Key by Stephen King
24. Magic In My Shoes by Constance Savery
25. The Breach by M.T. Hill
26. We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler
27. In the Region of the Summer Stars (Eirlandia #1) by Stephen R. Lawhead
28. Later by Stephen King
29. The Bone Doll's Twin (Tamír Triad #1) by Lynn Flewelling
30. The Threshold by Marlys Millhiser
31. Echoes of Home: A Ghost Story by M.L. Rayner
32. The Picture of Dorian Gray (Talking Classics) by Oscar Wilde, Martin Shaw (Reader)
33. The Reign of Wolf 21: The Saga of Yellowstone’s Legendary Druid Pack (The Alpha Wolves of Yellowstone #2) by Rick McIntyre, Marc Bekoff
34. A Knight of the Word (The Word & The Void #2) by Terry Brooks
35. The Mummy (Ramses the Damned #1) by Anne Rice



36. City of the Lost by Will Adams
37. The Summer Queen: A Medieval Tale of Eleanor of Aquitaine, Queen of France by Elizabeth Chadwick
38. Last Train from Perdition (I Travel by Night #2) by Robert R. McCammon
39. Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
40. The Chalk Man by C.J. Tudor










I Read Horror Year-Round List

*Winter Theme, or winter appearance on the cover (snow, ice, etc.) - Ararat by Christopher Golden

*Ghosts or spirits - The Family Plot by Cherie Priest

*Psychological - The Chalk Man by C.J. Tudor

*Monster or Monsters - Snowblind by Christopher Golden

*A body of water (featured in story, on cover, or in title) - Duma Key by Stephen King

*Really scary book cover - The Breach by M.T. Hill

*Woman on cover - Later by Stephen King

*Written by a woman - The Mummy (Ramses the Damned #1) by Anne Rice

*Written by a best-selling horror author - If It Bleeds by Stephen King

*Written by an indie author - Echoes of Home by M.L. Rayner

*Historical horror (must be an historical novel written by a contemporary author) - Last Train From Perdition by Robert McCammon

*Folk horror

Comments

[shooting2kill.livejournal.com]

Ooooh, this does sound like my kind of read! Thanks for the rec.

[gilda-elise.livejournal.com]

You're welcome. :-) I so hope that you enjoy it. I definitely did!

[nakeisha.livejournal.com]

This has been on my radar for some time. I keep wondering if I should give it a go (especially as I enjoyed 'The Other People').

[gilda-elise.livejournal.com]

I plan to read more of her books because I did enjoy this one so much. I have The Hiding Place, but plan to look into more, including The Other People.

[nakeisha.livejournal.com]

Hmm, for some reason I was sure I had come across 'The Other People' via you. It's not the kind of book I would stumble across by myself — and not one I would choose to read unless it was via the review of someone I knew & trusted. So if it wasn't you, who was it? *Ponders*

I really did enjoy it and would recommend it. Now if only I could remember who rec'd it to me. *Puzzled*

[gilda-elise.livejournal.com]

Lol, I'm losing it. It was me. It's lucky I use Goodreads, or I'd never be able to keep things straight!

[nakeisha.livejournal.com]

LOL with you. I must admit, this is quite a relief — I was really struggling to work out who had posted a review about it, if it wasn't you.

[gilda-elise.livejournal.com]

To paraphrase, the mind is a terrible thing to lose. *g* Mine, anyway. :-)

[caffyolay.livejournal.com]

Just reserved this from the library, it sounds excellent!

[gilda-elise.livejournal.com]

It really is. She's a great writer. Hope you like it!