The Chalk Man by C.J. Tudor

An exquisitely written horror in the tradition of Stephen King’s It and The Body, The Chalk Man has some deeply disturbing moments, captivating characters and a final twist that you will not see coming. Switching between two times lines the author takes us seamlessly between the childhood years of five friends from a small town who find the dismembered body of a teenage girl and their adult lives 30 years later as those events come back to haunt them. I finished this in two sittings because despite the allusions to some other great works in the genre it was just so hard to put down and I had to know what would happen.

On top of the obvious terror that surrounds the basic plot there is an undercurrent of the horrors one might face everyday. Themes of child abuse, mental, physical and sexual, religious persecution, women’s rights and a particularly strong focus on the effects of Alzheimer’s on both the sufferer and their loved ones. The Chalk Man is just bursting with things to the think about and I swear to god the last chapter just about ripped me apart.

9/10