Reviews tagging 'Religious bigotry'

The Chalk Man by C.J. Tudor

25 reviews

wylovat's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Bullying, Child death, Death, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Dementia, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Car accident, Abortion, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Rape, Suicide, Police brutality, and Death of parent

meeshell89's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Ahhh this book was great! So creepy and messed up! Loved all the twists and turns and I really liked the alternating chapters from past to present. Definitely gave me Stephen King’s “It” vibes. Love the tag line of the book- “everyone has secrets” .. oh yes, yes they do!!! So glad I picked this book up! Now I feel like re reading it to pick up on all the little clues scattered throughout. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Death, Mental illness, Rape, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Blood, Dementia, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Car accident

_mayhemily_'s review against another edition

dark mysterious sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, and Religious bigotry

beckyyreadss's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

 Thank you, Michael Joseph Penguin Publishing, for sending this book in a welcome pack in exchange for an honest review. 

In 1986, Eddie and his friends are just kids on the verge of becoming teens. They spend their days biking around their sleepy English village and looking for any 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 of a child, and nothing is ever the same. 30 years later, 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 runs out that his friends got the same message, they think it could be a prank – until one of them dies. That's when Eddie realizes that saving himself means finally figuring out what really happened all those years ago. 

I really enjoyed this book – it was messy and weird, but I feel like it was the writing style. It was bizarre but it worked by the end. At the beginning, my head was completely battered. I was so confused and it sort of had to go round the bend and back again but at the end I understood the plot. Eddie is a messed-up kid and really should have gone to therapy when he was younger because the actions he took as a child and an adult were weird and messed-up. Like all those children involved are messed up and desperately need therapy. It sorts of shows that everyone is always hiding something.  

If you really want to read a messed-up book that will screw with your mind, this book is for you.   

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Abortion, and Murder

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Blood, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Death of parent

katlin's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship and Abortion

Moderate: Animal death, Domestic abuse, and Religious bigotry

litalia's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Death, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Suicide, Dementia, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Blood, Abortion, and Death of parent

Minor: Pregnancy

theirgracegrace's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Blood, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Body horror, Body shaming, Drug use, Fatphobia, Violence, Vomit, Dementia, Grief, Religious bigotry, Abortion, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

kyrstin_p1989's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book was weird in the best way. The ending creeped me out but after having read the entire book, I couldn’t even be that shocked. The story illuminates how no matter how good we try to be or claim to be, we all do bad things and some of us do more heinous things than others.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Dementia, Grief, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

richardw2024's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Fatphobia, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Dementia, Religious bigotry, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Self harm

tayahmarie's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

This book effed me up. It’s a lot darker and more gruesome than I originally thought. This is actually marketed as a Thriller and that’s where it went wrong because it should be classified as Horror IMO.

However, I did enjoy the story for what it was. I thought the plot was unique, I was invested in the characters/their fate, and it was insanely gripping. Like I mentioned in previous posts, I love dual timelines and Tudor executed it well here. My interest in wanting to find out everything I could about what happened in the past and the present day was equal.

The idea of some crazed killer drawing Chalk Men symbols around your hometown (much less a crime scene) is terrifying. Tudor is phenomenal when it comes to imagery and documenting some of the most gnarly and gruesome scenes, as well as just downright CREEPY (the church scene/one of Eddie’s nightmares towards the end? WTF!) There were a few paragraphs I had to bypass because I could actually picture what was going on and wanted to jump out of my skin and throw the book across my room. It was disgusting! That’s how you know someone’s a good writer in that realm, lol. Also, I definitely recommend looking up trigger warnings prior to reading this because there are A LOT. I wish I would’ve because I was completely caught off guard.

Final Thoughts: Overall, this was good. Really good. It was very reminiscent of a Stephen King novel (as if I read more than one book of his 😅). Lastly, this story has me looking at EVERYONE suspect 👀 - it’s pretty crazy when you think about how you don’t REALLY know someone. That goes for your family, your friends, co-workers, the person you’re sitting next to on a train/plane, etc. We all keep secrets, yes, but some are more dangerous, deadly, and downright depraved than others. The quote I chose, in the beginning, is a true sentiment to this little novel, especially the ending 😶!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Sexual violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, and Murder