Reviews tagging 'Religious bigotry'

The Chalk Man by C.J. Tudor

25 reviews

wylovat's review against another edition

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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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meeshell89's review against another edition

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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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_mayhemily_'s review against another edition

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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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beckyyreadss's review against another edition

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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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katlin's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced

2.5


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litalia's review against another edition

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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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theirgracegrace's review against another edition

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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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kyrstin_p1989's review against another edition

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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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richardw2024's review against another edition

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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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tayahmarie's review against another edition

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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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