Anyone who’s seen the hype around this book will
know it’s being compared to the work of Stephen King. If I recall correctly,
even the great man himself compared it to his own work on Twitter. Point is, it
will be the most unoriginal comparison I can make, if I say The Chalk Man is
comparable to something that Stephen King might write. Well, apologies, but I’m
gonna, for the comparison is apt.
CJ Tudor has written a coming of age story that
can easily stand aside the master’s work. In Anderbury, we have a small market
town in England, comparable with those King conjures in Maine. In Eddie, Fat
Gav, Metal Mickey, Hoppo and Nicky, we have child protagonists the like of
which King populates his novels, such as IT. And in the chalk man drawings that
sinisterly litter the narrative we have the kind of fiendish motif he might
have conjured.
Unlike King’s writing this is a crime novel,
rather than horror, but like IT we have child protagonists trying to solve the
mystery and plagued by evil. It’s not a straightforward crime novel, this is no
police procedural, psychological thriller or serial killer tale. Rather it is
both a coming of age story – the narrative is split between alternating
chapters set in 1986 when the protagonists are ten, and the present day when
they are adults – and chiller/thriller, if that makes sense. Both narrative
strands work well, though those chapters set in 1986 are by far the best, the
author perfectly encapsulating a child’s eye view and managing to conjure up
how it felt to grow up in the 80’s.
What’s the central crime the plot revolves around?
I really don’t want to say - albeit the book’s description gives that away,
telling the reader that the children find a body. In many ways however, this
misses the point. A plethora of crimes, both hinted at and explicit, occur in this
story; there are multiple characters who may or may not be involved. I want to resist
divulging spoilers because this is a MUST read, a really enjoyable experience;
there are twists galore and a really eerie sense of foreboding that seeps from
each and every page.
Read this novel. You really won’t regret it.
5 out of 5 stars
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