Full review:

This book…whoa… *wide-eyed blinking*

I picked it up because it was on my TBR and I was also looking for a change of pace….boy did I find exactly that. Within the first two pages…of the epilogue…it was already intense. *mouth agape in silent shock* But we didn’t stop there…got twelve more pages in and my mouth literally (not just saying that here – I use the words literally and figuratively correctly) fell open. At this point I had to pause, put the book in my lap a moment and reacquaint my mind with the rush that shocking and unexpected events can cause.

I have this habit of trying to guess where a story is going to see if I am not only clever enough but also to see if I have as keen an eye for details as I think I do. I like to challenge myself to see if I can figure out the events and the ending before I get there. This story though…I got half way though it and realized that it ain’t givin’ anything up about what’s to come. Which was so thrilling! Being able to keep me guessing is something I am always searching for when I’m reading. So yeah, the plot and story line of this book is great! Oh, and I hope you like cliff-hanger chapter endings, cause C.J. Tudor has quite the taste for them. I appreciated that Tudor also made it a point to not leave any “plot holes” where the reader is left wondering “well what about…?” (She even has our main character comment on how much he dislikes plot holes – irony. I love it.)

The writing was good and the characters were well thought out and full of depth. I really have nothing to complain about here. It was all good. The words effortlessly pulled me through the story and I feel like there’s a lot to be said for that.

This book was also riddled with wonderfully quotable lines.

Now you might be wondering “Why the half star ding then, Rochelle?” Two reasons; the pace/excitement level of the events slowed down – just a bit – and there were one or two plot holes I found. …I am being suuuper nit-picky here, guys. The only reason I say the pace slowed is because after the first twelve pages I didn’t have another jaw-dropping moment until the very end. How can you start of “sprinting” – shocking the sh*t out of me – in the first twelve pages and then start “jogging” until the end?? It was just a little to disjointed for my taste. As for the plot holes, there’s two occurrences with the chalk-men that are never quite explained that I would have preferred cleared up. You get the “sense” of an explanation, but I wanted a logistical explanation. How did those get there and when did they get there?

It’s a great book if you either like this genre of book or need a good change of pace. ( )

I have very mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand I thoroughly enjoyed the narrator and the characters. On the other hand I don’t feel satisfied with the ending. And maybe that’s the point but I’m still leaving this book feeling kind of let down. I guess the word I’m looking for is the ending is messy. It seems there are several different problems or mysteries and they all have different answers which is a bit frustrating. I don’t always expect a very neat ending with a bowtie to it but this just was too much. Overall I like the writing style so I’ll probably read another one of her books. ( )

The Chalk Man by C. J. Tudor is a fast-paced psychological thriller set in a small town. The book starts with a very positive note of terror. The atmosphere it created also had a spine-tingling effect. Between all this, the author has inserted some horror moments to relish. Also, the characters were nice, each of them having their own role to play. But there were many loopholes in the story. I felt that the author was somewhere between horror and psychological thriller. A story that could have turned out to be chilling horror ended just in a thriller. So many questions were left unanswered.

Still, the book is interesting and deserves a one-time read. Definitely, I would like to give the book 3 stars. ( )

The writing was really good, interesting characters and a real page turner. Somehow I found the ending a little bit of a letdown.plenty of psychology, excellent unreliable narrator ( )

it had its moments but found it too long and drawn out ending was definitely creepy and wholly unexpected ( )