Title: The Chalk Man
Author: C. J. Tudor
Type: Fiction
Page Count/Review Word Count: 346
Rating: 3.5/5
I picked up this book as a buddy read with Anthony Andrews, one of my BookTube friends, and I feel like it was a pretty good book for a buddy read. It’s a competent debut novel, although not as eerie as I was hoping for, and if you like the current wave of contemporary thrillers then you’re going to like this one.
Unfortunately, I’m starting to think that thrillers aren’t for me. I keep on predicting what’s going to happen and I always find it hard to care too much about the characters. This one also jumps backwards and forwards through time, and whenever that happens I always find myself enjoying one time period more than another.
I also didn’t think the writing was that great, although I suppose that doesn’t matter too much with books like this. On the plus side, it felt as though all of the different threads all came together nicely at the end, and I liked at least some elements of the ending, although not all of them.
For me, this is just that kind of book – the kind that’s good enough to keep me reading but which won’t leave a particularly deep impression. I hear that Tudor has a new book about to come out, and in fact there’s an excerpt from it at the end of my copy of The Chalk Man, but I won’t be going out of my way to get it. I will pick up a copy from a charity shop if I see one, though.
Would I recommend this one? Well, that depends. I think if you’re a fan of books like Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train then you’ll like it. As for me, I think I’d been mis-sold, because I was expecting it to be more of a creepy horror novel than a generic thriller. Still, I’m glad that I picked it up. A fun buddy read.
