The Chalk Man: It's 'Stand By Me' But Much Scarier

Chalk men aren’t scary, right? Wrong. In this creepy tale, C.J. Tudor manages to expertly blend nostalgic childhood memories with dark, ominous mysteries. In her debut novel, The Chalk Man, Tudor has given her audience a fresh take on the horror-thriller genre, showing the literary world why she’s a force to be reckoned with.

Seamlessly shifting between two timelines, Eddie recounts the harrowing events that happened during his school days and depicts how they still haunt him and his friends in their adult lives. Riding bikes, building dens and finding generally mischievous activities … sounds a lot like my own childhood. Except mine wasn’t filled with gruesome deaths, cryptic messages and of course, the sinister chalk men drawings. But for Eddie and his gang, scary campfire stories become a chilling reality when their seemingly tranquil childhoods are blown apart by the disturbing events of 1986.

In the typical coming-of-age narrative, the adults in the story seem to find logical explanations for the traumatic events of 1986, but fast forward to 2016 and mysterious happenings, suspicious deaths and eerie ‘chalk men’ still haunt the town of Anderbury; leaving both Eddie and the readers asking, who is behind the sinister drawings? What do they want? And what really happened in 1986?

The Chalk Man gripped me right away, and with that prologue how could it not?! The opening scene was both beautifully written - giving the reader a real sense-of-place - and unnervingly descriptive. C.J. Tudor’s style of writing gave this story exactly what it needed, allowing it to be warm, funny and terrifying all at the same time.

Right up until the very last scene, nothing is as it seems in this unpredictable, twisted tale and I recommend you go out and buy it right now.

4 Reasons to love this book

1. The jacket design is uniquely eye-catching. The chalk men drawings along the spine and edging give for a very spooky effect (waking up at 3am to see chalk men on your nightstand is freaky, by the way).

2. That ending! I can’t put into words (without spoilers) how mind-blowing that ending was. Often, I get disappointed with how an author chooses to conclude a story, but C.J. Tudor absolutely nailed it with this utterly creepy finale. (That’s really why everyone is talking about this book).

3. The characters, each holding their own secrets, were relatable in their prepubescent days and believable in their development into adulthood. We’ve all had Fat Gav and Metal Mickey types in our friendship groups.

4. It was hyped up by the King himself and no, he wasn’t wrong! In fact, Stephen King’s Twitter recommendation was the reason I picked this book up in the first place.

Favourite Quote:

“They knelt down beside the unseeing girl. Their hands gently caressed her hair and stroked her cold cheek, fingers trembling with anticipation”