General information about The Chalk Man by C. J. Tudor

The Chalk Man is supposed to be a very scary book about children and some games they play. The book is, indeed, gory. If you get squeamish about body parts spectacularly falling out of places they originally belonged to, this book is not a proper reading choice for you. I don’t watch such scenes in movies but looks like I need something more than the scrutinised anatomy of amputated limbs to scare me when it comes to books.The only thing that scared me, actually, was the wish to drop The Chalk Man 50 percents into the story. I had been longing for the book so much! I had been so excited to have my request for it approved! I had thanked the publisher, I had received good wishes from the author and here I was, not being able to last through another page. I summoned my courage and continued. Here is my obviously honest review.

What’s good about The Chalk Man by C. J. Tudor

The story does manage to become slightly more interesting after the middle of the book. You start getting a clearer picture of who the victims are and what actually happened to them. There are also a few unexpected and well-arranged plot twists. The whole plot is knitted from many different threads so it’s also interesting to see how they connect eventually.

What’s bad about The Chalk Man by C. J. Tudor

The dialogues

The dialogues in any book could help reveal a character. It doesn’t mean that a dialogue should be rubbed over a character like a thick layer of warning signs: attention, she’s a bitch! Look out, he’s an idiot! Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happens with the dialogues in The Chalk Man. The lodger of the protagonist, for example, is not able to appear in any scene without producing a bitchy remark. Like a stupid robot, she says something unpleasant whenever she opens her mouth, just for the sake of it. The protagonist himself is not able to mention her without a snappy remark of his own even if it’s about a banal, unrelated to the plot, shopping list. In fact, he always tries to impress you with his misplaced humour but instead he just sounds like a distant relative whose silly jokes you have to acknowledge with a polite smile.

The characters

None of them is developed enough to be multidimensional. They are all just tools to serve the plot. They never grow larger than a function assigned to them.

The clichés

Warning: if you know these clichés they will turn into spoilers for you.

Below are a few clichés from the book. How many of them will you be able to guess? If you do recognise a cliché though, it will be a spoiler for you. Question one: what will happen to a pet in a spooky thriller? Question two: what will happen to a person who announces he knows who the murderer is but will reveal the name later? As for the villain, it’s not a butler (because there’s no butler ) but it gets close to that.

The constant premonitions in The Chalk Man

Suspense is a condiment. You add it to the whole dish to spice it up, to make it more interesting. What will happen to the dish if you unload the whole pack of spices in it? Exactly. Suspense is a must in a thriller but it cannot be the main substance of the plot! You can’t lead a reader through the most of your book just by a mere promise to reveal something spooky later.

Final thoughts on The Chalk Man by C. J. Tudor

I’ve seen people praising the book and saying they left the lights on at night and couldn’t go to sleep while reading the book. My experience wasn’t anything like that. I guess I should be scared by a different type of things and whatever they are, they should be better written.

Thanks a lot to the publishers for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

Book bloggers.

Before I started my blog I didn’t know there was such a big and vibrant community. Reading seemed to be quite a solitary, lonely activity. As soon as I started blogging I found out how wrong I was. Book bloggers are very communicative, supportive and friendly people, and there are so many of them! They became my main source of information about good books, new releases, any important book events. Whenever I have a question I ask a blogger, or post the question on Twitter and I always get a reply. Book bloggers made me realise there’s a whole world out there, and this world felt like home as soon as I joined it.

Book authors.

The mere fact that you can actually thank an author is mind-blowing!

Imagine being able to thank Hemingway or Tolstoy! That’s how it feels for me every time I reach out to an author and thank her. And now imagine how it feels to get a reply! Since the beginning of my blog I’ve had some conversations with several different authors, from basic pleasantries to longer talks. I would have never had this experience without my blog.

Books themselves.

It’s been 2.5 months since I started my book blog. I’ve read 30 books since then. 

I’ve always loved reading but I would have never read that many books had it been not for my blog. The blog gave an extra purpose for my reading, something to look forward to after I finish the book: the chance to share my thoughts, to connect to reviewers and authors.

Writing about the books also helps me remember them, not only because of the eventual post but mainly because of the process of working on this post. When you let your mind work on something, you will remember it better.

I also started ordering physical copies because books became more than just stories. They became beautiful objects I want to surround myself with, admire and take photos of. I wouldn’t have all this beauty had I not started blogging.

And, of course, ARCs are my main treasure so they deserve their own paragraph.

Advance reading copies, also known as ARCs.

ARCs are the books from the future.

They are copies that publishers send to “readers of influence” so that the readers can read and influence, i.e. spread the information about the book before the book gets to the market.

Although I’ve read a good number of them already, it still blows my mind every time I get a new one. And just as I was writing this I got two new copies. They are The Darkness by Ragnar Jónasson and The Chalk Man by C.J. Tudor. I will publish my reviews of them later but I can say they seem to be very scary stories that won’t let me sleep for a couple of nights.

An extra thought on book blogging.

For years I wanted to blog about books but was denying myself this opportunity. There didn’t seem to be a proper excuse to be having so much fun. Thankfully I understood early enough that no excuses are needed for doing something you love. The love is actually the primary reason for doing anything at all. Do what you love doing. That’s all that matters.