The Chalk Man by C.J. Tudor
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Read: 20th June 2018
Purchase: Amazon
★★ 2.5 stars
I was so excited to read "The Chalk Man" as it sounded fascinating and above all thrilling judging by the synopsis and the reviews I'd read. By all accounts, I was in for a real treat, they said. But in the words of Eddie and his father:
"NEVER ASSUME."
But I must be in the minority on this one. I found the Prologue promising but then it ventured into massive amounts of monologuing told from Eddie's perspective - both in 1986 and the present time of 2016. I'm not a fan of huge monologuing and prefer the connection between characters with dialogue - of which there was some, but not enough I feel. It was this that made the whole story drag on too slowly for my tastes. I couldn't connect with the characters and therefore I couldn't really grasp their personalities or them as people. To me, they seemed like just names on a page and not real people. However, I did read it to the end which I found a bit of an anti-climax. I just think it could have been written better. It certainly did have that creepy feel about it. It had an almost supernatural feel to it at times, particularly with Eddie's dreams and you found yourself questioning whether they were real or just a dream?
Actually, this book had a real Stephen King feel to it. I have seen some comparing it to "Stand By Me" but I've not read the book that is based on, but almost from the beginning I had the feeling of its similarities in part to "IT". I mean, we have five friends - Eddie, Fat Gav, Hoppo, Mickey and the single girl in their gang, Nicky. They are also about the same age as the group of friends in "IT". And Nicky had a sad homelife just as Beverly Marsh in "IT" did, and she being the lone female member of their gang. Just the whole story told from the perspective of 12 year olds with the adults just lingering in the background and then 30 years later they revisit the past. It really did feel like I was reading Stephen King. Some of the creepier aspects of the book - like Eddie's dreams with walking hands on fingertips, severed arms and leaf encrusted limbs all converging on him - reeked of King. So yes, in that respect, the book was creepy. As was the older man/teenage girl aspects also creepy. But it was still lacking...
The synopsis says four friends find a dead body in the woods and then 30 years later the chalk men come back to haunt Eddie with the past. But it takes over half the book to actually get to the murder and and to the body they find. It waffles on about everything else leading up to it in a long-winded way that makes you want to scream "just get to it already!"
I did like the connection in the present day between three of the present day characters. I thought that was a nice touch. But everyone else from the past that we revisit in the present just seem to be weak. Even the ending was a tad Stephen King and on the weak side. I really really struggled to connect to anyone in this book. Eddie just seemed to be a complete sad case who just never moved on, still obsessed with the girl he game the stupid name of "Waltzer girl".
I kept waiting for the story to take off and get better but it never did.
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