The Chalk Man by C.J. Tudor

The Chalk Man
By: C.J. Tudor
Publisher: Crown Publishing
📖📖📖📖/5


In C.J. Tudor's ¨The Chalk Man we are introduced to Ed and his crew of friends who unwillingly start a chain of events when a ride at the fair goes haywire. Ed helps save a young girl, whom he calls Waltzer Girl, injured in the accident. Ed becomes famous in his town for saving the girl's life. Later, one of the group of friends receives sidewalk chalk as a birthday gift from an unknown source. They decide to leave each other symbols about when and where to meet one another. The "chalk men" become a new way the boys can communicate with one another throughout the town. What starts as an innocent communication between friends becomes more when the body of a girl is found with similar chalk men around it. Tudor leads the reader down a path of twists and turns and just when you think you have solved the mystery, you are left in the dust.

I have to admit that at first I thought I would not enjoy this book at all. The flip flopping of time periods confused me and it was hard to grasp the story at first. I'm not generally a fan of time jumping but I quickly got used to it as the story went on and we were given more details in the story. On top of that, the story got off to a slow start. However, as the story unfolded I found myself hooked. Tudor does an excellent job building suspense. And the use of many, many red herrings made the story more exciting. I also enjoyed the delving into the mental state of some of the characters. There were many times I was sitting there wondering what was real and what may have been imagined by the characters. No spoilers here, but I can tell you that not everyone is as they seem in this book. If you are looking for a book with many twists and leaves you questioning your own mental state, this is the book for you!