“If it’s a severed head, I’m going to be very upset.”

The Chalk Man – C.J. Tudor

A group of kids who sort of maybe do really like each other growing up in the 1980s and dealing with the repercussions of the events of one summer is classic territory for novelists, whether it’s in the US or 1986 in Anderbury, England as it is in The Chalk Man. One thing here that’s covered better in my opinion is whether or not all the kids really do like each other, really are bonded thick as thieves (or just the one thief, the narrator), or if there are consistent fault lines between them caused by their families and also their own behavior.

The Chalk Man involves some areas that I don’t usually see covered in the nostalgia territory which are somewhat more sinister without having verified supernatural creatures like Pennywise involved, like who poisoned the poor sweet dog, rampant bullying, a group responsible for calling a doctor a baby killer via a fetal pig package, a serious car accident that may have been drug induced, that one kid who won’t stop doing accents, and more.

A bit of spoilers here: I expected the titular Chalk Man himself to turn out a little differently because the narrator did give him some suspicious sounding elements and obviously he was posthumously accused of murder and turned up to haunt the narrator once as a ghost. However, he truly wasn’t the worst character in the story and his grey area of being in love with a much younger woman who wasn’t a minor is way more traditional than “I found a murder victim and I took her severed head, even though I didn’t murder her.”

 

So… you need help with a kid who won’t stop doing accents? Finny knows a well-timed tooth snap can really let someone know they need to stop doing something.