Reviews with content warning for Child abuse - O Homem de Giz

this might be my least favourite CJ Tudor so far but also I'm giving it 4 stars because it's still a very solid story, and considering it's her debut!! I really liked the setting of the book, I enjoyed the dual timeline and reading from the perspective of a child. I did see the ending coming (kind of) but it wasn't as annoying as one might think. it's a fast paced thriller that does its job of grabbing your attention and breaking any reading slump. I will definitely continue my journey through tudor's backlist and I'm excited to pick up the next one.

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whiskeywoman79's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Fiction / Horror / Mystery / Thriller / Crime / Suspense
⭐⭐⭐/5
TW: SA (graphic once, but mentioned in different ways throughout)

I am not sure what to say about this story. It was creepy. It had its good parts and its bad parts? I was left confused and underwhelmed? I am rather unsure how I feel about it as a whole.

I feel like the author kept trying to justify inappropriate adult-child relationships. Like the one that was forced was bad, but because the young girl liked the teacher back that one wasn't bad, TF?!! Both shouldn't have happened, and neither should be condoned.
Can we also acknowledge that he was sexually assaulted!! They kept glazing over that Other than when he asked about the accusation made at the church "What he did to you - some people would give that same name."
I have no idea how it won the awards it did.
Will like this if you like Stephen King? For me it is like SCI Fi movies it's the B-rated version of Stand By Me.
I grew up in a small US town in the 1980s, yet I felt so disconnected from the flashbacks, maybe it is a UK v US thing? I never believed they were 80's kids.
I had such high hopes for this read because The Burning Girls is one of my 5-star reads for this year, after DNFing The Drift, and now my experience with this I am starting to think it was a one-off.

I am using this for a challenge I am just not sure which one yet.

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vbfields's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

I listened to the audiobook version.

This fell very flat for me. It is more of a murder mystery than true horror, which would be fine but I felt the blurb and the whole first half of the book was setting this up to be something so creepy and maybe a little supernatural but that was not the case at all. The characters were all very one dimensional, including the narrator, Eddie. I could not stand that everyone kept lying about everything! Nobody was reliable to the reader and I felt there was a lot of fluff thrown in just to throw us off the true answer that did not even matter in the end. The ending was not surprising and it was actually a little frustrating. I suspected from the beginning about what happened in the final scene with Eddie, but why? And prior to Mickey coming to see him it seemed like this was something Eddie never even thought about in 30 years. His descriptions of women and especially /girls/ were also just disgusting. Every time one came up (and there was a lot) it made me uncomfortable. The actual character of the chalk man was also just completely wasted. Should have just called him straw man.

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