**TRIGGER WARNING** This book contains child abuse and sexual assault, just to name a couple. There are also mentions of abortion and teacher/student relations.
Synopsis:
In 1986, Eddie and his band of misfit friends are on the verge of adolescence. Bonded by mutual awkwardness and a yearning for excitement, they spend their days biking around their English village looking for adventure. The chalk men are their secret code, little chalk figures they draw for each other as hidden messages, warning of bullies or signifying meeting spots. But one morning Eddie finds a chalk man directing him into the nearby woods. He follows the message, only to find the dismembered body of a teenage girl. That is the day when everything changes.
In 2016, Eddie is a grown man, working as a teacher at his old school, nursing a drinking problem, and trying to forget his past, until one day he gets a letter with no return address, containing a single chalk stick figure - the same figure he saw the day he found the body. Soon he discovers that each of his old friends has received the same mysterious note. At first they brush it off as a bad prank, but when one of them is killed, Eddie realizes that saving himself means finally figuring out what really happened all those years ago. But digging into the past proves more dangerous than he could have imagined. Because in this town, everyone has secrets, no one is truly innocent, and some will do anything to keep the truth buried.
-From the Crown Publishing Group, December 2017 Book of the Month Club Edition
ISBN 978-1-5247-6098-4
Cast of Characters:
Eddie - aka Eddie Munster as a kid, as an adult just Ed; once a pre-teen in 1986, now a high school English teacher. He's the narrator of our story and if I'm being honest, a little bit of a weirdo.
Mickey - aka Metal Mickey because of his braces; traumatized because of the death of his brother; he is sort of the first to pull away from the group of friends after the death of his brother.
David Hopkins - aka Hoppo in both his youth and adulthood; a rather innocent young boy as a child and he remains seemingly a good man in adulthood. As an adult he not only works full time but also takes care of his mother who has dementia.
Gavin - aka Fat Gav in his youth, but now the guys just call him Gav; paraplegic due to a car accident in his teens; local pub owner in an establishment passed down to him from his father.
Nicky Martin - she's always just been Nicky and the only girl in their group. She's the daughter of Reverend Martin who is his own special brand of douche.
Reverend Martin - local vicar; father of Nicky. He is adamantly against Eddie's mom's clinic because you guessed it, it's an abortion clinic. He's also a hypocrite in his own right which we see when everything comes to light at the end. The kids don't quite understand everything but he's abusive to Nicky.
Mr. Halloran - English teacher at the local school. He's albino so kids being kids, they think he's a bit weird but really he seems like a pretty okay guy. It seems as though he may have been the one to inspire Eddie to become an English teacher as well.
Chloe - Ed's lodger. A pretty young woman with secrets so you'll have to read the book to find out how she fits into everything.
Plot Summary:
It all started with a fanny pack.
In 1985, the fair is in town and Eddie and the gang are going. His mom forces him to wear a fanny pack so he doesn't lose his money should his wallet fall out of his pocket on one of the rides. Of course, Fat Gav is the first one to call him out on it so he ditches the fanny pack behind a bush and uses his wallet. Mother's know best - because Eddie does lose his wallet. When he retraces his steps, he's back near a ride called the Waltzer when he sees a very strange looking man - Mr. Halloran we later learn. But Mr. Halloran is looking at someone - a beautiful teenage girl standing in line to go on the Waltzer. The next thing Eddie knows he's hearing awful noises and metal screeching and when he next looks up, the girl standing in line for the Waltzer is laying next to him broken and bloody. Mr. Halloran runs over and has Eddie help him provide aid to the girl - which ultimately ends up saving her life. But Eddie is left a bit...well fucked up is the best term I can think of...from the incident.
After this initial introduction, we begin switching between 1985 and 2016. In 2016, Ed is a grown man teaching English at the local high school. He lives in his childhood home now that his father has passed due to Alzheimer's and his mother is off living her life. He also has a lodger, a young woman named Chloe, to help pay the bills. He's maintained his friendship with Gav and Hoppo who still live locally, but Mickey and Nicky have long been gone from the area. However, Ed has recently been in contact with Mickey, much to the ire of Gav who has his own past history with Mickey.
Back in 1985, Eddie met Mr. Halloran in a local park on his way to meet his friends one day and Mr. Halloran told him how he used chalk figure drawings as a kid to communicate secret notes to his friends. Eddie tells the gang about it and they begin using the system as well. When Mickey's brother, Sean, turns up dead, Mickey begins distancing himself from his group of friends and instead begins hanging out with his brother's friends - the guys who bullied Eddie and his friends. But even due to the separation, the chalk figures bring them all together one final time - when it leads them to the body of a dead girl, minus her head.
Basically, we spend the entire book learning everyone's secrets, and finally we learn not only the identity of the dead girl but also who killed her and why. Honestly no one in this book is all that innocent, except maybe Hoppo. It took 31 years and people digging into everyone else's business to solve the murder. And really, it didn't seem all that hard so I'm not sure it speaks highly of their local law enforcement.
Review:
It was okay. I give the author credit for bringing it all around in the end. I honestly didn't like any of the characters, not even Ed. In fact, he creeps me out. I don't like what was done to him, but he needs his own therapy or something. The creep factor with him is higher for me than the murderer. There was only ever like one hint as to who the murderer was so I'll give points for the misdirection. I think if the book had been any longer, I would have given up part the way through. I think the only reason I was able to stay fully engaged is because each chapter switched between years.
An average rating for an average book. It wasn't horrible but it wasn't the best thing I've read either.
⭐⭐⭐ .5/5
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