I love Tudor, but this one missed the mark somewhere and I can't put my finger on it. Good, but not Chalk Man good.

C.J. Tudor's books always scare the crud out of me.I loved the Chalk Man so much and it had me looking over my shoulder for days. But this....wow. She knows how to push you right to the edge of disbelief. She can take a story and stretch it just far enough to terrify you without going so far to make it unbelievable. Sometimes I wish it was unbelievable so I wasn't so scared!! I am not usually a fan of books that hint at supernatural aspects, but this was done in a way that I really enjoyed and kept me invested in the story line.

Wow, this one freaked me out on so many different levels! The book title gave me a little bit of a clue that it was going to be a tough one and some of it was. It was a dark story at some points, but I couldn't get over how well written the book was. Great characters and it keeps you on the edge of your seat! The one thing that really struck out to me was all the different themes, especially the one around parents and children. How, why and what a parent will do for their child and on the flip side, how a child gets comfortable to trust their parents.

At first, when I started reading about Vicar Jack Brooks, I thought "ugh a religious freak" but she was the complete opposite! She was sharp tongue, quick witted and totally in love with her kid. They move to a small town for Jack to take over a parish which itself has a dark history.


Thank you so much to #netgalley and Ballantine Books for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion

Thank you to Netgalley and Ballantine Group for allowing me to read and review this copy for my honest opinion.

I have to say this is just what I needed for a thriller. I have been reading romances all month and just needed something to break up all the gushy reads. This hit the mark! I finished it and immediately went to look up other books by CJ Tudor because I need them all in my life right now. This was really creepy and scary for me. There's not much that scares me when it comes to horror movies and books, but this one was up there. The reasoning for that is I have always been terrified of possession and exorcism books and movies. This fits that bill for me, and while I was terrified I still loved every second!

The Burning Girls was my third novel by C.J. Tudor, and I have by now learned that for me, she can do no wrong. I love her stories. I get sucked in every time. They are SOOOOOO creepy, but always have you wondering if there is a supernatural reason behind the drama.

The Burning Girls is set in a small village where female vicar, Jack, and her daughter, Flo, have been transferred after the last vicar's death. They soon learn that vicar had killed himself, but with little understanding of what drove him to it. Lo's daughter soon meets some of her peers and immediately befriends the local quirky guy, while also becoming the target of two local bullies.

The title references a creepy ritual of doll burning to represent some people who were at one time killed for their Protestant beliefs. But in the more recent past....say 20-ish years ago, two girls went missing and are presumed dead, and the mystery of them hovers over the town.

Each character introduced has a potentially sinister side....EACH character. I love that. I love a book that sets a mood early on and holds it well throughout without it getting tiresome. Jack was a good character: Widow, overprotective mother, slight busy-body, and so on. I was rooting for her and Flo and was eager to learn her story. Flo was a really positive portrayal of a teen girl: Rebellious, but loving, and independent. The mysteries of the missing girls, an extremely creepy cabin, the backstory of Jack and what she might be hiding from, as well as whatever secrets each townsperson is hiding kept me glued to the page. Really enjoyed the book!

I enjoy C.J. Tudor, and this book has good bones. But the flesh is weak. My main objections that the author uses a plot device to clean up some messy bits; in this case a character whose sole function seems to be to stop another character from being erased. This presages an ending that aims to tie up all the loose ends but leaves the reader wanting it to be unraveled. The Burning Girls produces a lot of smoke but no heat.

"The burning girls still haunt the chapel, if you see them something bad will befall you"
Well, this was a quick read and did keep me interested throughout to find out more about these burnt girls, why certain people are seeing them, and the history behind it all. It started slowly, but man what a finish! All that said, I did find this one boring at times, and somewhat forgettable. I am new to the author, heard great things, so maybe I had high high hopes. If you love a solid mystery with a good ending, great. It did not keep me riveted, wanting more, but was satisfactory.
Thankful for the ARC

My favorite CJ Tudor so far. This book completely exceeded my expectations. I really love stories that touch on religious undertones (especially in a horror/thriller setting) and this book was the perfect in that sense. I loved the use of religion in this story. Some reveals I saw coming but that never bothers me as long as the reveal and plot direction is done well, which this was. From the opening scenes to the end, this book was the perfect type of unsettling for me. I also highly love and appreciate that there was a FEMALE priest!!

Wow wow wow, i can't believe how incredible this was. This was one of the most atmospheric and chilling stories i've read. I mean i had chills from the start and they didn't let up. If i could give this more than five stars i would, five hundred stars!

Talk about keeping you on the edge of your seat. This is the thriller for you! This was so intense and heart pouding. I can totally see this being made into a movie. It was so vivid and realistic. Such a creepy setting. I had to put it down at night so I didn't have nightmares. Definitely an awesome read!

About the book:
Told in multiple POV chapters between Jack, Flo (her daughter) and an (until the middle end) unidentified male. The chapters with the male went between first person and third person, which was interesting. Jack's chapters didn't really have a lot going on, it was mainly a lot of chatter and thoughts and mundane things up until closer to the end of the book whereas Flo's chapters were a lot more in depth and have more going on.
This threw a curveball at the end that I did not see coming, but kind of left it open-ended so I'm wondering if there will be another book.

About the characters:
I really liked Jack, even if her chapters were a bit boring and felt more like filler, but I digress.. She's a vicar, yes, but a mom first and foremost. She also happens to be human and humans make a lot of mistakes.
Flo is a 15 year old, that just wants to have fun, secrets or not and keep her mom out of it more or less. To sum it up, she is a kid and does things that aren't in their best interest, as all kids do.
Then there are the people in the village(?). Some things some of the people do/did are very predictable and I mean things you see waaaaay before they come to light, while others aren't as predictable and well, I'll just leave that where it lies so you can fill in the holes on the way.

This was a really good book, the atmosphere is a little dark, but all in all I enjoyed it. I'd recommend this if you enjoy a good British mystery.

Thank you to Netgalley, Random House Publishing and Ballantine for the free eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

TW: Child death, suicide, graphic murder, child abuse, sexual references

3.5 Stars. I really enjoyed this author's book, "The Other People", tremendously but while the writing is good and the story started out strong, I felt it started to fizzle out in the last quarter of the book.

Reverend Jack Brooks and her daughter, Flo, relocate to a new parish after a traumatic event at her previous posting. But immediately upon their arrival, things do not go well and a host of creepy characters are introduced. The author does balance the supernatural with religion without going overboard with either but the suspense starts to lose its impact at the end as the different storylines were wrapped up much too quickly.

Thanks to Ballantine Books and NetGalley for this advance copy.

4 stars--I really liked it.

Just like the other Tudor book I read, you have to suspend your disbelief quite a bit about the plot--it gets pretty crazy. I was willing to do so because I cared about the characters.

This is a super-twisty thriller that surprised me more than once. As I mentioned before, I really enjoyed Jack and Flo and wanted the best for them, which added an extra layer of tension to the plot.

But unusually for a thriller, this book had a deeper theme--what is evil? Are some people born evil? If you do one or two evil things, can you still be a good person? And in reverse, can evil people do good things? There were some interesting ideas that the book explored.

I received this review copy from the publisher on NetGalley. Thanks for the opportunity to read and review; I appreciate it!

C.J Tudor has yet to disappoint me, her books are always a thrill ride and this was no exception! I was completely enthralled with this book and could not put it down, it’s stuffed with twists and plenty of action. I could honestly gush for days about this book and you can bet I’ll be recommending it to all of you from now on! That being said it is also a very, VERY dark book and has a lot of triggers which I have included warnings for at the bottom of this review. I, personally, enjoyed the book with the dark content but it might not be for everyone. The more I thought on this book the more I came to terms with the fact that this is now my favorite C.J. Tudor book and I really couldn’t find anything to really nitpick at because I enjoyed myself a lot.

This book follows Reverend Jack Brooks as she moves to the small village of Chapel Croft with her daughter, Flo, after a gruesome incident at her previous church. The church and surrounding village have their share of secrets: 500 years ago a group of religious martyrs were burned at the stake, 30 years ago a pair of local girls went missing under mysterious circumstances, and just 2 months prior Jack’s predecessor, the local Reverend, committed suicide. Chapel Croft most certainly holds a lot of secrets and it doesn’t help that Jack is also running from her own.

I know, the synopsis and even my little summary there sounds like a lot, and it is! However, with this many moving pieces I was completely stunned by Tudor’s ability to bring them altogether and connect them seamlessly. There are so many plot twists that I did not see coming whatsoever and I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. The chapters are short and pack a punch, each one ending with a sort of mini cliffhanger that left me needing to know what was going to happen next! The writing is amazing, kept me hooked, and is very engaging it also keeps the book going at a very fast pace. I can’t tell you how much a enjoy when a twist happens and it’s such a good twist that I’m momentarily confused and stunned like: “What the hell just happened?!”. This book is full of those moments and I always appreciate being truly surprised when reading any sort of mystery or thriller.

“The Burning Girls” also stays with Tudor’s style of thriller, which weaves supernatural/paranormal elements throughout the story, keeping it just spooky enough that you’re left wondering about it. However, the paranormal element of this story isn’t explained or shown a whole ton. Which I felt really worked in this case because it is an unexplainable phenomena and you know just enough that further explanation wasn’t required. It kept the atmosphere eerie and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

There are a lot of layers to this story, as you probably could have guessed from the many mysteries shown in the synopsis. This was all handled amazingly and I never once felt lost or confused while reading. It all comes together in the end perfectly and I was blown away with the result. The ending was probably my favorite part because it was where all the little twists and moving parts ended up and it kept me guessing all the way up until the very last page. Talk about keeping me hanging until the very end!

The main POV is told in first person with Reverend Jack Brooks, however, we do get third person POV chapters with her daughter Flo and another mysterious narrator as well. I really enjoyed all of the characters and thought they had great personalities, were complex, and developed and strengthened a lot over the course of the story. Jack and her daughter are badasses, that’s for certain, they’re very strong women and I loved them. That’s not to say they’re perfect, however, because they’re realistic. They have secrets and there are some mistakes that are made during the book and before the events of the book. They owned them though. Jack and Flo both make some questionable decisions but as I said this just added to their realistic portrayal in my eyes because it’s something I could have seen myself doing in their position. I do think there was also a touch of moral ambiguity to the characters which also kept things very interesting and as I’ve said a 100 times already, made them ultimately feel very real but also at other times pretty dark.

There are also some very short chapters sprinkled throughout that are told in the POVs of the missing girls, Merry and Jane. These are basically to give us little tidbits of information that will just push you forward in the story because you need to know what happened to them!

There are quite a few side characters that come into play frequently and play a port in the many different layers of the story, such as: Wrigley, a teen boy that Flo meets who is bullied for his dystonia (a muscle disorder that causes muscles to contract uncontrollably), Reverend Rushton another vicar in the local parish and his wife Clara, Aaron who is the church’s warden, Tom the aging reporter, and the Harper family who are high status residents in Chapel Croft. They ALL have parts to play in the story so they’re important in their own ways and I was very impressed with how much each character impacted the story in small ways.

What I Loved:

So many twists and turns I didn’t see coming!
Multi-layered plot
Well developed, complex characters
Side characters that played small, important roles
Paranormal aspect
Fast pacing, very well written

What I Didn’t Love:

Honestly, the more I thought about it the more I couldn’t find to nitpick at. So, nothing!

Overall I don’t think I can recommend this book enough, in general! If you enjoy thrillers or any sort of mystery with a paranormal aspect then definitely give this one a read. There is a lot of dark content but if you can handle it this book is very much worth the read. It’s unlike anything I’ve read, very unique, and it will definitely take you for a ride!

Trigger Warnings: Attempted Rape, Murder, Violence & Gore, Bullying, Animal Death (It was a bird), Ableism, Use of the R-word, Mention of Suicide, Homophobia, Child Death, Mention of Abuse, Pedophilia, Sexual Abuse, & Torture

**** Huge thank you to the publisher for providing me with a copy via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review ****

Okay then. Maybe the cover featuring the church engulfed in flames should have been a giveaway, but that was quite the crazy ride.

Chapel Croft has a long and interesting history, and when Reverend Jacqueline “Jack” Brooks arrives there with her teenage daughter to take over the parish after the unexpected death of the prior clergyman, she’s kind of amused. The locals still make little twig dolls to commemorate the martyrs who were burned at the stake in Chapel Croft centuries ago.

But Chapel Croft is definitely NOT a quaint and cozy place. More like The Village of the Damned. Not only does the town seemingly harbor the ghosts of those centuries-old martyrs, it also has a mysterious, decades-old case of two missing girls, a recent unexplained suicide, and a whole lot more.

This story has a bunch of secrets and just as many bodies. Also bullying, pedophilia, and stalkers. It was a lot. I came close to guessing the ending, but it still came as a bit of a surprise.

My favorite part of the book was the very realistic mother-daughter relationship between Jack and her snarky teen daughter Flo, who does not hold back when it comes to being dragged to a new town and a new house that has no internet, no shopping, and a high creep factor.


If you’re a little tired of domestic thrillers, this has a bit of a different spin. If you like twisty page turners and also enjoy books with a lot of historical detail and a quaint (though creepy) village setting, definitely give this a try! It’s an interesting hybrid. It’s not really a thriller, but it’s dark.

After an unfortunate incident at the church Reverend Jack Brooks is moved to a small village. She hopes that it will be a new start for her and her 14 year old daughter. Now this small villiage is very peculiar and different there is a lot of unsaid things in the air and Jack is suprised to find out that she is replacing a vicar that after he was too deep into the supersitions and trying to find out what happened to two girls tha disappeared many years ago he committed suicide or thats at least what is being told to Jack.
Flo, Jack's Daughter, initially had a rough start with the kids not being so friendly and then another bullying incident where they break her prized possession of her camera. So if that is not enough she then starts to see the spirits of the girls and even a spirit in the church. Things start to get even creepier with Jack being given and exorcism kit and in her basement she finds a tape recording of an exorcism that is when things really get creepy!
I enjoyed the creepy vibes and the haunting feelings from his book, the story is solid and the mystery aspect is great! I really love how the author did pinpoint small towns and superstitions rather well! I loved this and I would definitely recommend it!

500 years ago, martyrs were tortured and burned at the stake in the name of religion. Then, years later, two young girls went missing in the same little town and it was presumed that they were burnt at the stake as well, and the town had a ceremony to symbolically honor them by burning little twig figures they have aptly named “The Burning Girls” in their honor.
Now, Jack Brooks, an unorthodox priest and her 15 year old daughter have moved into town so she can run the local parish after the last priest committed suicide. Immediately after Jack and Flo arrive at their new home, things go dark quickly. A young girl covered in blood turns up at the chapel, stories around town of sighting of burning ghosts, whispers about Jack’s past come back to haunt her, and what appears to be a stalker following her in her new life. .
Flo becomes friends with a local boy, who has a reputation of his own and though no one seems to want to take credit for it, an antique exorcism kit was left for Jack as a clue to figure out what has been going on in this dark and secretive little community.
Although there were definitely some creepy moments, it was more of a “people are horrible” type of vibe that I took away from it overall. Burning Girls is definitely an atmospheric thriller with chapters alternating in both the main characters POV. There were some surprising twists, but there were also come clues early on in the story if you were paying attention and there’s loads of suspicion to keep you turning the pages! Think this may be my new fav from the author.
Thanks to Netgalley For this arc in exchange for my review.

Mystery

What a deliciously evil mystery. Jack Brooks is a pastor/priest with some issues. A situation at her current church went badly and she is transferred to a more rural town. They have a vacancy because the previous vicar killed himself. His death isn't the only creepy thing about the town, two local girls went missing 30 years earlier and for hundreds of years the locals have celebrated the Burning Girls - martyrs who were burned at the stake.

Jack and her daughter Flo almost immediately start experiencing strange events. The more they delve into the present, the more the mysteries of the past rear their head. What are the townspeople trying to hide?

Tudor has really come into her own as a writer. The creativity and plotting meld seamlessly with the writing to form a creepy, slightly horrific mystery that hits all the right notes.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for my ARC of this book.

I was provided with a complimentary copy of this book so I could give an honest review. The opinions are entirely my own, and any quotes are taken from the ARC and may be different in the final published copy.

Five hundred years ago, eight protestant martyrs were burned at the stake here. Thirty years ago, two teenage girls disappeared without a trace. And two months ago, the vicar of the local parish killed himself. A new vicar moves to the parish and finds a small town full of secrets where everyone has something to hide, and no one trusts an outsider.

There are only a few authors I would categorize as an auto-read author. C.J. Tudor has quickly become one. I followed her on social media and am pleased she is a "real person" who interacts with her fans. I devoured her other novels, so it is difficult to write, but I was not as fond of her latest, The Burning Girls, as much as her other work.

The story felt overly complicated and, at times, difficult to follow. I am not saying I did not enjoy the story. I do think it is worth reading and gave it a 3.5-star rating. The Burning GIrls was hard for me to get into and hard to stay focused on it.

I will continue to read her work as soon as it is published. No future works are listed on Goodreads.

This 200-word review will be published on Philomathinphila.com.

The Burning Girls by C.J. Tudor piqued my interest simply because of the author. I generally love her writing and the way she weaves a superb story. This story, however, left me wanting. I didn't care for the supernatural aspect and felt the story would have been better off somehow without that. Maybe not possible within the context of the story, but added something not interesting to me. I do like the characters that the author created though and the atmospheric vibe to the book, the small county town, was all great. Overall this book fell flat for me which I hate to say.