C.J. Tudor never disappoints. I was immediately drawn in to The Burning Girls. This book has everything I love; dark secrets, paranormal aspects, well-rounded characters, atmosphere and suspense! I couldn’t read it fast enough.

Vicar Jack Brooks is a mother and a powerful character full of flaws. She has vices but yet also teaches the word of God (I loved this contradiction). Jack (short for Jacqueline) and her daughter, Flo, move to an eerie, small, town named Chapel Croft. Jack Brooks is involved with an incident at her last church and is forced to move temporarily. Too bad that Chapel Croft is wrought with dark history; almost 500 years ago there was a purge which caused the murder of martyrs. Two younger girls hid out in the chapel and were betrayed. They were brutally tortured and burned. The town now creates small twig dolls and burns them in remembrance of that horrible day. When vicar Brooks arrives to this small town, she immediately notices the small dolls scattered around a memorial for “the burning girls”.

Brooks also notices that the town is extremely superstitious, but there are also many secrets still hiding in this creepy town. Her first day in town is a bloody one. A little girl is seen wandering around covered in blood. This seems to be the theme of this small town. While Jack Brooks isn’t ruffled so easily, she can sense someone has been watching her. She can feel the darkness coming. It isn’t long before both Jack and Flo begin seeing apparitions of the burning girls. As Jack dives deeper into the history, there is an evil is waiting for her...waiting for the right moment.

I absolutely loved The Burning Girls and now will be sleeping with my lights on tonight! I definitely recommend giving this one a read!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

"Bad memories are like splinters. Sometimes painful, but you learn to live with them. The problem is, they always work their way up to the surface eventually."

Widowed Reverend Jack Brooks reluctantly takes on as interim vicar in a tiny Sussex village. Along with the move is her 15-year-old daughter, Flo. This village has a dark history that includes: two young girls burned to death in front of the chapel, two teenage girls who disappeared and have never been found, and the Reverend prior to Jack was found dead in the chapel. "The burning girls still haunt the chapel. If you see them, something bad will befall you." When Jack and Flo start seeing the burning girls, the mysteries start unfolding and it is a wild ride until the very end.

A slow burn in the beginning turns into a full-blown thriller with so many twists and turns it's hard to keep all the details straight. Even if you figure out one of the main twists, there are about 5 more that'll have you second-guessing everything and going back to re-read pages to make sure you got it right.

So excited about my first 5-star thriller read of 2021! I can't wait to go pick up the rest of C.J. Tudor's novels!

Thanks so much to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine Books for sharing this ARC with me in exchange for my honest opinion!

The Burning Girls
By C.J. Tudor
3 Star rating

The book had a distinctive voice towards the supernatural spirit with the new Vicar, Jack Brooks seeing a fiery apparition. Flo Brooks, the 14 year old daughter also had similar incidents and this became a major factor for the family. It seemed the town had secrets, missing girls and unexplained deaths to include the recent suicide of Jack Brooks predecessor.

The book seemed disjointed to me because there was cohesiveness missing. The characters were interesting, but it is truly not a book I was getting into wanting to turn the pages.
However, that is not to say that I don’t have friends who would love this book.
I would recommend this book and I truly feel others will be ecstatic.

I received a free advanced copy from NetGalley and these are my willingly given thoughts and opinions.

My thanks to C.J. Tudor, Ballantine books, and Netgalley.
Right off the bat, I can tell you that I loved these character's! Vicar Jack "Jacqueline" is just about what I'd need to give religion another go!
This story started off with an exorcism. I was immediately tense! I'm not great with stuff like that, as it's a wee bit freaky.😈 Eventually we get to a small village. Yada, yada...burning girls. Secrets and murder.
I really do love the main characters, but after such an eerie beginning, it all seemed to turn into a thriller/mystery. Not a bad thing. Just don't start out like a horror novel, then decide to change your panties halfway through! Bummer. Still a good book.

A vicar moves with her daughter form Nottingham to the countryside in Sussex. She was sent to a new chapel in a community that carries a painful and sinister past. Two girls were burned alive during the Protestants purge 500 years ago and in the recent years, two girls disappeared without leaving a trace. Each and every one in Chapel Croft is somehow related to those deeply traumatic events. And every one of them is hiding a piece of the puzzle to protect themselves.
Reverend Jack and her teenage daughter Flo, carry their own traumas and secrets. When they start to unravel the threads of the past that is haunting this small community, their own suffering resurfaces more threatening than ever.
The use of different points of view makes it a very dynamic reading.
Haunted visions, exorcism and shocking twists make this book a must read for horror and mystery lovers. Goosebumps guaranteed.

WOW. What a wild ride!!! I enjoyed everything about this book and it makes me want to read more by this author. i loved all the twists and turns of this thriller/horror novel.

Wow this was such a creepy, gripping ride—I basically gave up reading anything else besides this book over the past few days! I loved C.J. Tudor’s last book The Other People, and I’m so glad she’s retained that same kind taught, twisting thriller with a hint of paranormal elements mixed in for The Burning Girls.

Chapel Croft is like a lot of small British towns; it wears its traditions proudly and plays its secrets close to the chest. And now it has a new vicar, Reverend Jack Brooks, who has moved into town with a teenage daughter Flo in tow, looking to escape some of their own demons back home. The pair are trying to make the best of the situation, but from the moment they step foot in town something that feels sinister seems to be haunting them. In trying to better understand their surroundings, Flo and Jack will have to reckon not only with the town’s eerie history, but also their own obscured pasts.

Wow that was a tough paragraph to write without including any spoilers! I have a newfound appreciation for synopsis writers. That said, even if you’re scrolling through reviews and happen upon a rogue spoiler or two, I wouldn’t worry about it. Because there are SO many twists and turns in this book that if I had all day I genuinely do not think I’d be able to keep track of them all.

So if you guess any of the twists early on, know that you’re either completely wrong or that you’ve only guessed part one of a 12-part plot revelation that‘ll leave you slack-jawed. Seriously, the twists have twists that have twists. Almost to the point at the end where I felt like I was drowning in new developments. I mean I’d rather have too many surprises than not have enough, but it can feel overwhelming to jump from one to the next so quickly.

A lot of that has to do with the multiple-generation murders and disappearances that stretch back to the sixteenth century. The Burning Girls probably has around a dozen of these cases that have to be solved or wrapped up by the end, and in a 300 page novel it’s gonna turn into a sprint at the end. The sheer number of characters left me flipping back and forth trying to remember who this random person was and what year they were alive in. And the last hundred or so pages felt like I was being pelted with curveballs.

For some readers, though, this is great news! Especially for people who read a toooon of thrillers and are looking for something that has the ability to surprise them, this might be just the tonic you’re looking for. But for the casual or rare mystery/thriller/suspense genre reader, it could be too much. Or maybe my last 2 brain cells are just have trouble following intricate plots now—I don't know! Either way, I was thoroughly entertained by C.J. Tudor’s latest and I’m going to be anxiously awaiting her next one!

I'll admit that C.J. Tudor has been rather hit-or-miss for me, but I eagerly read everything she writes and this one did not disappoint. Tudor's mix of terror, horror, and edge-of-your-seat mystery is on full display here. When Jack and her daughter move to the remote village of Chapel Croft, she is hoping for a fresh start. Instead, she finds an enigmatic town full of secrecy and possible supernatural entities. She is drawn into the town's history and begins to learn what has made the town so private and unwelcoming, and she discovers more danger and terror than she bargained for. This one is for readers who enjoyed Tudor's Chalk Man and Hiding Place especially. She does so well with small-town drama mixed in with paranormal elements that keep readers guessing. Highly recommended.

This was my first C.J. Tudor book and I greatly enjoyed it. I felt that the first 50% of the book was so scary and suspenseful! I was ready to be wowed at the end. Jack was such a funny and slightly mysterious main character. An unconventional vicar truly.

My only problems were the second 50% of the book where everything started to be wrapped up....I was left with some confusing plot completions that made me ask questions. So much was happening and I felt like I wanted it explained better. I also thought there was going to be a bit more ghosts, but it’s okay.

4/5 stars!

Jack, an unconventional vicar, and her daughter, Flo, are forced to relocate after some controversy within the church of their previous town. Their new home in Chapel Croft is full of secrets, missing people, tragic deaths, and ghostly visits from the terrifying burning girls!

I always enjoy Tudor’s writing style and I found The Burning Girls to be quite suspenseful! It was brimming with thrilling complexities and tidbits of intriguing insight on being human. These aspects never wavered and made this novel a breezy page-turner.

I don’t remember Tudor’s other books making me laugh, but this one sure did! I love it when an author throws fragments of humor into a book revolving around serious matters. This made my reading experience even more enjoyable.

I was completely set on giving this five stars for the first half of the book!

So, telling you that I didn’t end up loving this is a bit painful! While the book always kept me on edge, my enthusiasm for the story began to dissolve around the 50% mark.

My previous experiences with Tudor’s books have been enjoyable, but I always feel some level of dissatisfaction with the endings. That is true here, even more so than it has been in the past. I acknowledge that one concluding aspect was incredibly startling and as realization dawned on me, I definitely gasped. But then… I had so many questions. There seemed to be a lot of holes in that reveal. Other components of the ending were just too easy, too villain monologue-y, and too demanding of a pretty massive suspension of disbelief. Plus, I wanted so much more from the supernatural aspect than Tudor provided. The whole concept of the burning girls felt like a minute background player, bearing relevance only in terms of creepiness. I don’t feel it truly added to the storyline.

Another issue that skewed my view is difficult to explain well without spoiling anything. The vaguest way I can express this is that I felt the black characters were depicted in distasteful and conveniently disposable ways. Had these portrayals been done to make a meaningful statement about racism, I definitely would have felt differently. I was very disappointed with the author’s choices in these scenes.

I do feel C.J. Tudor is an excellent writer and I truly am elated that I was able to read this a few days before its US release. I do hope her future books will reflect a more respectful inclusiveness, as that will affect my decision to keep reading her stories.

I am immensely grateful to Ballantine Books and NetGalley for my digital review copy. All opinions are my own.

The Burning Girls will be available in the US on February 9, 2021.

Wow! What a thrilling ride this book was! I absolutely loved all the twists and turns. A thriller on the cusp of horror. It has just the right combination of spooky and suspense.

As expected, this was a very dark and twisty thriller. I haven't read any of Tudor's other books, but might have to now. Honestly, early on in the book I had no idea how everything would come together - there were several disparate story lines that seemed all over the place. However, by the end much (if not all) is revealed and the pieces all make sense. I thought Jack and Flo were perfectly adequate characters, but I didn't particularly identify with either of them. I loved the rural English countryside setting and felt that Tudor really captured the insularity that comes with a small town. While there were plenty of horrors, none were overly gratuitous.

Another wonderful book by CJ Tudor! The horror was just enough to be creepy and the real life mystery was satisfying. See my whole review on Goodreads.

This book was crazy! It was a creepy, disturbing thriller with a complex and well thought out plot. The entire story was one giant puzzle I was always on the verge of solving. I loved how the threads of the past and present were woven together to create something unique and interesting. The writing was descriptive and created a creepy atmosphere. I could not put this down!

My only complaint was it was a little gruesome and difficult to read in parts. But I think that was the goal, to make the reader uncomfortable. Overall, I would highly recommend this (but don’t read it before bed!).
Thank you NetGalley and Random House for the ARC.

C. J. Tudor! I mean what else to say to this point? She just perform at the highest level every time and she already well establish as one of the best thriller writer of the moment! Read her! read this book!

I was provided with a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Diving into The Burning Girls by C.J. Tudor, I had a vague idea of what to expect - a thriller with hints of the supernatural. Little did I know that this book would take me on a thoroughly creepy rollercoaster of emotions.

Reverend Jack Brooks and her daughter Flo move to Chapel Croft after a vacancy for vicar opens up. In looking at the history of the area, they learn that this chapel was the place of some of the protestant burnings in the 1500s lead by Queen Mary. The village honors those that lost their lives as martyrs and notably two young girls who were burned by creating twig figures that are burned once a year.

Jack is introduced to us as trying to move on from her past and the perceptions from her previous church. Once in Chapel Croft, things appear as a quaint village, but Jack has off feelings about the whole situation.

This book is not one I should have read before going to bed, but once I started I couldn’t put it down! Spine tingling and leaving me guessing at each turn, I couldn’t wait to read more.

Told from multiple characters points of view, you get a glimpse of what is happening and yet still feeling like you just need one more puzzle piece. While reading, I did sometimes struggle to know who the POV was for a chapter until a page or so in, but that did not deter from my love of this book.

“You can never leave your past behind.”

A small cottage in a small town and a creepy chapel in need of repair. A town that pays homage to the burning girls with twig dolls. Creepy atmosphere? Check.

Sometimes, small towns are the worse. You have no privacy because everyone is into your business. It’s even worse when you’re the new vicar of the town that’s rife with controversy. I really dug Jack. Jack’s views are laid back, and they make sense. “Belief should be a conscious choice, not something you’re brainwashed into when you’re too young to understand or question it. Faith isn’t something you pass down like an heirloom.”

I also liked Jack’s parenting style to Flo, and Flo is a genuinely good kid. I can’t imagine how hard it was for her to up and leave her school and her friends to such a small town. With spotty Wi-Fi, it keeps her cut off. That she went through such horrific bullying speaks volumes about how rife it still is today.

This was a fun storyline. I received this book 5 days ago from Ballantine Books, and I worried about finishing it in time for release day. Pish! It’s a C.J. Tudor book. Of course I finished it in time for release day. I loved the atmosphere, the supernatural elements, and the writing style which started lazily and then really hooked you. Overall, a super fun read.

My mind is all over the place on this book.

This is my third C.J. Tudor book. Per usual I am drawn in by the dark, disturbing synopsis of her books; always thinking this will be the one that works for me, but, again, not this time.

This book should have worked for me. I mean this book has all things intriguing: secrets, dysfunctional families, Satanism, religious ambiguity and weird little dolls all wrapped up in a creepy, small town.

Yet...for some odd reason, I couldn't be drawn to the story. There were 2392003 characters in this book and I felt like there were so many different story-lines happening at once that it was super hard to keep track of who was who and who did what bad thing.

But my two-star review isn't entirely due to my inability to get sucked in, it's for how certain stereotypes play out in the story among the characters.

There are some questionable racial stereotypes in this book, AND, the way disability is represented in this story is just so...not good.

What a bummer this turned out to be because WOW, the crafting of this story was smart and super complex. And Tudor is a great writer. However, the representation and ending totally ruined it for me.

A big thank you to NetGally and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for the ARC and wanting my honest opinion!

4.5 Stars

This is my first book by C.J. Tudor, what the heck was I waiting for!? This book was way above average for this particular genre...The plot is tight and just dramatic enough to be interesting, without the over the top antics that often plague these type of books and make them laughable. The descriptive language was so fitting and creepy and made it such a page turner that I read it in one sitting.

I loved the elements in this story; it's more than Good vs Evil...It's a little bit of Believers vs Non-Believers and mostly a giant test of faith. If you enjoy slow built fear in your horror stories indulge in this one. This book is an experience, and builds its characters and situations layer by layer all the way to the end. As with any exceptional experience, it deserves your attention. It certainly earned mine and had many surprises along the way.

A wonderful, brilliantly written, frightening and haunting story. Take heed, if reading this alone...remember to keep the lights on!

Wow I loved this book so Atmospheric and creepy c.j. tuder did not Disappoint can't wait it get a Physical coby