An unconventional vicar must exorcise the dark past of a remote village haunted by death and disappearances in this explosive and unsettling thriller from the acclaimed author of The Chalk Man.“Hypnotic and horrifying . . . Without doubt Tudor’s best yet, The Burning Girls left me sleeping with the lights on.”—Chris Whitaker, New York Times bestselling author of We Begin at the EndA dark history … bestselling author of We Begin at the End
A dark history lingers in Chapel Croft. Five hundred years ago, Protestant martyrs were betrayed—then burned. Thirty years ago, two teenage girls disappeared without a trace. And a few weeks ago, the vicar of the local parish hanged himself in the nave of the church.
Reverend Jack Brooks, a single parent with a fourteen-year-old daughter and a heavy conscience, arrives in the village hoping for a fresh start. Instead, Jack finds a town rife with conspiracies and secrets, and is greeted with a strange welcome package: an exorcism kit and a note that warns, “But there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed and hidden that will not be known.”
The more Jack and daughter, Flo, explore the town and get to know its strange denizens, the deeper they are drawn into the age-old rifts, mysteries, and suspicions. And when Flo begins to see specters of girls ablaze, it becomes apparent there are ghosts here that refuse to be laid to rest.
Uncovering the truth can be deadly in a village with a bloody past, where everyone has something to hide and no one trusts an outsider.
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I really enjoyed this book! I have had pretty good luck with C.J. Tudor’s books so I was really excited to read her newest offering. I went into this book rather blindly which I think might be the best way to experience this wonderful novel. This book was one of those books that I found hard to put down and appreciated each and every surprise during the reading journey.
Reverend Jack Brooks has been reassigned to the small town of Chapel Croft. Jack’s 14-year-old daughter Flo isn’t any more thrilled by the more than Jack is but they are going to try to make the most of it. The church that Jack has been assigned to has a lot of history being the site where martyrs were burned at the stake. Residents still leave burning dolls to honor them. Jack was sent to Chapel Croft to replace a vicar who suddenly committed suicide a couple of months earlier and the town also holds the mystery of a pair of teen girls who disappeared years ago without a trace.
Jack and Flo try to fit in but some things just feel off. They both are starting to make friends and trying to connect to the community but they can’t stop themselves from digging a little deeper into the mysteries surrounding the events that have occurred in the town. I loved the way that this book was able to keep me guessing until the very end. I really liked both Jack and Flo and found myself rather worried about both of them at several points in the story. This story was really intense and I felt like it straddled the line between mystery and horror which is something that I really appreciated.
I would highly recommend this book to others. I think that this was a fantastic novel that had me glued to the pages and invested in the welfare of the characters. I will definitely be reading C.J. Tudor’s work in the future.
I received a digital review copy of this book from Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine Books via NetGalley.
Another great read by C.J. Tudor! After being involved in a scandal, Reverend Jack along with her teenage daughter is sent to Chapel Croft to take over after their Reverend commits suicide. Instead of finding a fresh start and some peace they find that the townspeople here are very troubled and determined to keep their secrets a secret. I really enjoyed this book as it was very well written and intensely creepy and suspenseful.
This is my 2nd novel by CJ Tudor, I am hooked and I want more! I was given an advanced ecopy from Random House Publishing through netgalley for an honest review.
Reverend Jack Brooks is called to Chapel Croft to temporarily serve as the Vicar. Her daughter, Flo isn’t too thrilled about leaving Nottingham for the English Countryside. As soon as they arrive, they are met with the mysterious history of this small village where 500 years ago, 8 Protestant martyrs were burned at the stake, 2 of which were young girls. And what of the 2 teenage girls that had gone missing 30 years ago? Did they run away?
Flo experiences a couple strange sightings at the chapel and Jack receives a strange box with an exorcism kit inside. Jack & Flo find themselves thrust into the mystery & suspense of this small village. Will their quest to find the truth be deadly? Jack has many secrets herself.
I really loved this book, a lot of twists & turns. I recommend it!
I received a copy through Netgalley
Wow, what a suspenseful, thrilling, scary book this was! I loved all the twists and turns. A page turner until the very end!!
“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.
The Burning Girls by C. J. Tudor is a highly recommended psychological thriller packed with plenty of bait and switch clues.
Reverend Jack Brooks, a widow with a fourteen-year-old daughter, Flo, has been ordered to leave Nottingham and go to to fill a sudden vacancy in the village of Chapel Croft as an interim vicar. The Sussex village has a dark history as the site where Protestant martyrs were betrayed and burned five hundred years ago. There is a local tradition of making dolls out of twigs, which are called burning girls, and leaving them on the church grounds. The ominous atmosphere in the village continues as thirty years ago two teenage girls disappeared and the previous vicar hanged himself in the church. When Jack arrives she is left a welcome package of an exorcism kit with a warning note.
The village is as glum and the atmosphere is as foreboding as the history portends. The cottage they move into is dilapidated, dark, and dank. The town is hardly a relaxing village vicarage post. It is full of strange sometimes hostile characters, horrible secrets covering centuries, odd occurrences, and it becomes increasingly menacing. As Jack begins to meet people and learn more about the village, Flo also meets the locals while out taking photographs, including Lucas Wrigley, a teen with dystonia who’s bullied by the others, and two of the teens who bully him.
The plot is perfectly paced in this taut nerve-racking suspense. Tudor does an excellent job slowly upping the suspense, introducing one more clue, another odd occurrence, a further piece of history, a new twist, all while moving her characters through the plot as the tone of the narrative becomes increasingly strained, uneasy, and ultimately dangerous. The increasing tension will keep you glued to the pages trying to follow the clues to figure out who is trustworthy and what is really happening in this creepy village. The threat is real, but where is it coming from? Once you hit the last third of the novel you will not be able to put it down and the scenes leading up to the final denouement will actually surprise you.
The narrative alternates between the point of view of Jack and Flo, which works very well in this novel. The two keep many incidents and information they come across to themselves rather than telling each other everything, or at least some of the more egregious events that occur. This helps increase the tension and sense of foreboding as the novel progresses.
While this is a remarkable psychological thriller, for me the enjoyment of the suspense was marred by the fact that I didn’t enjoy the character of Jack and this never really slackened throughout the novel. Flo is a perfectly developed teenager and I liked her character, but Jack kept saying things that were off-putting to me. The two have a believable relationship, although there were some things that seemed unlikely, like Jack not telling Flo about her family background.
Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Random House Publishing Group.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2021/01/the-burning-girls.html
With crazy clergy, a dilapidated chapel, abandoned cottages, mutilated apparitions, exorcisms, rotting flesh, blood and fire, there’s plenty here for the horror fan. But there are also some cracking mysteries and a large, fully-realised cast, expertly wrapped up in an intricate, well-written plot.
I loved this book even though it scared me! Vicar Jack Brooks and her daughter Flo, are sent to a parish in the country from a busy parish in the city. Chapel Croft has a long interesting history. From 8 Protestant martyrs being burned at the stake to missing girls never to be seen or heard from again. When strange things start happening at the chapel, can Jack and Flo figure things out before they become one of the strange happenings in the town? This was a fantastic thriller that I just couldn’t put down. I loved Jack and Flo and their relationship. The descriptions have you right there in the middle of everything. I received an advanced readers copy and all opinions are my own.
4.5 stars
Who wouldn’t be worry as a single mother trying to start a new life in a new place? I know i will.
This is one of those stories that stays with you for a while and make you more aware of the places you visit or live. Each house or land has its own history, sometimes you can read about it, sometimes you hear tales and sometimes everything is hold as the most precious secret that won’t be unveiled no matter what happens. Here’s the case of those secrets, an old setting in the countryside will always hold hidden treasures and most of the times they aren’t the good or happy kind.
The culminant act was build with so much anticipation and suspense, and even if i thought i knew what happens and who was playing up on her, most of my theories were demolished one by one in the best way.
There’s a tale of witches , a tale of old traditions where the past and the present are intertwined and this is definitely a must read story
A chilling gothic noir that has a deep rooted flair for the paranormal and the darker arts. The storyline plunges readers into the sinister and downright gruesome past of a village while intertwining mysteries of the present. A fantastic, creepy read with formidable characters. #keepthelightson
Thank you to #NetGalley and #BallantineBooks for the ARC of #BurningGirls which was read and reviewed voluntarily.
#cjtudor #gothicreads #mysteries #imnotscaredyourscared #bookstagram #bookblog #booktweets #gimmemorebooks #bookish
Oh this is a difficult review for me to write. I really enjoyed “The Chalkman” and “The Other People” but with this new book I think that Ms.Tudor has crossed that line between thriller and horror.
This was a bit of a shock to me. I’m fine with ghosts and supernatural elements. The burning girls I knew were trying to warn them of bad things that were going to happen. The descriptions and stories of the Sussex Martyrs’ from the 16th century were appalling but those were different times.
What felt so very evil and stomach churning to me were the descriptions of teenage bullying, to the point of harm. Physical violence with a “satanic feel” made the book uncomfortable for me to read.
So those are some of the thoughts I wanted to share. As for a synopsis, this is a novel about a single priest, Jack, raising a 15 year old daughter, Flo. After an incident at her parish, involving an exorcism gone very wrong, she is assigned a position in a small town, Chapel Cross, where the 16th century burning of martyrs occurred. Jack is not really happy with the placement but she goes along with it. Her daughter would have preferred a larger city.
The congregation is a small one. Upon arriving, Jack finds out some things about her predecessor that are very disturbing. She’s also been left a box from him which includes an exorcism kit.
Aside from the dark history of the Sussex Martyrs’, there is also the mystery of two teenage girls missing for 30 years. The longer Jack and Flo are in the town the more secrets and lies they discover.
Meanwhile Flo is spending the summer quite alone. She isn’t bothered by it at first because she loves to take photographs and developes them herself. She and her mom are trying to decide if the basement could be converted to a darkroom.
Finally she meets a boy about her age. They have some great conversations and things are going well. Flo may be having her first teenage crush.
As with most young girls in love, sometimes Flo dropped her defenses and did some dangerous things. There will be lessons to be learned. Rosie is another “friend” to watch, she’s a real charmer.
There are so many twists in this one it will make your head spin. Unfortunately for me parts of this novel moved in the horror genre or mood and I didn’t enjoy that feeling. Obviously her writing is incredible if it can make me feel the horror, but I was sort of blindsided by it.
There are many people who loved this book. Ms. Tudor is an amazing writer, this story just wasn’t one of my favorites. One thing I think it lacked was character development, and perhaps that was partly the intent (you’ll know what I mean when you read the book)
I received an ARC of this novel from the publisher through NetGalley.
The novel is set to publish on February 9, 2021
The Burning Girls by C.J. Tudor is a fabulous dark, twisted, stunning, suspenseful, invigorating murder mystery.
This is the first book that I have read by this author, and if all the books written are as great as this one, well I am a fan for life.
From the first snippet, I was sucked right into the vortex. There are so many layers of complexity to this book that it gave the mystery a life of its own. Throughout the book, the reader is given insight into a multitude of characters, their own thoughts, some past and some present. As the book continues forward, all of these amazing abstract pieces start coming together, creating a masterpiece indeed. It is almost like the more I read, the more I needed to know and read on. It was beyond addictive.
The pacing, plot, character cast and the aura that the author created were all a perfect storm. It was real, dark, sadistic, fascinating, almost ethereal at times, while suffocating and heavy at others. I loved the way the clues were laid out like crumbs left upon a trail. It all wound up into a pulsating, satisfying end.
I loved following along with Jack and her daughter Florence (Flo). These two women were excellent, kick-rear female protagonists, and I enjoyed everything from their imperfections, their excellent witty one-liners, sarcasm, banter, and unique blend of strength and slap your forehead bad decisions. It made for excellent reading.
I won’t give away any of the synopsis, as the reader can see this from the summary, and I could not bear to accidentally divulge any of this guilty pleasure.
If you love murder/mysteries with fiesty main characters, elements of darkness wichcraft and religion (some say they are one in the same in this novel), creepy small rural villages, and a great, complex plot, then you must, must read this.
Excellent!!!! 5/5 stars
Thank you NetGalley and Ballantine/Random House for this ARC and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.
I am posting this review to my GR, Bookbub, and Instagram accounts immediately and will post it to my Amazon and B&N accounts upon publication (and Instagram again).