Gott im Himmel - this one absolutely blew me away. Chronicling the best and worst of coming of age with dead bodies thrown in, it's Stand By Me on steroids. Whew!
And to think I almost missed it. Yes, I'd seen the extensive hype, and noticed its appearance on best-seller lists. But faced with a stack of advance-copy books that will keep my nose to the Kindle to the tune of at least one a week all the way through early May, I decided to take a pass on this one. And then, a three-week window miraculously appeared - and only one big-name author's entry (Dark in Death by J.D. Robb, which I'll be reading next) - was waiting to be squeezed in. Well then, I said to myself, let's see what everybody's talking about.
Now I know, and I'm almost speechless. The writing, dare I say, is exquisite, the character development is like none I've seen in a while and the story is both original and totally engrossing. In fact, once I hit the halfway point, no way could I have put it down. Chapters switch between two time periods; 1986, when the major characters are English kids (four boys and a girl), and 2016, when they've long gone their separate ways but strange events are pulling them back together again. I've said time and time again that I'm not a fan of time switches like this, but in this instance the chapters are clearly designated so there isn't much confusion. What's more, details revealed in the early year are so interesting - and sometimes surprising - that I couldn't wait to find out the impact they had on the friends' current lives.
The story is narrated by Eddie Adams, now a teacher. His long-ago friends are "Fat" Gav, "Metal" Mickey, "Hoppo" Hopkins and Nicky (the lone female). As youngsters, they live very diverse and for the most part happy lives; but they also witness some very unchildhood-like events like finding a pieces of a woman's body strewn thither and yon in the woods. Like most kids, they get their kicks where they can - in their case, from drawing stick-figure "secret" messages to each other with colored chalk. Fast-forward to 2016, when Eddie is contacted by Mickey, and old memories - not all of them pleasant - come flooding back. How and why did the friendships come to an end? What is each of them doing now? And why on earth has Mickey suddenly reappeared after all this time? The answers to those questions, and many others, are revealed as the story unfolds.
Along the way, there's considerable focus on social issues (some might say too much, in fact). The story touches on everything from bullying to abortion to stereotyping to Alzheimer's/dementia, with a few in between that I didn't bother to write down. That said, each is directly tied to the plot and progress of the story, with no attempt to be "preachy" as far as I could tell.
There's a lot more I could say - especially about the ending - but most of it would give away too much. I'll just stick with emphasizing that this is one of the best books I've read in a long time. Simply outstanding!
The Chalk Man by C.J. Tudor (Crown, January 2018); 288 pp.
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