I did not see this plastered across Instagram but randomly stumbled upon it while on goodreads. So what caught my eye? Humans burnt at the stake, missing girls, floating apparitions AND a serial killer! How could you scroll past a book like that? I had to add it to my TBR list! Given that it is October, I thought it would be an excellent pick for my Reading Challenge and I was super glad that the majority voted to read it!
The story is set in the quiet town of Chapel Croft which is brimming with its secrets from missing girls to murdered vicars. Supposedly haunted by the apparitions of two girls who were burnt at the stake for their faith, Chapel Croft is infamous for being the town of the Sussex martyrs. It is the town where eight protestant martyrs were burnt at the stake 500 years ago. This book has many characters, so much so that I had to go back and reread certain areas to figure out who is who. Hence this review will explore the plot and thematic elements of the book by looking at the characters. They were all quite dynamic and did quite a bit to set things in motion! I am going to divide it into characters who contributed to the story’s suspense and those that contributed towards the story’s horror.
Suspense – who did what?
- Let’s with Reverend Jacks. Forget her sinister background. What’s with her name? I was around 5 percent into the story when I realized that okay, Jacks is a woman. Jacks – short for Jacqualine. I checked the goodreads summary and it says “single parent and Flo”. The pronoun “her” is used just once and I now understand why that crucial detail just slipped by. I think it was a clever move by the author? It definitely did add to the suspense of the story. This simple detail of the protagonist’s name. You are so caught up in patting yourself on the back for realizing early on that it was a “she” and not a “he”, that you fail to notice the other little hints that point towards her actual identity. That of Merry. Very clever.
- Then there’s her background. What happened to her husband? Why doesn’t she talk about what happened with her daughter? And what is the relationship between her and the crazy guy who goes around killing people? These questions scattered around the beginning and middle of the story kept me reading. Also I don’t know if I like or hate that she finished every chapter with a shocking cliffhanger. I mean it did make me finish the book faster. Buuuutt I lost quite a bit of sleep while reading!
- Moving on to Jacob. He was an extremely sinister character. Gave off all the wrong vibes right from the beginning of the story. Creepy stalking, killing off innocent vicars and old people. This felt as though the author was trying waaay too hard to make him the “villain” aka red herring of the story. And I didn’t like that. Because on completing it, I realized that he was a good guy, who had a terrible childhood, no emotional support and no closure. He so badly wanted his sister’s forgiveness for killing her husband that he didn’t realize he had become a monster in the process. I did feel bad for all the people he killed, but it could have all been avoided if Jacob was shown a bit more compassion. I thought there would be some sort of poetic justice for Jacob in the end – I did not like that he was put into an asylum where he spent his time making twig dolls. I think it would be interesting to read this same story from Jacob’s point of view. It would paint a clearer picture of their childhood, and provide answers for how and why they killed their mother, why he killed the husband and what went wrong between him and Jacks. These unanswered questions from Jacob’s and Jacks/Merry’s childhood, definitely contribute towards the suspense of the story.
- Wriggly – I did not like him from the start. The whole conditional twitching did seem like an act. Rosie’s warnings to Flo foreshadowed what was to follow. I did expect him to have a hand in the town’s mysteries. HOWEVER, I never thought he would be the main culprit in Fletcher’s death, his mother and even the attempted murder of Jacks.
- Rosie and Tom – how disturbing are these two? I can’t seem to decide if I hate these two or Wriggly more. I thought Rosie would be one of those characters who end up being good in the end – gosh I was so wrong!
- The vicars – okay so there were too many of them in the story and somewhere along the line I got them all mixed up. Aaron I think was the gay one? Marsh is with Huntington’s and Rushton was married to Clara I think? Fletcher was the one killed by Wriggly. Even while reading, I had to reread certain areas to figure out who was who because in the end it felt like everyone was involved in some cover-up or murder.
Why so spooky?
- Poppy- She enters the story covered in blood having walked halfway across the town. I read the story expecting her to be possessed by one of the Sussex martyrs. I was quite surprised when I read that the reason for her weird behavior was childhood trauma. Her estranged behavior did creep me out a bit! I did think it was an excellent start to the story. That and the exorcism kit made an excellent opening.
- Obviously those two apparitions that popped up whenever Flo was around. There was a part of me that said – okay this isn’t real. It will be explained later on in the story as a trick of the light? But I guess the two girls were the ghosts of Abigail and Maggie burnt at the stake for their faith. Jacks tries to rationalize Flo’s vision – “Flo isn’t prone to flights of fancy, She is pragmatic, sensible, reasoned…so what’s the alternative?” This remains unanswered in the story. The reader is left to draw their own conclusions and I think the ghosts were real!
- Flo and Wriggly’s graveyard expeditions. Why would you go with a stranger to a haunted house or graveyard? I was on edge while reading this bit!
Final thoughts
The story was interesting, however I felt that it was cluttered. Way too many characters with backstories and events that needed to be patched up in the end. Some, like the death of Mike’s daughter, was not given enough attention. How did she actually die? Did Rosie have anything to do with her death? Too many characters were involved in the actual threat of the story – that being the death of Reverend Fletcher. Yes, it had many twists and cliffhangers, this is what kept me going. However it needs a bit of cleaning!
I am going to wrap up the review with a favourite quote from the book.
We’re just playing at being grown-up, but inside we’re still children, shuffling around in oversized clothes, wishing someone would tell us that monsters don’t exist.
Overall rating: 3.5/5
Fact box
Author: C.J. Tudor
Release date: 19th January, 2021
Genre: Horror, thriller, suspense
The Bookish Blogger 
The fact that they use the pronoun “her” doesn’t mean anything. Lol…..”Jack” is short for Jacqueline. It’s common for woman to have a shorter version of their names that sounds like a man’s name. Also, for a man to have female names. “Stacey”, “Terrie”, “Taylor”. Lots of people already assumed “Jack”was a woman. I can understand how you may of thought “Jack” was a man though.