A review by lauriereadslohf
The Burning Girls by C.J. Tudor

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

4.5

 

This is the third book I’ve read by author C.J. Tudor and it’s my favorite so far. I had some crabby complaints about The Chalk Man’s characters being dull and humorless and I remember only enjoying the dog but that’s all been fixed here so, yay, here’s a crab-free review!

An untraditional vicar named Jack and her teen daughter are relocated to a remote village because the last vicar perished in a very bad way but he oh-so-kindly left Jack an exorcism kit! Wait, what?! There’s quite the story behind all of it but I absolutely will not spoil it for you. There are many mysteries and secrets here to unravel and let me tell ya, one of them really got me! I was genuinely taken aback, and left a little stunned at the turn of events and in need of a breather and I loved it and that’s all I’m saying about that. 

The atmosphere is ultra-creepy and done extremely well. I love stories where the setting is as much a character as the actual characters themselves and that’s the case here. Their new church/home is decrepit and neglected as it should be in a book like this. Grimy and old and a little bit dangerous. The cemetery hangouts, dismembered burning ghost girls, cagey and suspicious new neighbors, awkward new friends, all of it done so incredibly well that I couldn’t put the book down. Sometimes when a book has this much going on I start to tune out, get confused or aggravated because my brain screams “stop, it’s too much!” but not this time. The characters are vivid and compelling, Jack and her daughter are down to earth and have a great sense of humor. I love to see that. I adored the mother/daughter relationship here especially. It’s full of love and trust and honesty and though the situation is very less than ideal neither one of them are resentful and simply go with the flow instead of having conflicts that fill so many books like these. Their relationship really grounded the book for me and I never felt lost or irritated by the “what the heck?” of it all. It is a fantastic thriller/mystery/creepfest. 

There is so much evil happening here, you gotta love it! I hope you get to read it and that you love the pure evil of it all as much as I did.

CW

implied death by suicide, bullying