Holy shit????? I loved this so much and I did NOT expect any of that to happen. ( )

Another fun book. Tudor writes interesting protagonists, even if they require a bit of a stretch to get to the end. ( )

The fresh start for the Vicar and her daughter, turns out to be anything but. The Vicar, Jack Brooks’ has been asked to leave her Parrish, St. Anne’s, in Nottingham for an assignment in the small, rural, Sussex village of Chapel Croft. Actually, it sounded like it was more of an order than really asking for a favor. She's assured that she will serve as interim vicar only until a suitable replacement for the former vicar can be found. Jack has a 15-year-old daughter, Flo, who is...let's just say she is less than thrilled, and that's putting it mildly, to leave the city. She knows that the move will be good for her mother who could use some distance from a horrific tragedy that recently occurred at St. Anne’s, that Jack feels she was mostly responsible for. Soon after they arrive at Chapel Croft, however, they learn that their new village has more than its share of strangeness...weirdness...and tragedy. The vicar that Jack is replacing allegedly hung himself in the chapel. Then there were the two teen girls, Merry & Joy... (don't you love these cute names?) who disappeared without a trace 30 years ago... and oh yeah...did anyone tell Jack that the village is known for the "Burning Girls", also known as the "Sussex Martyrs", who were burned at the stake in the 16th century? I would certainly want to live there...NOT! Jack soon starts finding strange things...twig dolls on the church grounds...disturbing accounts of exorcisms having been performed in the cellar of her cottage. Flo also experiences the strange weirdness when she begins to catch glimpses of strange figures in the graveyard. She also makes a questionable friend. Lucas Wrigley is a troubled boy with a less than desirable past. Oh, it keeps getting better when bodies keep turning up and dark secrets emerge about a local, very powerful, family. The scares and suspense are steadily cranked up while effortlessly switching between multiple narratives...one that indicates Jack’s past may be about to catch up with her. I rather liked Jack. She's not the angelic Vicar by any means. She curses and smokes, and her faith, which she continues to explore throughout, is...shall we say... complicated. Jack and Flo do share a strong bond, and they are going to need it in order to face what’s coming. The final breathless twist is deliciously creepy and well worth waiting for. ( )

It seems to me that each C. J. Tudor book that I read gets better than the last, which is quite an achievement given how good her first book, The Chalk Man was. The next one that I read, The Taking Of Annie Thorne was darker and grimmer and had a powerhouse of an ending filled with surprises that made sense.

I think The Burning Girls tops both of them. It's grim and violent and filled with guilty secrets and deceptions. The start lulled me into thinking that I was reading another story about a haunting in an English village which will threaten the newcomers, the vicar and her teenage daughter, and end with a dramatic confrontation between good and evil. It soon became clear anything familiar about this story was probably a distraction. Yes, there was a haunting going on and yes, the vicar and her daughter were in danger but there was a lot more going on and most of it was twisted and violent.

The plot is intricate and strong. There are lots of twists that made me reassess what I knew right up to the end but they weren't tricks played on the reader, they were more like confirmations of suspicions that had been growing for a while but which turned out to be even worse than expected. The path of the various bad actors in this book, past and present, is beautifully choreographed to maintain tension, build characterisation and push the reader forward inexorably.

Even so, the plot is not the strongest feature of the book. What I enjoyed most was the way the characters of the vicar and her daughter were drawn. Each of them seemed real to me and the relationship between them was one of the most believable middle-aged single-mom to teenage daughter I've read.

I liked that the daughter was her own person. She wasn't just a plot device labelled "Vicar's Vulnerable Daughter', she had her own view on the world and the people around her, including her mother.

The vicar was a wonderful creation. That she was unconventional, stubborn and a magnet for trouble was immediately clear in her encounter with her Bishop who is banishing her to the wilderness for attracting bad publicity. That she caused waves in the village she'd been reluctantly assigned to seemed unsurprising, especially considering the bluster and bullying she encounters. Even at that point though, I knew there was more to the vicar's story, something about her and her reactions that was off, that I wasn't understanding. Finding out what that was delivered most of the energy of the book. When I finally understood what I was seeing, I was even more impressed with the vicar than when I first met her in the Bishop's office.

I found myself twisting my days to find more time to spend listening to The Burning Girls. I was completely absorbed in it and ended up listening late into the night to know how the book would end.

I recommend the audiobook version. It has two narrators, Gemma Whelan delivers most of the story and Richard Armitage narrates the parts of the story giving a first-person account from an unknown, violent man on a quest that is leading him toward the Vicar's village. Both of them do an excellent job. Click on the SoundCloud link below to hear a sample.

https://soundcloud.com/penguin-audio/the-burning-girls-by-c-j-tudor

Paramount + have adapted The Burning Girls for television. Here's their. trailer. Personally, I'd read the book first and then watch the TV series.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RM_8ra471Y ( )

My first review of the year and what a hell of a book to start the year off with!

For me this has got to be her best book to date! I loved her previous books and am a massive fan and with this new book, The Burning Girls, CJ Tudor has just rocketed herself towards the top of my all time favourite authors.

Part thriller, part mystery, part horror, this book transcends multiple genres that all combined create a unputdownable masterclass in writing!

A complex, dark subject matter with a supernatural folklore tale with a unique spin that only Tudor can accomplish creating a book that is engrossing as well as at the same time chilling enough to want to put down and sleep with the lights on!

The book blurb gives you all you need to know going into this book and I would hate to say to much to take away the plot twists and turns for anyone that hasn’t had the pleasure of reading this book yet so I will leave you with just the book description and my views on the book and let you discover the rest for yourselves.

I had the honour of reading an early edition of this book but even so as soon as it was published on 21 Jan 2021 I re-read it plus I also purchased the audiobook and listening to it was just as creepy and even though I knew what was coming, it still didn’t take anything away from the plot twists. They were just as good the second and third time around!

There are not many books that I read more than once, but this book I have now read twice, plus listened to the audiobook version and I have no hesitations in recommending either formats. So if you haven’t read this yet, what are you waiting for? This is one book not to be missed. Even if you are not a horror fan this is still a must read as it is a multi genre book that has something for everyone!

The Burning Girls was published on 21 Jan and you can grab a copy now. Waterstones are even selling signed editions! (Yes I purchased one ( )