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Paul Cornell plumbs the depths of magic and despair in Chalk, a brutal exploration of bullying in Margaret Thatcher's England.
Andrew Waggoner has always hung around with his fellow losers at school, desperately hoping each day that the school bullies, led by Drake, will pass him by in search of other prey. But, one day they force him into the woods, and the bullying escalates into something more; something unforgivable; something unthinkable. Broken, both physically and emotionally, something dies in Waggoner, and something else is born in its place.
In the hills of the West Country, a chalk horse stands vigil over a site of ancient power, and there Waggoner finds in himself a reflection of rage and vengeance, a power and persona to topple those who would bring him low.
Andrew Waggoner has always hung around with his fellow losers at school, desperately hoping each day that the school bullies, led by Drake, will pass him by in search of other prey. But, one day they force him into the woods, and the bullying escalates into something more; something unforgivable; something unthinkable. Broken, both physically and emotionally, something dies in Waggoner, and something else is born in its place.
In the hills of the West Country, a chalk horse stands vigil over a site of ancient power, and there Waggoner finds in himself a reflection of rage and vengeance, a power and persona to topple those who would bring him low.
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Reviews
"Cornell brilliantly delineates not only the insular milieu of rural England but the brutal materialism of Thatcher's Britain, in a slow-building novel of retribution and cycles of abuse. Superb."
The Guardian
"This is what horror ought to be: primal, personal, and powerful. Gloriously gutting. Chalk is like nothing I've ever read before, or am ever likely to read again. Well, you can just come over here and rock me to sleep tonight."
New York Times bestselling author Seanan McGuire
"Excellent, petrifying and awful in all the right ways... Hand over mouth in parts. Strongly recommended."
Kieron Gillen, author of The Wicked & The Divine and Phonogram