Overall I thought the premise of this story was interesting, and the novel was so atmospheric and creepy. I like CJ Tudor’s writing style too.

But I had a hard time suspending disbelief to accept the ending. So after enjoying about 85%, I suddenly felt like it had all been one big lie.

There are also quite a few sections that felt racist and didn’t sit right with me.

One of the best books I have read this year. I have been wanting to read Tudor's work for a little while now and this one definitely exceeded my expectations. I loved this book so much and every single aspect of it. The writing style, the interwoven stories and the twists at the end are phenomenal.

What a fun read! I devoured this book, truly. Never thought a story about an English vicar in a country village could be so dramatic! Great twists, well developed characters, truly creepy in parts. Perfect for a "summer of screams"

This book was not for me— the eerie descriptions and slow character development caused me to really struggle.

The Burning Girls is the epitome of a slow burning novel. C.J. Tudor brings such an atmospheric thrill to a small English town. Vicar Jacqueline "Jack" Brooks unexpectedly finds herself moving to Chapel Croft with her 15 year old daughter. The small town is full of narrow-minded people and secrets. A perfect combination for a top notch horror novel.

Reverend Jack Brooks is not your typical Vicar. I loved her and her 15 year old daughter, Flo. Transferred to Chapel Croft, on an interim basis, the two are greeted upon their arrival with replicas of the Burning Girls-twig dolls made each year to commemorate the Sussex Martyrs-eight villagers burnt at the stake during Queen Mary’s purge of the Protestants, which are set alight annually on the anniversary of the purge. Chapel Croft was such an eerie town. It gave me such a feeling of unease, as did the townspeople. It was like watching a horror movie when you want to yell at the characters - just get out of there!

The story takes a bit to get going, but as the pieces begin to come together I was drawn in. There were so many moments where I was doubting everyone, wondering what the heck was going on. With burnings, hangings, ghosts, spooky scenes in a graveyard and skeletons in the cellar there was enough to keep me on edge even though this is not a fast paced read. The supernatural element was very well done and really added to the overall eeriness and mystique.

A young,widowed vicar runs up against institutional church politics and is banished to a rural parish in England.. She brings her teenage daughter and a whole bunch of baggage accompanies her.
This is compounded by mysterious behavior on the part of the village and people in her church. Her predecessor was hanged at the church, more foreboding.
Then little weird stick dolls begin to show up.

Tying together the remnants of an old disappearance with current crimes, the vicar probes and questions and precipitates the inevitable crisis and near certain destruction and escape. With a twist.

I wanted to see what was happening, so that is good, but I admit I skimmed some, just to find out what happened.

I first came across Tudor with THE OTHER PEOPLE, which while enjoyable does not hold a candle to THE BURNING GIRLS. The mother-daughter duo at the center of this story are the sorts of characters you really root for, and the gothic horror elements reinforce the macabre atmosphere. Perfect for readers of psychological suspense who are a little for a bit more darkness in their life!

At first, I was only going to rate this as a 2 star book. I tried reading it a couple of times and had no trouble putting it aside in favor of other books. I finally decided that I was going to finish it and made it through the book. I had glanced through some reviews that said this was a scary book, well, in my opinion it is not. It was made out to be possibly about witchcraft and exorcisims and is anything but. The Burning Girls are two young girls who were burned at the stake for their religious views, and are said to appear to people who are in trouble to warn them. While this book is about a priest, it is more about the secrets in her life and an unsolved mystery in the village where she is sent to work. The book eventually got a little more interesting, which is why I will give it a 3 star rating. However, this did not happen until about the 50th chapter. The book was way too long and took to long to get to the point.

This is the second book I have read from this author after having really enj0yed The Chalk Man. I felt that this book was well researched and liked the underlying story of the martyrs. I did not really care for the vicar though. I felt that there was just something so off about her character and how she approached religion in her job. I liked the parallel stories from the far past and the recent past,, but I felt that it somehow made the book confusing in the way the information was presented. I really wish there would have been some separation, or focus on either one story or the other. It ended up just feeling like there was too much going on and it ended up just feeling like too much. I felt that the twists in the story though were creative and the end was a surprise. Thanks for the ARC, NetGalley.

This was a torturous book to read! Very dark and dirty and super deep! Well done and written with a fine hand. Yes hard to read but could not put it down!
Highly recommend.
Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book

I really enjoyed this latest offering from C.J. Tudor. I always enjoy the seamless blend of horror, mystery, and thriller that Tudor is able to write. The inclusion of some supernatural elements are also a nice touch. Never enough to turn it into a true ghost story, but just enough to make you question some of the events. I thought the atmosphere was great, the characters were believable, and the story was compelling.

CJ Tudor writes a good, layered mystery. I've read two of her four now and I have enjoyed both. She has a good way of doing the slow build up of dread, of setting the many aspects of the scene and she writes great, detailed characters. I really liked the payoff of this one, I thought I had all the pieces nailed but was still surprised at the end and enjoyed it. Now I need to read her first two books!

I received a copy from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I love I love I love I LOVE. They characters she wants you to to love, you adore and the ones she wants you to hate? Sheeesh. I was very happy with the pacing, the changing of view points and the dialogue. This all felt like something that A friend could be telling me about happened 1 summer. This was my first CJ Tudor novel, it definitely not my last. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

This is my second book by this author and I have to admit, this was a much better outing. This story follows the new (female) Vicar in a small English town. She takes over after the previous Vicar commits suicide (or does he) and moves to a cottage in town with her teenage daughter. As you learn more about the town and its painful history, you begin to question everything. Things are not quite as they seem, as we soon find out.

This was a genuine ghost story with an interesting premise and I feel like the author really delivered. It's atmospheric and creepy, with just the right amount of tension. There's a lot to love here. I particularly liked the daughter and felt like her story was well done and relatable. It has got to be tough being the only daughter to a Vicar (and single mom) who also happens to have been uprooted from the city she grew up in only to move to a tiny country village and all it's gossip.

The story unfolds into lots of layers with questionable characters and unclear motivations. There were a few aspects I didn't love, including the addition of one character that I didn't feel like needed to be included. Overall I really enjoyed this story and it definitely turned around my opinion of this author. I will definitely be giving their future work a read and I highly recommend this story for fans of speculative thriller/horror.

The Burning Girls by CJ Tudor is such a scary and amazing book! A vicar, Reverend Jack Brooks, and her teen daughter Flo, have been transferred from a big city church to a small church in a little village called Chapel Croft. This village is known for having protestant martyrs burned at the stake in the 1500s. People leave little twig figures called “burning girls” around the church graveyard as tribute to two of the victims, little girls who were burned as martyrs. Also, 30 years before two best friends, Merry and Joy, disappear under suspicious circumstances. A year later Merry’s mom and brother disappeared in the middle of the night never to be heard from again. All of this weirdness is connected to the church where Jack is now the vicar. It doesn’t take long for Jack and Flo to realize there are all kinds of secrets and lies in the present and past of Chapel Croft.
This book had such a menacing feel, it built up slowly to a fever pitch. I really enjoyed the characters of Jack and Flo. Jack is not your typical vicar, she is very complicated and had a bad past and childhood. That is revealed little by little. Flo is a teenager trying to find her way in life. She desperately misses her friends from her previous school and is trying to make friends in Chapel Croft. Both characters are strong and tough females. I definitely want to go back and read the rest of CJ Tudor’s books because this one was outstanding. Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for the advanced copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Overall, I really enjoyed this one. The atmosphere is super creepy and the fast pace kept me intrigued from start to finish. I read it in less than 24 hours. Unfortunately, this book fell into a logic hole that a lot of thrillers do. For the majority of the book all the different storylines were severely disjointed. The flow overall was good, but every time the main story got broken into one of the subplots, it kind of derailed.

This one was definitely m favorite CJ Tudor, and I think their writing will continue to improve with further books. I'm excited to see what they do next.

This was well written, unlike this review but I don't have much to say about it. I went into it not reading the synopsis so I didn't know what I was getting into it which I've actually been doing recently. Anyway, the town the story takes place in was weird and I thought the church mixed in with an exorcism, suicides, psychopaths, and more was interestingly woven together. I like that CJ Tudor was able to show the corruption of not only the church but the whole town.

This is more of a dark story rather than scary. I liked it overall but I didn’t love it as I was hoping. I think I just couldn’t connect with it but that’s more of a me thing than the book itself. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy!

I LOVED this book. C.J. Tudor did an amazing job keeping us on our toes throughout the entire thing. The book takes place in a small town called Chapel Croft where a new Vicar has been placed to run the community church. Little did she know the town was haunted by death and mysterious disappearances for years. The book takes us along the journey of Reverend Jack Brooks and her daughter Flo and all the spooky situations they run into in their new town.

Pick up the book today and hear all about the ups and downs in the mysterious town of Chapel Croft, England.

I find that this author's books are either a big hit or a miss with me. This one didn't work for me. I found the story dragging and it was difficult to get into it. I'm not sure if it was simply a pacing issue or more of the plot and/or characters as well. I am sure some people will love this but it wasn't for me.
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