Black Chalk by Christopher J. Yates
I’ll start by saying that it did keep me reading, but only
because I thought there would be some big payoff in the end. Spoiler alert: there wasn’t. At least not what I was hoping for.
The plot follows a group of six friends during a year at
university in England. The narrative
switches between present day and fourteen years ago while the friends were in
school. The friends develop a game (the
rules of which are never quite explained) of cards, dice, and consequences. Depending on how a player finished the game
each week, each person would choose from a pot of consequences to be carried
out in the coming week. It was
essentially a pot of dares. If someone
did not want to play anymore, they would forfeit their entrance fee and a
chance at the pot of money at the end.
The consequences became more and more personal and more and more
daring/humiliating. And then…one of the
friends dies. This is not a
spoiler. It tells you on the cover of
the book. And fourteen years later, the
game must end.
Perhaps I set myself up for disappointment, but this wasn’t
the type of book I’d read again. There’s
the requisite love and friendship and loss and betrayal. But the kicker in the end wasn’t really
there. Maybe the author was setting it
up for a sequel, but if so, did a poor job of it.
Reviewed by Ashley
Reviewed by Ashley
