Chalk A Novel [Paperback]

This is what horror ought to be: primal, personal, and powerful.  Seanan McGuire

Paul Cornell plumbs the depths of magic and despair inChalk, 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.

Cornell brilliantly delineates not only the insular milieu of rural England but the brutal materialism of Thatchers 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.Chalkis like nothing I've ever read before, or am ever likely to read again. Well, you can just come over here androckme to sleep tonight. New York Timesbestselling author Seanan McGuire

Excellent, petrifying and awful in all the right ways... Hand over mouth in parts. Strongly recommended. Kieron Gillen, author ofThe Wicked & The DivineandPhonogram

Raw and dark... powerful and inventive. Terrific. Kurt Busiek, Harvey and Eisner Award winning creator ofAstro City

Holy Shit! I love this fucking book! This book kept me up way too late reading it, and then I couldnt sleep the rest of the night. OMG what a book. Intense and horrific and gorgeous. Damn, dude. I mean& damn.
 Diana Rol#)