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.

PAUL CORNELL is a writer of science fiction and fantasy in prose, comics and television, one of only two people to be Hugo Award nominated for all three media. A New York Times #1 Bestselling author, he's writtenDoctor Whofor the BBC,Wolverinefor Marvel, andBatman & Robinfor DC. He's won the BSFA Award for his short fiction, an Eagle Award for his comics, and shares in Writer's Guild Award for his TV work. His recent Tor.com novellaWitches of Lychfordhas been nominated for the BSFA Award and the British Fantasy Award.

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
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