Review | The Burning Girls by C.J. Tudor

After a tragedy in her church, Reverend Jack Brooks and her daughter Flo, move to Chapel Croft for a fresh start. But the town has a dark history – five hundred years ago, Protestant martyrs were burned at the stake. Forty years ago, two teenage girls disappeared. And Jack finds out that the vicar she replaced died by suicide under suspicious circumstances. Soon, Jack and Flo start seeing troubling apparations in the old chapel. But when Jack investigates further, she faces uncooperating villagers and a community intent on protecting each other. She has to dig up the truth to protect herself and her daughter – all while avoiding her own past that is slowly catching up to her.

He stared at the small whitewashed house. Red-tiled roof, bright purple, clematis crawling up its walls, bathed in the fading glow of the late-summer sun. Birds chittered in the trees. Bees buzzed lazily amongst the bushes.

Here lies evil. Here, in the most innocuous of settings.

The Burning Girls is a supernatural thriller that intrigues me with its premise! With influences from The Wicker Man and The Exorcist, the book attempts to blend mystery with faith and history and for the most part, it succeeds. The trope of an outsider moving into a small town is not new but making the protagonist a vicar and single parent is a unique choice. I really liked the portrayal of Jack’s relationship with her daughter Flo. Even though they have disagreements, they deal with them in a healthy and supportive way. The book explores Jack’s feelings about her inability to provide material things for her daughter and how her job affects their living situation which helps me to understand Jack further. She is an empathetic character and I could sense how much she cares about her job and to help others.

The pacing of the book is a slow-burn but the chapters are short with cliffhangers so it made me want to keep going! I’m all for spooky things, so I was really into the back story of the Burning Girls. The scenes where the characters see apparations are discomforting and eerie. I thought the idea of history being manipulated to benefit certain people is interesting. The small-town mentality is evident in how the characters look out for one another, even to their detriment. Jack’s decision to find out what happened to the vicar she replaced leads to some awkward situations. But I could relate to her need to find the truth. There is a side story featuring a character whose identity is not revealed until the end and I really connected to him and his struggles. The book deals with themes of religion without being preachy, and it’s willing to show the dark side of people following religion blindly.

When it comes to the mystery itself, I’m a little disappointed at how everything turns out. The villain isn’t convincing and I didn’t believe their motivations. I wanted the Burning Girls to have a stronger connection with Jack’s story but it doesn’t end up that way. There’s a reveal that is framed as a twist but I saw it coming halfway through the book so it wasn’t a surprise for me. I also found the racial stereotype and disability representation to be not up to par. I hope these kinds of subjects could be handled with more sensitivity in the future.

Overall, The Burning Girls is a compelling mystery that offers a sharp look at how religion plays a role in our lives.

Thank you to the publisher and Times Reads for a review copy.

CW: statutory rape, child abuse, exorcism, mental illness

About the author: C.J. Tudor

Photo by Patrick Hendry