PRAISE FOR THE AUTHOR
Easily my favorite thing to spring out of Secret Invasion so far. – IGN, on Cornell’s Captain Britain and the MI:13 run
This book is a strong follow-up, a good standalone story, and an excellent read for fans of dark urban fantasy. – Publishers Weekly on The Severed Streets
No one balances the lighthearted and the unnerving more deftly than Cornell. –Daniel Abraham, co-author of The Expanse
An elegant, elegiac examination of identity, fictionality, God and humanity itself–but also a very, very funny story about a crew of dopes. I love them all, except Bob. (In actuality Bob sort of broke my heart!) –Tamsyn Muir, author of the Locked Tomb series
A scream disguised as a giggle. Reading Rosebud is like going on an absurdist romp through a sunlit meadow with Douglas Adams, only to suddenly realize that you’re deep in the forest and ol’ Dougie has just slipped a knife between your ribs. –Peter Watts, author the Firefall series and the Rifters series
Cutting-edge science fiction from a writer at the very top of their game. –Gareth L. Powell, author of Embers of War
A true voyage of the imagination, simultaneously mind-wrenching and laugh-out-loud funny. –Adrian Tchaikovsky
Paul Cornell re-imagines the classic SF idea of first contact and turns it upside down and inside out–and then twists it into a multi-dimensional thing of wonder. –Michael Cassutt, writer for Z-Nation and co-author of The Astronaut Maker
He’s gone and written a novel too! I suspect it will be just as good as everything else he’s written, and that’s not fair at all. – George R. R. Martin, author of Game of Thrones.
An irresistible blend of guns, gangsters, cops and monsters – Ben Aaronovitch
At once epic and terribly intimate. This is the story of a village, not a city, and all the more powerful for that; not all big fantasy needs an urban setting. Beautifully written, perfectly cruel, and ultimately kind. This is Cornell at the height of his craft. — Seanan McGuire, New York Times bestselling author of the InCryptid and October Daye series
Rich in charm… local politics and witchcraft writ small and personal, but large in consequence. [Cornell] adeptly describes the emotion of magic; its effects and internal ignition of wonder. The feel of being exposed to magic for the first time and the feel of doing magic and having it done to you have never been better described in any story. — Bill Willingham, author of Fables and Down the Mysterly River
Masterfully creepy and sinister, all the more so for taking place in the beautifully drawn English countryside. — Jenny Colgan, author of Doctor Who: Into the Nowhere
Cornell brilliantly delineates not only the insular milieu of rural England but the brutal materialism of Thatcher’s 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. Chalk is like nothing I’ve ever read before, or am ever likely to read again. Well, you can just come over here and rock me to sleep tonight.–New York Times bestselling author Seanan McGuire
Excellent, petrifying and awful in all the right ways… Hand over mouth in parts. Strongly recommended. –Kieron Gillen, author of The Wicked & The Divine and Phonogram
Raw and dark… powerful and inventive. Terrific. –Kurt Busiek, Harvey and Eisner Award winning creator of Astro City
Holy Shit! I love this fucking book! This book kept me up way too late reading it, and then I couldn’t sleep the rest of the night. OMG what a book. Intense and horrific and gorgeous. Damn, dude. I mean… damn.
— Diana Rowland, author of the White Trash Zombie series.
Chalk is a raw, blistering, horror-ride through the hell of adolescence and the despair of abuse. It is honest and hard-hitting, often uncomfortable to read, yet wonderfully crafted. Gritty realism rubs up against dark folk horror, and the result is a unique literary experience you won’t forget in a hurry. — Gary McMahon, author of The Concrete Grove and The Grieving Stones
Chalk is a chilling, compelling tale of youthful violence and ancient evil. –Lucy A. Snyder, author of While the Black Stars Burn
Harrowing, astonishing and beautiful. Read it instantly. — Laurie Penny, author of Everything Belongs to the Future
A pitch-perfect blend of familiar cruelties, pop culture and otherworldly horror, Cornell’s stand-alone novel has a power all its own. –RT Top Pick, 4 1/2 Stars
Chalk bleeds atmosphere… the type that gets under your skin… a creeping horror, the ancient meshing with the modern, a sickening sense of dread cresting like a dark wave that, sooner or later, must hit the shore… –Forbidden Planet International
Chalk is a hugely evocative novel… one of the books of the year. Highly recommended. –Ginger Nuts of Horror
Cornell weaves human and supernatural horror together in powerful and disturbing ways. –Publishers Weekly
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