The Review That Boosted 'Black Chalk'

NPR's "All Things Considered" gave Black Chalk an outstanding review

Below you can listen to the audio of a Black Chalk review from NPR’s All Things Considered (or you can read it for yourself here), which opens beautifully, tantalizingly, like this: “I don't want to say a single thing about this book — about Black Chalk, the debut novel from Christopher Yates, who writes like he has 30 books behind him; like he's been doing this so long that lit games and deviltry come to him as natural as breathing.

I don't want to say a word. And not because I don't love the book (I do, deeply and weirdly), but because I want you to go into it cold, knowing nothing and expecting nothing, like I did. I want you to suck it down in one breath, like a lungful of dark water. For it to hit you the same way it did me: like a sucker punch delivered slowly and with exquisite precision.”