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isabeltavares 's review for:
Small Spaces
by Katherine Arden
This arc was provided by G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers, via Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.
Fair warning that the synopsis spoils the first 50% of the book, so I would recommend not checking it out.
Thank you to Katherine Arden for adding scarecrows to my never-ending list of things I am afraid of. Good thing there are no scarecrows around Lisbon!
Small Spaces is a horror middle grade that follows Olivia “Ollie” on her school trip to the local farm. Ollie is disconnected from her school and her classmates, preferring the company of her books, despite her teacher’s and father’s encouragement.
There is a lot to unpack about Ollie as the story goes on. She is dealing with grief and depression after the loss of her mother, whom she reminisces about as the pages go on. Her pain is very palpable to me since I experienced something similar when I was her age, and books were the thing that saved me.
Compared to The Bear and the Nightingale, the writing style is very simple, with no flourishment in the descriptions which I think soothes the overall eerie ambiance. The horror side of this story was creepy but not as scary as I thought it would be. I think the idea is brilliant but the ending was underwhelming for me.
Nevertheless, I can’t wait to see what Ollie, Coco, and Brian get up to in the next book. I also hope their friendship will develop as well.
Fair warning that the synopsis spoils the first 50% of the book, so I would recommend not checking it out.
Thank you to Katherine Arden for adding scarecrows to my never-ending list of things I am afraid of. Good thing there are no scarecrows around Lisbon!
Small Spaces is a horror middle grade that follows Olivia “Ollie” on her school trip to the local farm. Ollie is disconnected from her school and her classmates, preferring the company of her books, despite her teacher’s and father’s encouragement.
There is a lot to unpack about Ollie as the story goes on. She is dealing with grief and depression after the loss of her mother, whom she reminisces about as the pages go on. Her pain is very palpable to me since I experienced something similar when I was her age, and books were the thing that saved me.
Compared to The Bear and the Nightingale, the writing style is very simple, with no flourishment in the descriptions which I think soothes the overall eerie ambiance. The horror side of this story was creepy but not as scary as I thought it would be. I think the idea is brilliant but the ending was underwhelming for me.
Nevertheless, I can’t wait to see what Ollie, Coco, and Brian get up to in the next book. I also hope their friendship will develop as well.