224 pages

English language

Published Nov. 18, 2019 by Penguin Publishing Group.

ISBN:
978-0-525-51504-3
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4 stars (6 reviews)

New York Times bestselling adult author of The Bear and the Nightingale makes her middle grade debut with a creepy, spellbinding ghost story destined to become a classic.

After suffering a tragic loss, eleven-year-old Ollie only finds solace in books. So when she happens upon a crazed woman at the river threatening to throw a book into the water, Ollie doesn’t think—she just acts, stealing the book and running away. As she begins to read the slender volume, Ollie discovers a chilling story about a girl named Beth, the two brothers who both loved her, and a peculiar deal made with “the smiling man,” a sinister specter who grants your most tightly held wish, but only for the ultimate price.

Ollie is captivated by the tale until her school trip the next day to Smoke Hollow, a local farm with a haunting history all its own. There she stumbles upon …

5 editions

Review of 'Small spaces' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Fun little middle school horror novel, which I probably would have devoured as a kid.

It wasn't as enjoyable to me as a grown up as for example The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland In a Ship of Her Own Making or Nevermoor and Wundersmith but I think it's quite good for the actual target group.

Horror is good actually

4 stars

I've heard that reading horror can help with anxiety (Though I think the person who mentioned that had grown-up horror books in mind) and I have to admit, reading this was one of the most "Relaxing" reads I've had in a long time. I didn't get super terrified (note that I finished it over the course of two days and not one) and I think I'm starting to get a taste for horror.

avatar for NC

rated it

4 stars
avatar for gtco

rated it

4 stars

Subjects

  • Children's fiction
  • Supernatural, fiction
  • Survival, fiction
  • Forests and forestry, fiction
  • Friendship, fiction
  • Books and reading, fiction