Review: SMALL SPACES by Katherine Arden

It is so hard to find a middle-grade book that is just the right amount of spine-tingling. There are, of course, well-established titles such as CORALINE and THE GRAVEYARD BOOK, both by Neil Gaiman and entire catalogs from authors such as Mary Downing Hahn and R.L. Stine. DOLL BONES by Holly Black is a Newbery Honor title in the genre. There are fantastic, lesser-known titles such as JUNIPER BERRY b M.P. Kozlowsky. Today, since fall is the best time to read all things creepy, we're going to talk about the new kid on the block, SMALL SPACES by Katherine Arden, and its brand-new sequel DEAD VOICES.

Initially, readers may be familiar with Arden because she wrote the popular adult fantasy Winternight trilogy, which begins with the much-acclaimed THE BEAR AND THE NIGHTINGALE. Arden's debut middle-grade novel came out of nowhere last year with little fanfare, but was instantly snapped up by readings looking for some shivers while they read.

Ollie hasn't been the same since her mother died. Teachers and classmates still look at her with pity. She still gets a pass for tuning out the world and retreating into herself. She has no desire in going back to the hobbies she once loved such as softball and chess. One day on her way home from school, she sees some classmates bullying the new girl, Coco, and throws a rock at them, then flees. She wants nothing to do with them, and doesn't want to be Coco's friend. On her way home, she finds a desperate woman trying to destroy a book in a river and steals it for herself. The woman screams for her to keep to small spaces and avoid large ones at all costs, or the Smiling Man will find her. Ollie has no clue what that means and assumes the lady is crazy. She begins reading the book, entitled SMALL SPACES, which is a written account of two brothers who went missing long before she was born.

The next day, Ollie finds herself at the farm where the brothers once lived on a school trip, not realizing that the two are connected until it is far too late. When the trip home is halted by a bus breakdown, Ollie discovers that the Smiling Man is real -- and he wants her classmates. She flees the bus along with Coco and Brian (The boy she threw rocks at the day before, once more connecting the three of them together) and finds out the truth behind the brothers' disappearance, the Smiling Man, and the fate of their classmates -- and, perhaps, even themselves...

Arden deftly weaves words together to create a tense atmosphere and keep readers on their edge of their seats. Lines such as, "Then he smiled, tongue flicking red against his teeth" (Page, 96, US hardcover edition), bring images of serpents and tricksters to mind, and this use of language to give normal, every day actions a spine-tingling factor is utilized well. This book is spooky, and you might not look at scarecrows the same way again. But it isn't so scary that you'll forever have nightmares and be traumatized by clowns. It is appropriate for younger readers, and will even give chills to older readers, achieving a great balance that not all spooky fiction can.

Ollie was a standout character. When I took a secondary education course in college about integrating books into classrooms no matter the course (History, Physical Education, Art, etc), a friend who wanted to be a math teacher really struggled to find a book she could use in her classroom. I still think about her and that course every time I encounter a book that uses math. Ollie is AMAZING at math. She "doesn't use a calculator or scratch paper. The idea of using either had always puzzled her, as though someone had suggested she needed a spyglass to read a book" (page 3, US hardcover edition). Her mother was a college math professor and taught Ollie the tricks she needed to have math feel like second nature. "She had taught Ollie math with games. Multiplication, division. Later algebra, and then geometry: symbols like magic spells, written on the skin of the world" 9page 2, US hardcover edition). She even taught Ollie chess, and thought her daughter was a natural in a way she hadn't been. I love seeing girls good at math and science in books and am so glad to add Ollie to their ranks.

Another great thing about the novel is the way Arden captures those awkward middle-school years. Few middle-grade books seem to capture them effectively. One of the most memorable is actually one referenced earlier, DOLL BONES by Holly Black. I can still recall the way she described a boy as being "stretched like taffy" and the way the friends were trapped between still playing with dolls and being too old for them, etc. It is one of my most cherished examples of those awkward years. While Arden doesn't have those awkward moments in SMALL SPACES, she still manages to capture the essence of it. On the first page, she talks about classroom cruelty almost casually. There is a boy who has a phobia when it comes to witnessing people lick napkins, so of course, everyone in class does it around him as much as possible. Coco gets bullied because she has a crush on Brian and someone discovered her notebook with a drawing of the two of them. That's when Ollie stepped in with a rock, and the next day, the three are joined in trying to unfurl a mystery and save their classmates. At times, as a reader, I wondered if maybe Brian liked Ollie, and that's why he saved her from detention or got a little red in the ears when she sat next to him. The book doesn't act on any of these emotions and there's no romance, but it captures that age where we don't always recognize the ways we're changing and evolving just yet.

SMALL SPACES is the first in a series that currently has four books optioned. The sequel, DEAD VOICES, just released on August 27th, 2019, and features a brand-new adventure that has nothing to do with the first, other than the fact that Ollie, Coco, and Brian are now best friends. They go to a ski resort together for winter break and Ollie begins to think a ghost is following her around. In SMALL SPACES, it felt like Arden was laying down roots for these characters, and we barely got to scrape the tip of their friendship by the end of SMALL SPACES. It's exciting to see how they've grown and evolved and now figure into one another's lives, and think this is a great way to return to their world without feeling like we've been on this journey before. (Plus, as an older reader, it might be nice to see if any of the seeds for potential crushes come to fruition as the kids get older!)

SMALL SPACES is the perfect book to curl up with on dark fall or winter nights cozy beneath a blanket while the wind howls outside and the tree branches scratch eerily at the window. Be forewarned going into this one -- you'll never look at scarecrows the same way again!

SMALL SPACES and DEAD VOICES by Katherine Arden were both published by G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers and are available now.

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