When I stumbled across Small Spaces by Katherine Arden on Goodreads, I knew this was one I was going to have to read as soon as I could, and it did not disappoint. It tells the tale of Olivia Adler, an eleven-year-old who prefers the company of books to other people following a devastating personal loss.

To illustrate how thoroughly this book sucked me in, I’m going to summarize the inciting events (the events that are pretty much all detailed on the book jacket) and give my reactions to them. I don’t want to talk too much about the story beyond that because part of what made me have to read were my questions about the inciting events, and giving too much away would make it decidedly less fun.

1. One day on the way home from school, Ollie sees a frantic woman about to throw a book into a river. The woman is hysterical and babbling, telling Ollie over and over to “keep to small spaces.”

Me: Keep to small spaces? What does that mean?

2. Unable to watch the woman destroy the book, Ollie steals it and takes it home to read that night.

Me: Bad idea, Ollie.

3. Ollie begins to read the book, which is a story about two brothers competing for the love of a farm girl, the tragedy that ensued, and a deal made with someone called “the Smiling Man.” Ollie would rather stay home and finish reading than go on her class trip to a local farm the next day. 

Me: ok…sounds like another bad idea. Don’t go to that farm, Ollie!

4. But her dad makes her go anyway.

Me: What did I just say, Ollie?!

5. Once at the farm, Ollie begins to notice some eerie similarities between the story in the book and the farm’s own history. She doesn’t think about them too much until the school bus breaks down on the way home from the farm. No one’s cell phones are working, so Ollie’s teacher heads back to the farm to get help.

Me: of course the cell phones aren’t working.

6. The teacher leaves the kids with their creepy bus driver, who issues a warning: “Best get moving. At nightfall they’ll come for the rest of you.”

Me: THEY? Who are they???

7. Right then, Ollie’s digital wristwatch, which, I might add, is broken, flares to life with a countdown and the message “RUN.” 

Me: Get OUT of there, Ollie!

8. Ollie takes her sweet time listening to this message, but at long last, she and two of her classmates leave the bus and run into the woods at the road’s edge. Before they leave, the bus driver warns them, “Avoid large places. Keep to small.”

Me: Well now I have to read this.

So I did. And so should you.

But Maybe Think Twice About Going to that Haunted Farm

This book was creepy in the best way possible, with all the right ingredients: a chilly New England autumn, a local farm with scrumptious-sounding food, and sinister scarecrows. The mystery of what happened to the two brothers was just as captivating as the mystery of the tragedy in Ollie’s own past, the tragedy Ollie refuses to let herself think about. I loved how Arden interwove the two to keep me engrossed all the way up to the end. 

Arden’s masterful creation of tension and suspense made this story so much fun to read. Besides the ominous warnings to “keep to small spaces” from the bus driver and the woman at the river, the book Ollie steals helps to set the eerie tone both for the story and for the farm Ollie’s about to visit. It also gives some good, but not too obvious, foreshadowing for the scary things Ollie is going to encounter. You learn just enough from the two brothers’ story to start guessing what might be happening, but not so much that the rest of the book will be predictable. There were plenty of twists and turns after Ollie and her two friends flee the school bus and head into the woods. Some of them I guessed ahead of time, but others were surprising and fun.

Ollie’s two friends were a nice addition to the story, especially since they were company for Ollie so she wasn’t trying to escape the Smiling Man all by herself. I think a solo adventure would have taken the creepiness up a notch, but Brian Battersby and Coco Zintner added some comic relief to keep things light. 

Brian Battersby is a jock—he’s on some sports team, but I can’t remember which sport, since I never pay attention to sports in books that aren’t Quidditch. (Edit: I looked it up and it’s hockey, which makes sense since this story is set in Vermont.)

Coco Zintner is the new kid from the city, bright and bubbly with pink hair and a loud voice. She reacts emotionally to teasing from her new classmates, and that plus her new kid status make her a target for bullying. 

Before the inciting incident with the bus, Coco and Brian each make several attempts to befriend Ollie and pull her out of her solitary bubble. They are unsuccessful until they follow Ollie into the woods. I loved Brian and Coco—especially Coco—and thought their progression towards friendship with Ollie was so sweet, because over the course of the story, they help her learn to deal with her grief as she lets them in.

Which brings me to probably my favorite thing about how Small Spaces surprised me. On the surface, this book is a fun, chilling adventure about Ollie and her friends trying to find a way to escape the Halloweeny nightmare dimension they find themselves trapped in. But at its core, Small Spaces is about finding healing through friendship while dealing with loss. I didn’t expect that, and I absolutely loved that this simple story has a deeper meaning below the layers of creepy. I would have loved it even if it were just a fun story that did nothing more than evoke the Halloween atmosphere, but that extra thread about Ollie’s healing gave it heart, which just made it that much better.

Who to Read With

Small Spaces is marketed as middle grade (which means it’s roughly for ages 8-12), and I’d say that’s a fairly accurate age range, although I think plenty of adults would enjoy it as well. It had a scary atmosphere perfect for giving you the shivers, but nothing too intense for older kids, although very young children might find it frightening. There is no gore, but there are mentions of strange disappearances, the loss of a character’s mother, and some of Ollie’s classmates disappear. Also, be prepared for a newfound fear of scarecrows after you read Small Spaces. There are a lot of them, and they’re all watching!

As a Bonus: Listen Together

Because I couldn’t get the print book from the library (thanks, COVID) and I’m a busy mom anyway, I listened to the audiobook after waiting for three months to check it out on Libby. (That wait alone should tell you how good it is.) Renee Dorian did a great job giving each character his or her own voice, and she read at just the right pace to heighten the tension that was already present in Arden’s writing. Also, her bus driver voice was spot-on: low, slow, and creaky. You know with a bus driver like that that something spooky is about to go down.

The Small Spaces audiobook is a quick listen—just over 5 hours—so if you can get the audiobook before October ends, I’d definitely recommend it. It would make for a fun listen on a family road trip this Halloween season.

You can pick up a copy of Small Spaces over on Amazon or Bookshop (which will help support local bookstores).