6/11/2023 0 Comments Small Spaces by Katherine Arden![]() ![]() Small Spaces is the story of Ollie Adler, a sixth grade math whiz and fierce feminist who has withdrawn from her friends and dropped all school activities in the wake of her mother’s death. Perhaps I’ll add a small engraving of a scarecrow to give ghost hunters an extra fright…īut I digress. Such is the wisdom of Katherine Arden’s eerie middle grade novel Small Spaces she doesn’t know it, but she has written the words that will one day go on my tombstone. Wherever you go in this big, gorgeous, hideous world, there is a ghost story waiting for you. Could it be the story about the smiling man is true? There she stumbles upon the graves of the very people she’s been reading about. 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. 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. ![]() 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. ![]() After suffering a tragic loss, eleven-year-old Ollie only finds solace in books. ![]()
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