Title: Small Angels

Author: Lauren Owen

Rating: 3/5

Hey hey, it’s MJ,

            As usual there are going to be spoilers. I feel the need to start out with that because I should. 

            Alright, so overall, the story was interesting, but it wasn’t for me. There were a lot of things in this book that were so interesting, the woods, the tales of Harry Child and all of that. The family bound to the forest, the rituals and necessities that they took to keep the village safe from him and what had happened to him. 

            If it was just a ghost story, if it was just horror, it would have been fine. The add in of Chloe and Sam’s wedding, I understand that her actions were the catalyst for it, but the wedding felt unnecessary as a whole event. It was interesting and further the plot, but it could have been something else because the characters started to become unlikable with their weaponized ignorance of what happened in the woods and their unwillingness to even acknowledge it. 

            Not every book is for everyone and this one wasn’t for me and that’s okay. I liked so much of it but there was just stuff in it that felt unnecessary, there was a romantic subplot which was strange and really didn’t feel fleshed out or needed. (I don’t read a lot of LGBTQ fiction; I support the lifestyle, of course, but it is not generally a subgenre of fiction that I read.)

            There were also errors in the text, I counted six or seven that were in the formatting random dialogue marks words that should have been one that were separated and I know that is in the revision and editing process, but it was noticeable. 

            Overall, it was interesting, it was horror and there were parts of it that gripped me, but the characters, I just feel connected to and that makes things hard when you read through them. I feel like I am repeating myself and I will apologize for that because I feel like I am bashing someone else’s work. This had an audience, that audience is just not me. 

            The ending was good, well the ending with Harry, the rest of it felt rushed but left threads open, it’s a story told in a story which is super interesting and I love a good book within a book. This just didn’t hit for me because it shifted through four perspectives. 

            There were parts that confused me, there were and that’s true in a lot of novels, you can have parts that make no sense in the whole of it. The imagery was great and I feel like I am doing pro, con, con, pro like I am back in my college sorority when we were trying to end on a good note. 

            It was interesting and a compelling horror story in its own way, but not for me as a reader. We will not love everything we read and this was the only one of the books this time with Book of The Month that even piqued my interest, out of seven books this month I think, this was the only one that interested me because it was all thrillers. Maybe I should have chosen one of them. 

            I don’t know, okay, I don’t because I have such a mixed bag of feelings on this book and I feel like I am not articulating this well for someone who writes as a hobby and teaches children as a profession. I am always really on the fence about unhauling BoTM books, but there are three this year so far that I don’t want in my permanent collection. Which is fine.

            If you want to check out what else I have gotten with Book of The Month this year, you totally can, January, February, March, April, May, June, and July.

            I will be back later in the week with another post so until then I hope that everyone stays safe, happy, and healthy.

            -MJ