Small Angels: 'A twisting gothic tale of darkness, intrigue, heartbreak and revenge' Jennifer Saint

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Chloe has been planning her dream wedding for months. She has the dress, the flowers, and the perfect venue: Small Angels, a charming old church in the village where her fiancé, Sam, and his sister, Kate, grew up. But days before the ceremony, Chloe starts to hear unsettling stories about Small Angels—and worse, she begins to see, smell, and hear things that couldn’t possibly be real. This beautifully written modern ghost story is an enchanting place to get lost.” —Danielle Trussoni, The New York Times Review

Small Angels" is steeped in magical realism and hauntings, vivid imagery and foreboding darkness, beautiful prose and deep mystery.

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Small Angels simmers with menace and ancient fury, shot through with sorrow, compassion, and hope. Gorgeously atmospheric and gripping!” —Jennifer Saint, author of Ariadne

My grandma, when she first met the man who would become my husband, said, “This one’s still too green,” meaning that he wasn’t quite finished ripening yet. Hadn’t quite grown all the way up yet. She was right. That’s how I feel about this book. It has the feeling of not quite being done. It still needs some time in the oven. I think I saw this classified as a horror book somewhere, but I didn't get that. Is it a little eerie in parts? Sure, but horror seems a bit extra. This was well written and the story was decent but it never really grabbed me. By the end I was sort of skimming along.In terms of comparisons, this novel’s narration recalls Donna Tartt's 'The Little Friend', where all we witness is coloured through the psyche of a young female protagonist. I’d also recommend this to fans of Jeanette Winterson’s style (especially ‘The Daylight Gate’). ‘Small Angels’ gave me the same reading pleasure as Sarah Waters’s ‘The Little Stranger’ or 'The Paying Guests', particularly the tantalising section after Frances and Lilian have murdered Leonard and are awaiting the consequences. Surprisingly, I found myself also recalling the mood of Daphne du Maurier’s ‘Rebecca’: there's something reminiscent of the scene during the inquest, where the second Mrs de Winter (and the reader) is full of the knowledge of what Maxim has done, and is humming with fright and dashing through consequences and alternative courses of action in her mind, to save him, before she faints. If the mood was right—if there was a clear moon and no call to retire early, maybe you’d go further: Small Angels is beautiful in every way—atmospheric, eerie, elegantly written. An intricately woven tale of characters haunted by love and pain, revenge and courage . . . It is a stunning book, perfect for lovers of folklore and gothic fiction.” —Elizabeth Lee, author of Cunning Women This beautifully written modern ghost story is an enchanting place to get lost.”—Danielle Trussoni, TheNew York Times Book Review In a hypnotic tale of sisterhood, first love, and hauntings, a wedding in a small English village stirs up unsettling magic and forces a troubled family’s secrets out into the open.

I initially rated this as 4 stars but it's played on my mind a lot since I finished, and I decided I was being parsimonious.One of the great pleasures of Gothic fiction lies in its insistence that the past (to quote Faulkner) isn’t dead, it isn’t even past. In a Gothic novel, dark histories linger in gloomy castles, musty antiquarian bookshops, crumbling graveyards and dusty attics, just waiting to attach themselves to the living. A twisting gothic tale of darkness, intrigue, heartbreak, and revenge.”—Jennifer Saint, author of Ariadne While the story itself is compelling, the way it’s told is not. I just couldn’t sink myself into it like I have other ghost stories and horror tales that have been released this year. It just wasn’t my cup of tea.