Small Favors by Erin A. Craig

There are just some authors that write books that seem like they are just for you. Erin is one of those authors for me, if you remember in my post about The House of Salt and Sorrow.

This tale set in an ambivalent homesteading time period, in some snow laden and remote town had such hometown vibes to me I had to ask Erin where she’d set it. I was delighted to find out that Colorado had been her inspiration for the location, which one state down from where I grew up, has such a similar culture that it makes complete sense as to why this book struck a chord with me.

Ellerie Downing as well as her family welcome you to Amity Falls with open arms. To be fair this harmonious town brings together the best of western culture, one where you take care of those around you, respect your elders, and work hard, as well as that of a real town, where family feuds and disagreements happen all the time.

It was such a wonderful vantage point seeing a town that is so set apart from the rest of the world, where relying on each other is all that you can do in times of hardship, and seeing what happened in the hardest times they’ve ever had. The fantastical elements come off as terrifying monsters and beings that are pressing down up on the town, but somehow it is from the humanity that the true horror of this story comes from.

I love Erin’s characters, she makes people that you want to be friends with, and how she approaches writing children and how they play into the gothic aspect of her writing is sublime. The kids always know something more because they have faith that we lose as we look to the reality of the world, and that is more than apparent in this story.

To be fair, I saw the big twist coming far before Ellerie did, and I think Erin sets that up on purpose because it is her denial to see what was right in front of her for a good chunk of the story that sets up the dramatic ending. Plus all the small bits and pieces that come into play just create an entire aesthetically interesting roadmap.

An interesting bit from me, is the inciting incident for the book comes incredibly quickly. I thought that we were half way through when we were only in the first third. This story drags out in the best way, meaning that as I was listening to it i wasn’t ever sure of what would happen next and how it would end.

Truthfully I need to reread this book just to grasp the ending, but I needed time away from this story after listening to it alone in a car where I’d been driving all across a desolate landscape Wyoming while I was out there for work. I’ve spoken with others who classify this as more gothic than horror and less creepy than The House of Salt and Sorrow, but to me the true horror came from how humanity played into the mythic elements, and I was destroyed by the ending. It may have come from being so isolated while listening to the novel. No matter I still adored it, and it was a well deserved departure from ANYTHING I’d been reading near it.

Plus there are Bees galore, which anyone who knows me knows I have a thing for bees.

Please read it so I have more people to talk to about this delightful, scary, and heartfelt book. It truly captures that essence of living in the frontier and spoke to my soul, so I hope you love it–or at least respect it’s gothic elements like I do.

Want to read Small Favors you can find it here:

Goodreads ~ Storygraph ~ Bookshop.org ~ Libro.fm

As a side note, some of the links to Bookshop or Libro.fm will either provide me or an indie bookshop I support a portion of the affiliate sales if you use them to buy a book I recommend!