I am in absolute love with this book. I was drawn in from the cover and intrigued with the synopsis. I was hooked from the beginning and was unable to put it down, well, except at night because I was getting the heebie geebies. There were moments were the hair on the back of my neck were standing up. I loved the story within a story and I wish I could have heard more about out the villain. I am super excited to read the sequel and introduce this series to my kids when they are older.


I received a copy on netgalley in exchange for a review. All statements and opinions above are solely my own.

I loved this book and am happy to be enjoying Arden’s work. I will be giving Nightingale another try after this. 

Ollie was very relatable to me and I think that is what made this book fantastic. As a young reader I would have connected with this character in a real way while still enjoying the creepy goodness of the plot line.

The most ridiculous story line. I couldn’t finish. As soon as it started talking about moving and “alive” scarecrows I stopped. I got 60% done. Dumb.

Reminiscent of an R.L. Stine tale, this deliciously spooky and entertaining tale was pleasant to to read.

This was a very interesting book. It gave me a bit of a goosebumps feel. I think my students would like this book, some of the pros for me would be the focus on friendships and the excitement and creativity of the middle and ending, the cons would be how much extra information that was not needed and how slop the beginning was.

I absolutely ADORED this book. It is the perfect spooky middle grade, and once I bought it, it FLEW off the shelves in my library (I talked it up a lot). Was fabulous for October, and is still going out now (in December). A wonderful story! I can't wait to read the sequel (it's on my next order!) and other future middle grades by this author! I'm so in love with this book I'll be reading KA's young adult Winternight trilogy (finally!) to see if any would be a good fit for my middle school library.

Highly recommend!!!

She thinks she has no friends. She thinks her mother is gone forever. She thinks there is no one she wants to talk to. The smiling man wants to be her friend. The hockey player and the city girl aren’t  so bad. The scarecrows want her in their inner circle. Ollie will have to choose her past or her future , her friends or her mother, no more pain or the ups and downs of life. The scarecrows are waiting till dark to pull you to the other side and take away your pain. Stay in the small spaces, run and hide because their coming.

This is my first book by Ms Arden but won’t be the last. I am an adult but found it to be very creepy for a middle-grade book and cannot wait to read more books in the series. I loved the main character Ollie and her friends. Page turner and very quick read.

Fun, spooky story. It had a great atmosphere, especially the very creepy descriptions of the scarecrows in the mist. It was enjoyable. However, it somehow felt rushed and underdeveloped. There was no real explanation for what this misted world actually was, why it was possible for someone who was dead to communicate via a broken watch, what the smiling man really wanted, and many other character-driven questions. I found a major issue with the timing: the countdown moving too quickly when they are having a quick chat, only having six hours until dark after having just woken up, among other instances. Also, some of the inner monologues felt a bit heavy-handed. The characters were fine, but not very deep.
At first, I thought about giving the story four stars, going lenient for being a middle-grade story. As it stands, I am technically not the target audience. But while I certainly think a younger audience would enjoy the story, I feel like they are still smart enough to pick up on these issues.

So good I bought a print copy from my kids book fair. 
We'll be reading it to the kiddos next month!

This is a good middle-school horror! Has the feel of a Goosebumps story. Love the main character, Ollie, and her two friends, Brian and Coco. Watch out for scarecrows at night! I'm already creeped out by scarecrows and corn mazes. This story just reminded my why!  Will definitely follow this new author.

Sixth-grader Ollie is a voracious reader and falls into stories after a significant loss. She finds the story of Beth, a young woman who had a pair of brothers in love with her, and a deal made with "the smiling man," a figure that would fulfill wishes for a price. This becomes less of a story when she finds the graves of these people on a school trip to a farm. Her broken digital watch soon says RUN, and the bus driver gives creepy but accurate advice. Ollie and two of her classmates actually heed that advice, and their hair raising journey has just begun.

A new novel by the author of The Bear and The Nightingale? Sign me up! This features a tweener as the main character, but don't think that means this book is only for middle-grade readers. Yes, this is targeted for middle-grade readers, but that doesn't mean that adults won't find the story spooky as well. There are also very serious themes of grief and depression, love and loss, friendship and growth.

I appreciate the short and punctuated descriptions of things in the beginning, and how we slowly see what Ollie's grief is all about. The creepy and odd also begins slowly, so that it isn't until the school trip that we see the creepiness come to light. Ollie's prior nature walks with her mother are revealed as the story progresses, as well as Coco's former rock-climbing skill despite the very pink and sparkly personality she had shown in the beginning of the book. She cries easily, which other sixth graders make fun of and even Ollie had disdained, but Ollie soon realizes it's because Coco is so in tune with her emotions and feels everything, and Ollie currently feels almost nothing. Brian becomes more than the dumb jock as well, with knowledge of fantasy novels and mythology as well as kindness and preparedness from his Boy Scout training.

These are very nuanced characters being pushed to their limits, with the creepiness less in terms of blood and gore and more in Halloween style scarecrows that are everpresent, ghosts of long-dead people still lurking in the woods, and a "smiling man" only too eager to make deals in return for souls. This is a wonderfully atmospheric book, and actually good for all ages.

After suffering a tragic loss, 6th grader Ollie turns to books as an escape. During a walk home, she notices a crying, frantic woman about to throw a book into a river and she steals the book before she has a chance to destroy it. When she opens the boom, she becomes entranced by a story about a young woman caught in a love triangle with two brothers fighting over her affections, when one day, they disappear. The next day, her class goes on a field trip. There, she noticed things that make her believe, maybe the story....isn’t just a work of fiction. 


Katherine Arden has a beautiful way of bringing this middle grade story TO LIFE. This is my first novel from her and I can’t wait to pick more up. 
This story was SO CREEPY that I found myself anxious to figure out WHAT ON EARTH WAS HAPPENING!?!? She brought these characters to life, this world to life.... and made me hang on her every word. 

What blows my mind is that this is a MIDDLE GRADE NOVEL and it kept my attention every step of the way. The PERFECT fall, creepy vibes read. Don’t shy away from this middle grade book even if you’re an adult. I enjoyed this very much.

I was in a reading slump for the month of October and didn't finish any books but today I finished two of the three books I started last month. I wasn't even 50% through this book this morning and I finished it tonight. For how long it took me to actually read it was a fast read. Small Spaces was great at keeping me interested and wanting to continue to read it. I believe this book is helping/helped me get out of this reading slump. This book has to do with grief and death of a parent. I like the friendship that the main character makes through out the story. I'm hoping to pick up book two soon. I want to buy the physical copy of this now. Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an ecopy.

Small Spaces is Katherine Arden’s debut middle grade novel and I loved it so very much friends. Many of you know that The Bear and the Nightingale is one of my favorite books of all-time, and even though these stories are nothing like one another, the beautiful writing, amazing characters, and important themes shine through. I went into this expecting a fun and spooky read (which it was), but what I also got was such a beautiful love letter to grief, depression, and trying to live in a world that has taken away someone who you feel you cannot live without.

This is a great book to read around Halloween time. The book is about a young girl (11 years old who just lost her mom. Now living with her dad. The spooky story starts when Ollie sees a woman about to throw a book into the river and takes it. Though this is a middle grade book I enjoyed  it like crazy! In fact I can't wait to find another of Katherines books. The characters really come alive in her books. This book is much like a R.L. Stine.  I dare say I found another favorite author (how many is one aloud to have?)

I loved this middle grade story from Katherine Arden. Typically I do not go for middle grade but this was cute and spooky and so perfect for this time of year.

For the targeted audience being kids, me as an adult also thoroughly enjoyed and was creeped out by this novel. And those are the best kinds of novels to read, in my opinion. I love ones that people of any age can enjoy, regardless of what the targeted audience is. And though this was a spooky read, it was also so much more; dealing with issues like the loss of a loved one, depression, and friendship. This is one I plan to go out and buy a physical copy of, because having a digital copy just isn’t enough!

Thank you NetGalley got an eARC in exchange for an honest review. 

This book will be a must read for my students and for all who love a good scary story! I will no longer look at scarecrows the same after this enthralling and descriptive adventure. I look forward to the next books by the author.

This is a well-done creepy read that is age-appropriate for middle school readers, but still enjoyable for adults as well. It features three students who only peripherally know each other, but must band together when they find themselves in an unexpected spooky situation on what should have been a typical school field trip. There are a lot of good scares, and the characters are ones you definitely root for.