I was waiting on tenterhooks for this new book from Ms. Craig. My pre-teen daughter and I absolutely LOVED her first book House of Salt and Sorrows, which was creepy (but not too much), adventurous and delightful. Neither one of us are horror fans, we like suspense, but not too much so the House book was perfect for us. We still talk about the book and get chills over certain chapters and I was really hoping this would be one I could share with my girl.

Unfortunately, this one is a little too creepy for her (she is very sensitive to scary things) but I have to say it was just fantastic for me! I loved the M. Night Shyamalan movie The Village and this definitely has those same kinds of vibes.

As before, this is a well written book with thrills and chills and a little romance. It is definitely a favorite and will be read again by me. Oooh, maybe in October?! I really enjoyed the characters, plot and pacing. I hope that you will also have fun reading this novel. Ms. Craig is now solidly on my auto-buy list and I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next.

Such a great book! Craig’s sophomore novel lives up to the spooky yet romantic and ambient nature of her first book, and then surpasses all expectations! I cannot wait to see what else she writes in the future.

With a strong female lead, unreliable secondary characters and incredible world building, Small Favors delivers a loose fairy tale retelling that offers up commentary on religion and what it means to blindly follow social norms.

When I requested this book I did so based solely on Erin Craig’s previous novel “House of Salt and Sorrow”. It was a stand-alone favorite of mine from the last year. I was honestly curious to see what Craig would write to top her previous novel. I went in blindly and received SO much more than I signed up for.

This book is dark, somewhat challenging, and at the end of the day, it terrified me! There is something for everyone within this brilliant novel. There is drama, difficult familial relationships, death, betrayal and so many monsters. I dreamt of the horrifying creatures at night. I found myself checking the tree line when I walked my dog at night. Every bump in the night elicited some type of fear. Honestly, this is one of the best books I’ve read ever! I have never felt so much from a novel and highly recommend this to anyone that want to read something entirely unique and absolutely fantastic.

I was granted an advanced copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

This book is just not for me, unfortunately. I have to be frank in this review, but I found it to be dull and/or boring. It was slow, and so I found it difficult to keep reading through the story. I'm just not interested enough in any of the characters. I found myself constantly putting it off whenever I plan to read this book. I think if I were interested in the atmosphere of the story, even if I wasn't remotely interested in any of the characters, then I might have finished reading this book. It just wasn't the case for this one. I just wasn't into it.

So so so creepy. Like, one of the creepiest books I’ve read in a while. It’s a slow burn fantasy/horror story set in a rural town, with vibes of The Village (I love that movie, don’t fight me). I want more, but I’m also relieved it’s over because the ending was so intense. It is charming and terrifying and just such a well crafted story.

I'm not sure if I can find the right words to describe this beauty of a book. I read this while on holiday, with summer heat, and I got cold chills all over multiple times while reading this. The setting was just perfect, idyllic even, and the story perfectly haunting. This would also make for a perfect autumn read. I wouldn't be surprised if this would be my favourite read of the year.

House of Salt and Sorrows was great. I liked it but parts of it left me feeling... unsure.. about the whole thing. Kind of like it’s a “it’s not you it’s me” thing.

After reading Small Favors, I understand this author a lot better and her writing style. Very M Night Shyamalan. I dig it more than I expected!

I read all 400 something pages of this in two sittings. I didn’t want to put it down. While it didn’t give me nightmares, the creepy atmosphere had me on the edge of my seat. Everyone on the page felt guilty. Wrong.

A small town excluded on the edge of nowhere surrounded by violent dark woods. That is literally all I needed to know to read this book! Is that a trope? Dark scary woods? It should be! The families that live here quickly (some not so quickly) realize that *everything* is wrong and nothing is as it seems.

The minute I met *Whitaker*... I knew.
Instalove was through the roof, a bit out of place.
The scary things in the woods were very ominous throughout the entire thing and I felt like there should have been more to them at the end.

The ending left me wanting more. I’m not quite sure if that was the intention of possibly a second book or Erin just tied it all up there. Admittedly, after almost 500 pages, I still have a lot of questions.

"𝙒𝙚 𝙬𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙡𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙡𝙚 𝙬𝙤𝙤𝙙𝙚𝙣 𝙥𝙪𝙯𝙯𝙡𝙚 𝙥𝙞𝙚𝙘𝙚𝙨 𝙖𝙩 𝙈𝙘𝘾𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙮'𝙨 𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙧𝙚. 𝙅𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙡𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙡𝙚 𝙗𝙞𝙩𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙘𝙤𝙡𝙤𝙧𝙛𝙪𝙡 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙤𝙨 𝙤𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙞𝙧 𝙤𝙬𝙣, 𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙤𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙮 𝙬𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙨𝙣𝙖𝙥𝙥𝙚𝙙 𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙤 𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙘𝙚, 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙡𝙙 𝙨𝙚𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙮 𝙬𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙢𝙚𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙗𝙚 𝙩𝙤𝙜𝙚𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙖𝙡𝙤𝙣𝙜."

'𝐒𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐅𝐚𝐯𝐨𝐫𝐬' 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰

What do you know about old fairytales such as Rumpelstiltskin and Goldilocks? 🌻 I've always thought them wondrous, so nostalgic and beautiful, how could someone come up with these stories that still live nowadays?

"Small Favors" is a story of truth and self-discovery. Erin A. Craig brings us a world of light and perspective in a time we so seek it. 🍯 This is a story of love and strength, of family bonds and sisterhood, of community and respect.

One of the most beautiful things I found in this book was the main character, Ellerie, standing up for herself as a woman. We all stan womanhood and we absolutely love to see it represented in books.

Then, the relationship between the two main characters. Oh, what a dream! 💛 Ellerie has a fearless spirit and a witty posture, a character I was so amazed to meet in a world of chaos; Whitaker, what a man! Although I was absolutely hurt by his lying and secrecy, I couldn't hate him - I was already deep in love with him.

Again, I'm in tears. At midnight today (10AUG2021), I'm in tears because Erin did it again. She caused all this chaos and pain in our hearts, only for love to flourish next.

𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

This is one of those books that it took me several days to process after I had finished it. Much like Craig's first book, it is scary and creepy with all the horror movie vibes and yet you can never quite place was exactly is so scary. I enjoyed the story and the characters. The writing was phenomenal and the setting was well done. There were a couple little things I thought could have been done better but overall I loved it! It's a great creepy read.

Erin Craig is officially on auto-buy status! I absolutely loved this loose retelling of Rumplestiltskin and I hope she continues retelling dark tales! This was a bit of a slow burn but once it picks up it is NON STOP. I want more from this world.

I almost forgot to review this, so I might as well do it now when I remember.

Erin Craig has a wonderful way of setting up atmosphere and mood in her writing. I can totally envision the small town in the woods and this sort of menacing, sinister presence in the background, the isolation and fear. I absolutely loved the creepy mood and the rising tension that something bad is going to happen.

Yet because of this sort of small, encapsulated world there is not that much that goes on. Most of the book focuses on the daily lives of our characters and the little out of place things that build up more and more. Thus, the pacing is quite slow in the middle and not much occurs. Not that this was bad but my enjoyment wandered as I kept expecting plot points and reveals to happen faster instead of being strung out for a bit too long.

I also never really got into the romance as there was always something that felt off about it. I'm not sure. I always read the main character as being younger than she actually was so the chemistry between the two reminded me more of infatuation than true feelings. I didn't even think he actually liked her for the majority of it (though this, I assume, is part of his mysterious character) because his affections came off as superficial and flat.

The bee keeping scenes were my absolute favorite though. I was totally fascinated by them and kept hoping there were more. Also, I enjoyed seeing how the town sort of... descended into madness and how easily people were manipulated and/or twisted. That's the best part.

Not the most detailed review but a simple summation of my most lingering thoughts on the book.

eArc provided by NetGalley.

So, so good. Brilliant. All the words that mean fantastic. Excuse me while I go read House of Salt and Sorrows.

I knew that I would love this book. House of Salt and Sorrows is one of my very favorite of all time YA books, and I am absolutely positive that Erin Craig could write anything and I'd be obsessed with it. Behold one of my favorites of 2021: Small Favors.

I think what Erin Craig does so well is her atmospheric world building. She has this incredible talent for creating these claustrophobic settings that, as a reader, you feel wholly stuck in until you finish the book. And even then, the world she creates never actually leaves you. I am positive I will think about Amity Falls at least once a day for most of the forseeable future. I still think about HOSAS at least once a day.

Ellerie lives on a farm with her parents, twin brother, and two younger sisters. She helps her father take care of their bees, and she helps her mother with their daily chores. After a supply run goes horribly wrong, reports of huge never-before-seen creatures materialize. These things live in the woods, and are incredibly destructive. From that point on, nothing in Amity Falls will ever be the same.

Townspeople begin reporting mysterious fires, vandalism, and other malicious acts. Strangers have appeared in town, and Ellerie becomes close to one of them. After her mother is injured in a fire that takes their barn and threatens their crops, their parents head for the big city, leaving Ellerie and Sam in charge of the farm. It's going to be a long hard winter, since nobody will venture into the woods for a supply run with those things living in the woods. Things quickly continue to spiral out of control until nobody can be trusted and it is completely unclear about what is at work in this small town.

Along with Ellerie, I was desperate to understand the creatures in the woods. I wanted the bumps in the night to be her imagination and I hoped the woman who had fingers that were too long and had eyes that were too silver was not really there. Erin Craig is one of the best horror writers of our time, in my opinion. She does such an amazing job with her characters and her world building. I love her work so much. She's an incredible writer. I'm a huge fan. This book blew me away and I can't wait to add it to my collection.

The idea that this was a re-imagining of Rumpelstiltskin (a fairy tale I've often thought needed more explanation) was certainly what drew me in. But that is really only a vague framework, a distant influence. Craig's tale stands well on it's own. We have a complex world of mythological beings. More than magic and monsters, though, this is a story of small towns and the secrets hidden by civilization. We're playing with the idea that "polite society" and the rules we all agree to follow hiding resentments and jealousies that will inevitably boil over and cause destruction. While the late chapters fall into a gruesome level of detail the slow grind of the town's decline makes for surprisingly compelling reading.

Small Favors was a haunting read. The feeling of claustrophobia this book caused—people being trapped in a small, secluded town—with mysterious creatures and oddness of the forest surrounding them and hunting for their lives and creating chaos in their wake. The plot twist was pretty predictable with how the story was being told but overall it's @ good read and once again Erin A. Craig proved she's the master of horror fairytales retelling.

This book is a masterpiece of folk horror. From the opening pages, Craig immerses the reader in the world she has created, a world full of magic, whimsy, and darkness. I devoured this book in two days, and I was so sad to see it end. This book is perfect for fans of a more gothic-leaning horror, even those who are usually scared to dive into something like this.

Do NOT BE FOOLED BY THIS LOVELY AND DECEPTIVELY CHARMING COVER!!

Small Favors by way of LARGE TERROR.

Seriously, this book gave me the *shivers* on multiple occasions. Utterly tripped me out! If you remember M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Village,” then the rules and feeling of Amity Falls will seem very familiar.

Small Favors is dark, atmospheric, tense, and chilling. Set in Amity Falls, a settlement-turned-town completely cut off from any semblance of civilization due to the natural boundaries established by God’s Grasp, the five mountain spires encircling the town and the completely impenetrable forest slowing closing in on the denizens of Amity Falls.

Legend and local lore state that the settlers and founders of Amity Falls drove “devils” back into the forest, and keep them out through a woven tapestry of bells and trinkets that will chime if anything attempts to rustle through. They also have erected these wooden statues dubbed “The Ladies” and will burn these effigies to ward off the devils in the woods. This town is also governed by a council of elders and very strict commandments meant to inspire honesty, loyalty, and above all: obedience. Very chilling, as a lot of chapters are prefaced by one of the rules and there is just this fluid undercurrent of insidious was that builds throughout the novel.

Twice a year, a team must leave Amity Falls to collect supplies such as medicines, sugar, etc., and when the team doesn’t come back, Ellerie Downing’s father volunteers, along with her twin brother Sam, to go into the woods and find the missing party.

The men don’t make it far and return shaken. Sam is even a little…off. Not long after, chaos and mayhem erupt as the town’s supplies dwindle and neighbor turns on neighbor. The tension and suspicion are at an all time high when the Downing’s flower fields (the main source of food for their bees) are burnt to the ground.

Overall, the atmosphere, the tension, the slow-burning romance, the sense of betrayal and trust, madness and hunger…it all combines to a wholly terrifying experience and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

After absolutely adoring House of Salt and Sorrow by this author, this was hands down one of my most anticipated releases of the year! I love creepy small town and no one writes ambiance like Erin A Craig.

And this book absolutely blew me away with its ominous vibe and haunting small town. This world was lush and descriptive and pulled me right into its darkness. Everything about this town felt isolated from time and the surrounding world. I really loved the world and atmosphere the author created - it had me on edge through the entire book!

But where this book without a doubt excelled at atmosphere, it fell a little flat on plot for me. I love a story that seems a little aimless until the reveal or conclusion - but the conclusion needs to deliver with a punch and unfortunately this one didn't quite hit that mark. The plot of this meandered as we watched the small town unravel which definitely added to eeriness but it carried on a little too long. And the final reveal just didn't hit me the way I wanted, it felt obvious and predictable, and the ultimate showdown was lackluster.

This sophomore novel was a bit of a mixed bag for me but I still 100% adore Erin A Craig's writing. This book definitely took some chances on the horror elements and wasn't afraid to make you hate a character (of which I did a lot). While this might not have been my perfect read, I think a lot of readers will still love this and I can't wait to see what this author releases next!

I loved this atmospheric and creepy read!

Ellerie Downing has been living in Amity Falls her entire life. It has always seemed quiet and predictable, helping her Mother cook and clean and learning from her Father how to care for their bees. Suddenly, strange things begin to happen around town and and the surrounding woods. Some begin to fear that monsters rumored to have attacked the town’s early settlers may have returned. As more and more inexplicable things occur, everyone becomes more terrified and the less neighborly Amity Falls feels.

Ellerie is a likable character who I connected with. She is caring and willing to do whatever it takes to keep everyone in her family safe. She is facing many changes throughout the story. In some ways she it seems like she is trying to hold onto memories of a childhood that is safe and familiar, and in other ways she’s doing everything she can to grow up and be an example for her younger siblings. Her strength and growth were my favorite things about this book. Her twin brother, Samuel, adds a complicated layer to her family dynamics as they are complete opposites.

This story had a slow build at first but I loved how things escalated. There was a lot of mystery and I was very invested in the characters and their well-being. I didn’t completely love the ending but that was more of a personal preference and I’m sure many will enjoy it. Otherwise, this would have been a five star read for me as it was a book I couldn’t put down - it kept me up late into the night glancing over my shoulders with it’s creepy vibes.

2.5 stars -- Had I not read this author's previous work, House of Salt and Sorrows (which I absolutely LOVED), I would have likely given this a 2.75 or 3. However, coming from a level of such high expectation after that first book, I was so let down by this one I couldn't get any higher than a 2.5 rating. This felt much more like a debut novel than her actual debut did.

The story started off really promising and I loved the premise--it felt like a mashup of M. Night Shyamalan's The Village and Stephen King's Needful Things. But the dialogue and oddly telenovela-ish romance that began to play a major role in the plot ruined things for me.

The dialogue was stilted and forced -- lot's of melodramatic exclamations and people using each other's full names fourteen times in the course of one conversation -- and I couldn't get past it.

Readers who enjoy YA and dramatic young romance may find this an engaging read, but it just wasn't for me.

Had I not known better, and you told me House of Salt and Sorrows and this novel were written by the same author, I wouldn't have believed you. I will definitely continue to read this author's work....this particular one just wasn't for me.