After reading House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig, I had to pick up more of her work. Her dark fairytale horrors are so vivid and descriptive and when I saw Small Favors I knew I needed to read it. An isolated religious town. An ominous vibe in the air. Bees. What’s not to love?

Ellerie lives in Amity Falls, a small, quiet and secluded town in the Blackspire Mountain range, bordered by a nearly impenetrable forest from which the settlers fought off the creatures in the woods. When a supply party goes missing, some worry that the monsters that once stalked the region have returned. Days get colder and more strange activities plague the town, creating this simmering tension between town folk. Cause of these events seems to a tribe of devilish and mystical creatures. They promise to fullfill the residents’ deepest desires for just a small favour but their true intentions are far more sinister. Ellerie finds herself in a race against time before all of Amity Falls, her family, and the boy she loves go up in flames.

I was not disappointed by her detail and description. Erin A. Craig truly has one of the most well-honed skills in scene description I have seen from authors. Everything feels rich and raw and right there within reach, making it oh so easy to fall into a reading blackhole. She also has a strong sense of understanding when it comes to pacing. Ellerie’s parents needing to leave was such a good plot point for the progression of her character development and the plot progression as a whole. It made the stakes higher, the internal and external tensions higher, and it created this bundle of nerves within me as I eagerly flicked through the pages, wanting to know what happened next. The classic religious town’s descent into chaos at the climax of the novel was so satisfying (felt reminiscent of The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson so if you’re a fan of either of these books I recommend the other to you, or if you’re a fan of the themes and tropes you can add both to your tbr lists).

There are some lacklustre aspects of the book, as with any read one comes across. The foreshadowing is a little too obvious for my tastes, as is the final conflict, and the romance is very “puppy-love” which makes it feel very YA-centric. The fairytale inspiration for Small Favors is Rumpelstiltskin but unless you’re familiar with the tale the connection may go right over your head.

It’s a good read, maybe even a great one, but it seems to be easily forgotten now that I’m writing this (well over a year since I read it). There isn’t anything that stands out but the vibe is eerie and what more could you want from a dark fairytale YA fantasy?