Sam Unthank and his fiancé Chloe Day are returning to the place that Sam grew up in order to get married in the picturesque village church, St Michaels and All Angels – better known to the locals as Small Angels. On their ‘hag’ night in the pub the local historian and “curator of gossip” begins to tell the story of Small Angels, the Gonnes family who lived close by at Blanche Farm and the last time the church was used 10 years ago for the funeral of Paul Gonnes. Chloe is fascinated by the story and wants to know more, but Sam doesn’t want to talk about anything that happened in the past. He didn’t really want to come back here. Some of the locals are superstitious about this place and a possible curse that hangs over it. Sam’s sister Kate still bears the scars of that night around her neck, but is unable to recall how they got there.
And so begins the story wrapped up in a tale, surrounded by legend, encased in a ballad of the natural world, ghosts and revenge.
I really enjoyed this book, as much as Lauren Owen’s first novel The Quick. It was incredibly atmospheric and eerie. I like the way that the theme of stories and storytelling runs throughout. People retelling their stories, performing plays or hearing a narrative running through their head. We also get the story from a number of different points of view which helps to build the bigger picture and see the different perspectives.
I particularly liked the character of Kate, and her struggle with the past and present. She returns to Small Angels begrudgingly and is desperate to get through the wedding and escape back to the life she has made for herself away from this place. But it draws her in, and soon she is recalling her childhood with the Gonnes children and the relationship she once had with the now reclusive Lucia.
Mockbeggar Wood, at the edge of the church, is a character itself throughout the book. It’s alive and reaching out to all your senses. It breathes and produces such beauty in things like the fragrant gentle roses and petals that sweep into the village, but it is also spiteful and stagnant and extremely treacherous in places when it chooses to be. Some say Small Angels was too close to the woods. It felt like “it was going to be eaten up by the trees any minute”.
The character of Harry Child, the wickedly childish boy who appears one day in the woods and befriends Lucia is a fantastic creation. He’s malicious, and vulnerable and vengeful. He draws Lucia in, and she believes it is because of her reputation as ‘Lucia the bad’ or the bad thoughts that she sometimes has and presumes he can sense.
The present day story runs alongside the unfolding tale of what happened 10 years ago – and even further back as the full horror is revealed. And just like the vines and bushes of Mockbeggar Woods this book starts to wrap itself around you and pull you in deeper so that you can’t very easily put it down.
This book is suited to people who like a gothic, ghostly tale and don’t mind being spooked, readers who may have read books such as Wakenhyrst by Michelle Paver, The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell or Starve Acre by Andrew Michael Hurley – all of which I would highly recommend.
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