Monday 10 December 2018

BOOK REVIEW | 'Small Spaces' by Sarah Epstein (****)

Hey guys, and happy Monday! Today I am excited to be sharing a review with you of a brilliant YA thriller I read recently, called Small Spaces by Sarah Epstein. Small Spaces follows 17-year-old Natasha Carmody as she struggles to forget her troubled past, and move forward into a brighter future. A traumatic memory from her childhood occupies her mind, day and night: the day when six-year-old Mallory Fisher was abducted from a carnival. Tash saw who took her, but no one believed her. They still don't. Many years later, Tash has to wrestle with her own mind, and navigate around the murky dimension where imagination and reality combine.

 I was kindly sent a copy of Small Spaces by Walker Books in exchange for an honest review <3

 Intrigued? Check out the blurb here...
We don’t pick and choose what to be afraid of. Our fears pick us.

Tash Carmody has been traumatised since childhood, when she witnessed her gruesome imaginary friend Sparrow lure young Mallory Fisher away from a carnival. At the time nobody believed Tash, and she has since come to accept that Sparrow wasn’t real. Now fifteen and mute, Mallory’s never spoken about the week she went missing. 


As disturbing memories resurface, Tash starts to see Sparrow again. And she realises Mallory is the key to unlocking the truth about a dark secret connecting them. Does Sparrow exist after all? Or is Tash more dangerous to others than she thinks?

As soon as I saw the blurb for this book, I knew it was one I had to read. I love psychological thrillers, and in my experience YA ones are especially good. The premise of this book was unlike anything I had read before, and I'm happy to say that I was not disappointed. Epstein's writing is gorgeously detailed and deliciously creepy, and I found myself hanging onto every single word. Tash was not necessarily a likeable character, but her frustrations at not being heard or believed seeped out of the story and she went through a remarkable character development by the end of the book. I think the relationship between Tash and her mum was really well explored and interesting to read about. All of the characters in fact were very well-crafted and they all fit into the narrative seamlessly.

I think that the plot really drove the story forward and there were twists and turns in exactly the right moments. I really liked the excerpts of conversation between Tash and her psychologist; they gave an interesting background to the situation and allowed us to clearly see Tash's state of mind. Epstein clearly has a talent for creating a wonderfully dark and mysterious atmosphere, and although things didn't end up how I expected, I absolutely loved how the story ended up. 

Altogether I adored Small Spaces and I would recommend it to anyone who loves a good creepy psychological thriller, that will keep you second guessing right until the very last page!


Check out Sarah Epstein here: https://sarahepsteinbooks.com

 Until next time :)
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