Small Spaces

[Mary Pat]

This thread is to discuss Katherine Arden‘s book, Small Spaces.

Pages: 256

Length: 1 month

Participants: Kristin, SarahKat

Everyone reads at their own pace during a Buddy Read. Because participants can be at different parts of the book at different times, it is extremely important to mark spoilers so that the book is not ruined for someone who is not as far along as others!!!

Mark spoilers by placing {spoiler} before the text and {/spoiler} after the text but use the < and > instead of the { and }.

Check out the introduction post (here) for more information about Buddy Reads!

You might also want to check out what other Buddy Reads are scheduled for 2018 here!.

Happy Buddy Reading!

[SarahKat, Buddy Reads]

I totally forgot I was in this one until I saw the name and thought it sounded familiar. Good thing I checked!

Kristin, just let me know when you get it and I'll start then. I'll likely have to buy the ebook. My tiny library doesn't have this one.

[SarahKat, Buddy Reads]

Hey Kristin, my kid wants to read this with me (until/unless it gets too scary) and we will probably start tomorrow. No hurry though.

[SarahKat, Buddy Reads]

Dang. We only finished chapter 4! I made an executive decision not to read it to him before bed, because, well, I want him to sleep and not be freaked out. Might take us a week to get through it but we'll get there.

I really like Arden's writing. I was a little worried that she wouldn't do well with middle-grade just because Bear and the Nightingale is so intense and intricate. Really enjoying this so far! I'm glad one of the sort of spooky things happened in chapter 2 already (view spoiler)[ with the woman and the book (hide spoiler)]. You don't have to wait too long before the "action" happens.

I'll try to sneak a few extra chapters in the next few days because I really want to click on your spoilers.

[SarahKat, Buddy Reads]

Finished!! We couldn't put it down today. We read for 2 and a half hours until it was over.

(view spoiler)[ I agree about the parents! I loved Arden's characters in this book and she just threw gender roles to the wind and just made some humans. I also thought the way she handled the father's own grief and raising Ollie was amazing, and not something you see often. Usually a much darker widowed parent picture is painted. It was refreshing to see a parent who could still find joy with his kid after the death of his spouse).

I liked the Alice in Wonderland stuff too, AND the Narnia stuff. My son and I are making our way through that series right now so he thought it was really cool when they started talking about it.

My thoughts were along the same lines as you regarding the bus driver and Seth. I figured it's too obvious to have the creepy bus driver be the smiling man and Seth was too random just to be a farm hand. I predicted immediately that Seth was Smiling Man and bus driver was actually a good guy trying to help them (was slightly off there, but close).

There was a bit of Coraline in there. Definitely the "other mother" type sewed-on faces and it even mentions at least one scarecrow having buttons for eyes! I didn't even equate the cat because I haven't read Coraline in a while, but you're right about that too!

It also reminded me of Doctor Who's weeping angels. Do you watch that? The angels only move when you're not looking at them, like the scarecrows in the day time. And, of course Silent Hill with the mist and being suddenly in a creepy parallel universe of sorts. But even though parts of it were reminiscent of other things, it didn't feel cliche or ripped off.

I'm also really glad Ollie's struggles with grief were a big part of the story, with the watch and the ending sequence. I like that it wasn't only there for character-building and it was important for the plot. (hide spoiler)]

[SarahKat, Buddy Reads]

Kristin wrote: "SarahKat - I haven't watched Doctor Who but so many people have recommended it, I feel I probably should! I watched the first Silent Hill movie when it came out, but to be honest, it was so long a..."

(view spoiler)[ Yes you should watch Doctor Who. It took me a long time to finally sit down and watch it, but after about 4 or 5 episodes I was hooked. There are some not-great episodes but the majority of it is really fun.

I agree that's how I handle grief too. Part of it is people just don't know what to say when something monumental has happened to you, so I just don't want to bother hearing all the trite "so sorry for your loss" stuff, so I just don't bother with humans in general. But those ones that wriggle their way in anyway are really important.

He loved it. He said it was his favorite book we've read together this year! Some of it was over his head. He's 6, so his world is very black-and-white. I had to explain why Coco didn't want Brian to see her notebook and stuff like that. He is so kind he just honestly cannot grasp why kids "who are older than him and know better" would be so mean to each other. I'm not sure he really tuned in on the deeper grief themes because I asked him if he thought anything was sad and he said "why would it be sad? It was a scary book." He loved the humor in it too. Arden did that very well to appeal to both kids and adults. (hide spoiler)]

[SarahKat, Buddy Reads]

I think Doctor Who is binge-worthy. Just know it takes a few episodes to get into. The first episode is actually terrible in my opinion. I watched that one and then like 3 years later I finally watched the rest (while on maternity leave), and I was hooked.

[SarahKat, Buddy Reads]

Kristin wrote: "I will definitely give it a try!! Glad to know to stick out the first few rough episodes. It can be difficult for me to do that if I don't know it'll pay off in the end.

My husband and I started w..."

I have not. Is it really scary? I have a pretty low threshold for horror nowadays. We are catching up on Shameless right now. I rarely watch shows on my own anymore, which is sad because I have so many I want to catch up on. I've just been reading. I might take a break after I finish all this year's challenges and just watch TV for a month in December. Haha

[SarahKat, Buddy Reads]

The US version. We're on the last season that's available on Netflix. Maybe we'll start watching The Haunting of Hill House when we're done with that.