Lenore .'s Reviews > Small Favors

why is it that i want to write a novel about books i'm frustrated with, but when i love something to bits i can't articulate anything but heart emojis?

this review is a full-on rant. please look away if you're going to be offended by it. if you share my frustration, or are looking for some fresh tea, welcome!!

i can't decide whether my intense frustration with small favours is a result of me not being the right audience for this book, or of this book not having the quality of execution its concept warranted. i love the idea of a troupe of mysterious creatures tormenting an isolated community by granting wishes at the price of small disturbances that slowly turn the townspeople at each other's throats. i love the idea of the protagonist falling in love with one of those creatures. i've studied both the historic and modern iterations of the gothic genre in university, and have enjoyed distinctly "american gothic" books with a strong atmosphere and creepiness that arises from uncertainty. but as much as i wanted to, i couldn't love or enjoy this book.

let me start with the good. this is a beautifully written book, and the prose carried me over so many objectively boring and mundane passages that would have made me look away earlier, had it not been for the writing. the atmosphere is also extremely on point, aided by a style that helps you feel and see the places that are so important for the creepiness factor in this story. and that's about all i can say in terms of praise.

the first major point where this book fails for me is the protagonist and her POV. ellerie's just... there. for the majority of the time, she's also a "watcher", as the creatures are called: although the book is from her POV, she feels too often like a neutral narrator, relaying fights and events without much disclosure of her personal reactions to them, except when they concern her. within her own POV, she could easily be forgotten, become one with the bland paper of the page. this isn't necessarily a negative quality, if she were to use her observations to draw more conclusions and to take more initiative. but she'd rather let domestic chores overtake her thinking instead of focus on solving the mysteries she's presented by. "hey ellerie, your uncle seems to be doing something suspicious in the shed," but ellerie doesn't stick her nose into other people's business, even if their business might be a source of potential harm. she acts only if she's pushed right to the edge, and even then she acts alone, keeping crucial information from people who should know it without even justifying her actions in her head. i'd hate to call her simple-minded, but she could have been so much more than she was written as.

then there's the romance. where did it even come from? how am i supposed to care about it? the love interest has no appealing qualities but being "mysterious". he's arrogant from the start, but instead of being rightfully annoyed at him, ellerie is a blushing idiot most of the time, as if she'd never interacted with a handsome guy before, having lived in a closely-knit town for all of eighteen years. to say the romance lacks build-up is an understatement: these people go around saying that they feel things for each other after having all of three insignificant interactions, and if i had to take a shot every time i rolled my eyes at something one of them said or did in the so-called romantic scenes, i'd have no liqueur left at my house. and if the romance was a side story, it would have been so much easier to overlook its illogicality. but it becomes increasingly important: it's the centrepiece of the ending. with the way it's been developed, having ellerie shoot the guy would make me feel more than any amount of cheek-cupping that gets thrown at me.

god, i would just do everything so differently. i'd have the protagonist interact with the mysterious boy in the wood while growing up a couple of times, to explain any connection they felt from childhood. i'd have them do something dangerous together, something that would pit him against his kind and on her side in a way that would be clear to the readers. i'd have her be one of the people who claims she sees the creatures while growing up, without knowing that they mean her harm. i would make her bolder, smarter, more focused on the creatures in the wood than on domestic chores.

if this story was just told a little differently, it would have been so much more. as it is, it doesn't leave me with anything but a wish that will not come true.