Small Angels: A Novel

by Lauren Owen Narrated by Daphne Kouma, Tamsin Kennard, Eleanor Yates, Rebecca Lee

Overview

In a hypnotic tale of sisterhood, first love, and hauntings, a wedding in a small English village stirs up unsettling magic and forces a troubled family's secrets out into the open.

“This beautifully written modern ghost story is an enchanting place to get lost.”-Danielle Trussoni, The New York Times Book Review

“A twisting gothic tale of darkness, intrigue, heartbreak, and revenge.”-Jennifer Saint, author of Ariadne

The woods are stirring again. . . . 

Lucia and her sisters grew up on the edge of Mockbeggar Woods. They knew it well-its danger, but also its beauty. As a lonely teenager, Kate was drawn to these sisters, who were unlike anyone she'd ever met. But when they brought her into the woods, something dark was awakened, and Kate has never been able to escape the terrible truth of what happened there. 

Chloe has been planning her dream wedding for months. She has the dress, the flowers, and the perfect venue: Small Angels, a charming old church set alongside dense, green woods in the village that her fiancé, Sam, and his sister, Kate, grew up in. But days before the ceremony, Chloe starts to learn of unsettling stories about Small Angels and Mockbeggar Woods. And worse, she begins to see, smell, and hear things that couldn't possibly be real. 

Now, Kate is returning home for the first time in years-for Sam and Chloe's wedding. But the woods are stirring again, and Kate must reconnect with Lucia, her first love, to protect Chloe, the village, and herself. An unforgettable novel about the memories that hold us back and those that show us the way forward, this is storytelling at its most magical. Enter Small Angels, if you dare.

Editorial Reviews

NOVEMBER 2022 - AudioFile

Narrator Rebecca Lee is joined by several others as Chloe prepares for her dream wedding to Sam at a small church beside Mockbeggar Woods, outside the village where Sam grew up. Little does Chloe know that the church is available only because the villagers, including Sam’s family, know Mockbeggar’s history. The distinguished voices of the other narrators make the most of the story’s fairy-tale elements and provide a strong sense of place. Narrator Tamsin Kennard’s slower pacing and greater sibilance give the character of grandmother Selina a threatening aspect that is not entirely unexpected. Listeners will enjoy following along as the characters deal with their pasts and the increasingly malevolent woods, which have already cost them too much. E.J.F. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine

Publishers Weekly

05/02/2022

With a flair for dramatic atmospherics, Owen (The Quick) offers a creepy, richly detailed, but slow-moving tale of the paranormal encroaching on a contemporary small town. Chloe and Sam are getting married in Sam’s hometown, a tiny British village home to the even tinier Small Angels chapel and the eerie Mockbeggar woods. Kate, Sam’s sister, is loath to return for the wedding to the site of the worst tragedies of her past. Local legends abound about both the woods and the strange Gonnes family, who live on a farm at the treeline. Kate, who befriended the four Gonnes daughters as a teen—and fell in love with Lucia, the youngest and most otherworldly—knows the legends to be all too true. As the wedding draws closer and the darkness from the woods seeps into everyone’s souls, Kate must appease the spirits in the woods and make peace with her past. Kate’s role in this world feels murky for too long before her purpose snaps into place, making for a slow start, and though each of the individual threads is well crafted, Owen doesn’t manage to braid them all together. Still, the characters engage and provoke readers in the best of ways. Fans of small-town horror should check this out. Agent: David Forrer, InkWell Management. (Aug.)

From the Publisher

This beautifully written modern ghost story is an enchanting place to get lost.”—Danielle Trussoni, The New York Times Review

“Small Angels simmers with menace and ancient fury, shot through with sorrow, compassion, and hope. Gorgeously atmospheric and gripping!”—Jennifer Saint, author of Ariadne

“Beautiful and frightening, Small Angels is both ghost story and love ballad to the art of storytelling. Lauren Owen has written a true page-turner. This book will haunt and bewitch you.”—A. J. Gnuse, author of Girl in the Walls

“Small Angels is beautiful in every way—atmospheric, eerie, elegantly written. An intricately woven tale of characters haunted by love and pain, revenge and courage . . . It is a stunning book, perfect for lovers of folklore and gothic fiction.”—Elizabeth Lee, author of Cunning Women

“With a flair for dramatic atmospherics, Owen offers a creepy, richly detailed [tale] . . . The characters engage and provoke readers in the best of ways. Fans of small-town horror should check this out.”—Publishers Weekly

Library Journal

03/01/2022

In Dean's big, intriguingly premised debut, Devon is part of a venerable clan belonging to The Book Eaters—instead of food, they munch thrillers, romance, and, when they misbehave, dusty dictionaries—and she's terrified to learn that her son is born hungering not for paper, printing, and binding but human minds (150,000-copy first printing). In The Women Could Fly, a dystopian work from Rumpus features editor Giddings, the mother of a young Black woman named Josephine is long vanished—was she a witch? Was she murdered?—and if Josephine doesn't marry soon, she will be forced to enroll in a registry that will effectively blot out her freedom (75,000-copy first printing). In Harris's The Serpent in Heaven, a sequel to The Russian Cage, Felicia is set upon by her estranged family of Mexican wizards and discovers that she is the most powerful witch of her generation (75,000-copy first printing). In Don't Fear the Reaper, Jones's follow-up to the LJ best-booked My Heart Is a Chainsaw, an exonerated Jade Daniels returns home from prison just as convicted serial killer Dark Mill South arrives to avenge 38 Dakota men hanged in 1862 (100,000-copy first printing). In this latest from the multi-award-nominated Kuang, a Chinese boy orphaned in 1828 Canton (now Guangzhou) is brought to London and eventually enters Oxford's Royal Institute of Translation—called Babel—which doubles as a center for magic and compels him to work in support of Britain's imperial ambitions in China (125,000-copy first printing). Modesitt continues his newly launched "Grand Illusion" series with Steffan Dekkard joining the Council of Sixty-Six as Councilor—the first to be an Isolate, which makes him impervious to emotional manipulation but could lead to his assassination (100,000-copy first printing). Author of the Slate best-booked Quick, Owens has Kate planning to hold her wedding at a church called Small Angels in the town where she once found shelter with the Gonne sisters, little realizing that they've been tasked with keeping a marauding ghost from invading the village—and they're falling down on the job. Winner of a BCALA Self-Publishing EBook Award for Song of Blood and Stone, one ofTime's 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time, Penelope returns with The Monsters We Defy, whose heroine pays off a debt to the Empress ruling the spirit world by agreeing to steal a wealthy woman's ring in 1925 Washington, DC (25,000-copy first printing). From Valdes, author of the LJ best-booked Chilling Effects, Fault Tolerance brings back Capt. Eva Innocente and the raucous crew of La Sirena Negra to counter an anonymous threat that could lead to the death of billions (50,000-copy first printing). Dragon/Nebula finalist Virdi launches a new series with The First Binding, featuring an Immortal disguised as a storyteller—and he's here to relate how he unleashed the First Evil on the world (175,000-copy first printing). The MMU Novella Award-winning West goes full length with Face, set in a genetically engineered society where the perfect profile buys fame, wealth, and power but not happiness for Schuyler and Madeleine Burroughs (60,000-copy first printing).

NOVEMBER 2022 - AudioFile

Narrator Rebecca Lee is joined by several others as Chloe prepares for her dream wedding to Sam at a small church beside Mockbeggar Woods, outside the village where Sam grew up. Little does Chloe know that the church is available only because the villagers, including Sam’s family, know Mockbeggar’s history. The distinguished voices of the other narrators make the most of the story’s fairy-tale elements and provide a strong sense of place. Narrator Tamsin Kennard’s slower pacing and greater sibilance give the character of grandmother Selina a threatening aspect that is not entirely unexpected. Listeners will enjoy following along as the characters deal with their pasts and the increasingly malevolent woods, which have already cost them too much. E.J.F. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

2022-05-11
The woods are lovely, dark, and deep…and haunted?

Chloe’s plans for a picture-perfect destination wedding in the small English town where her husband-to-be, Sam, grew up start to go astray when, during their combination stag and hen party—Hag Night—at a village tavern, she learns some disquieting local lore about the quaint church she’s booked for the nuptials. The looming presence of the nearby Mockbeggar Woods makes itself more and more evident as the wedding draws near, and soon Chloe herself is drawn into a centuries-old struggle to appease a menacing force which occupies those woods. The battle to manage this supernatural situation has been shouldered by the reclusive Gonne family, including four spirited girls, who for generations have run Blanch Farm at the edge of the woods. The Gonnes have endured inexplicable losses despite the rites and rituals they have developed to protect themselves (and their neighbors) from an angry specter that seems to be growing more demanding as the wedding approaches. Owen weaves together stories told by many voices—past and present—in her updated gothic ghost story, creating a portrait of the damage done by ancient injuries and the toxic legacy created by family secrets. The strong bonds between the Gonne sisters are tested by misunderstandings, and a shy romance between one of the sisters and a village girl has unforeseen repercussions years later. While including elements of gothic literature (young women in trouble! haunted places! an unhappy ghost!), Owen updates the genre slyly with references to Chloe’s awareness that she’s like the girl in a ghost story she’s envisioning inside her head and the encouraging, therapeutic advice dispensed by a well-meaning member of the spirit world who aids in the fight against the disgruntled ghost in the woods.

Owen tells an old story in a satisfying new way.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940176038125
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	08/02/2022
Edition description:	Unabridged

Read an Excerpt

Chapter One

The Albatross


It was Hag Night. The wedding guests—reluctant to part as stags and hens—gathered instead at the Albatross, the village’s only pub. They came in laughing, throwing the door wide open and letting in a smell of late summer, of warm earth and dying grass.

At the heart of the group were the engaged couple, Sam Unthank and Chloe Day, whose happiness that evening had a glow like candlelight. Drinkers smiled on them from afar, and the waitress brought them complimentary cheese and olives.

Tonight’s singer sat near the fireplace, a half-full glass at his elbow, his head bent over his guitar as if confiding something important. Still his voice reached every corner and curious alcove of the ancient pub. It was an old song—the Albatross made a specialty of old music—a story of long exile, lucky meeting, lovers reunited.

Most of the drinkers knew the tune well enough to hum along, chiming in for the chorus. Elizabeth Daunt, the village librarian, joined in without looking up from her book or setting down her gin and tonic. Even John Pauncefoot, the pub landlord—usually too shy to take part—sang a note or two, in a voice of surprising beauty.

Chloe—one of the few in the Albatross who had grown up outside the village—glanced at her bridesmaids (whose off-duty clothes somehow looked quite striking here, though they would have turned no heads in London). Her expression said, what did I tell you? She had promised they would find the village like this. There were so many quaint, lovely moments waiting to surprise a visitor. It was like tripping backward in time.

Brian Last joined them so adroitly that nobody noticed him setting his half-pint and packet of salt and vinegar crisps down on the table. As the song ended he turned to Chloe—who was radiant, ready to be feted, a bride already though the wedding was a week away—and said,

“You’re getting married this Saturday, I hear.”

“That’s right.”

“At Small Angels?”

Baffled, amused, Chloe hesitated, so Brian graciously enlightened her:

“I mean that place up by the woods. St. Michael and All Angels. Big name for a little church. People mostly just call it Small Angels.”

“That’s quite pretty,” Chloe said. “If I’d known, I’d have put it on the invitations.”

Her praise, though well-meant, seemed to infect Brian with gloom.

“Cake ordered by this time, I suppose?” he said. “Wine bought? Guests invited?”

“Ages ago. You have to be organized, you know, planning a wedding. I finished my first to-do list eighteen months ago yesterday.”

Chloe waited for congratulations—on the wedding, if not the list—but there were none. Brian took a sip of beer and ate three crisps—all ominousness, all grim thought. The laughter of a minute ago smoked out and vanished.

“Good luck to you, then,” he said at last. “I suppose you know what you’re doing.”

“What are we doing?”

“You’re tempting fate. Don’t you know the story of Small Angels?”

“No.” Chloe glanced at Sam—a local, unlike herself. “Nobody’s said a word. What’s wrong with our church?”

“Anyone want another drink?” Sam said. “Brian, same again?”

But he was too late to save the evening. There was no distracting Brian when he had a tale to tell.

Brian was a local historian, a curator of gossip. He had run the post office for several decades, carefully noting the address of every letter he franked. He lived alone with a Jack Russell named John Aubrey and a freezer full of meals that his wife had cooked for him before her death—neatly labeled lasagnes and shepherd’s pies on ice. The dog loved him and they were rarely seen apart. Tonight it lay quietly at Brian’s feet, watching as he spoke. Besides Chloe, it was the only creature in the Albatross to listen willingly.

They did listen, though. The wedding guests listened, and the rest of the pub listened too, letting conversations lapse. John Pauncefoot leaned against the bar, concentrating with a resigned air. Elizabeth Daunt set down her book and sighed, but did not depart. A family of diners fell silent, the children twisting in their seats to stare, ignoring their mother’s frown. The waitress set down her tray of dirty glasses and listened openly.

Brian had an earnest gaze, thin, restless hands that seemed made for dramatic gestures, and a long acquaintance with the acoustics of the Albatross. The singer by the fireplace—seeing that he had lost his audience for the time being—put his guitar to bed in its case and took his half-hour break.

“The thing is, Small Angels doesn’t rightly belong to the village at all,” Brian began. “It belongs to the Gonnes. Much good it did them.”

“Do you have to do this now, Brian?” Sam said. “We’re meant to be celebrating, and this is morbid stuff.”

“I don’t mind,” said Chloe. Snug in the Albatross, in her circle of well-wishers, in her happy love affair, she was ready for a gloomy romance—something grim howling outside to make the warmth and bright warmer and brighter. Sam said nothing further, and Brian continued:

“So, there’s a house out beyond the village. White walls, sitting by itself in the middle of nowhere—Blanch Farm. The Gonnes lived there for over a century.The family name changed from time to time, of course, but it was always the same people underneath. Ten years ago, there was a whole pack of them there.

“Selina—the old lady—was boss of the clan. I went to school with her husband, Paul. Not a bad sort. Quiet, mind you. Talked like words tasted bad. He and Selina had four granddaughters to bring up, and I never envied them that little task. You’d see those girls wandering the fields at all hours like they didn’t have a home to go to.

“Maybe they’d have picked up better ways if they’d gone to school, but they never stirred from Blanch Farm. People used to say that the old lady didn’t want to spend on the bus fare. Somebody should have stepped in, but no one liked to upset Selina.

“They were strange people. The thing was, they lived much too close to Mockbeggar Woods.” He turned to Chloe. “You’ve seen Mockbeggar, I suppose?”

“Just from outside,” Chloe said. “It’s near the church”—smiling, she tried out the newly discovered name—“near Small Angels. Isn’t it? I wanted to go in and explore but Sam said we couldn’t.”

“I should think not,” Brian said, frowning. “Nobody with any sense goes into those woods.”

Chloe looked around the Albatross, expecting a contradiction. But no one spoke. Sam had picked up the candle on the table and was tipping it so that the liquid wax threatened to drown the light.

“Only the Gonnes ever walked in Mockbeggar,” continued Brian. “People used to say it was just them and the dead.”

A sigh from Brian’s audience. Here was the meat of it at last.

“So this is a ghost story?” Chloe said, pleased and surprised.

“I don’t claim that part’s true, mind. I wouldn’t say that. All I know for sure is what the tradition is, and what I’ve seen and heard for myself.”

He looked around the Albatross. “They’d rather I didn’t tell you this stuff now. They listen, don’t they, though? Can’t help themselves. Because the thing is, we all knew that there was something going on. That’s where Small Angels comes in.

“The Gonnes were at Small Angels all the time, back in their day. It’s just up the fields from Blanch Farm, practically on their doorstep. God knows what they used to do there, but that church is more used to strange goings-on than it is to weddings, you can be sure of that. They kept the church key—had it for generations. The old lady used to wear it on her wrist.”

“This must be hers, then,” Chloe said. She took the key from her handbag and held it up so Brian and her guests could see. It was a gorgeous thing—dark metal, weighty. “They gave me it when I’d paid the deposit. Isn’t it pretty?”

Brian looked as if he wanted to ask to hold the key but didn’t quite dare.

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