Be Careful What You Wish For In This YA Fantasy

Book Review: Small Favors by Erin A. Craig 
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Ellerie Downing has only ever known the quiet, isolated community of Amity Falls. In the surrounding forest live creatures of old, packs of wild beasts, and strangers never to be trusted. As winter grows ever closer, Ellerie finds herself in charge of her family and the bees her father has always kept safe. As the days grow colder, paranoia instills itself in every household. The monsters of the forest have somehow found their way into Amity Falls, and no one can be trusted. Not even your neighbor. In this YA Fairy Tale-retelling, keeping your secrets – and even more precious, your wishes – close to your chest will be the only way to survive and see another Spring.

I absolutely adored this stand-alone fantasy! So much so that, after reading my library’s copy, I proceeded to buy one of my own so I can return to the spooky atmosphere of this dark fantasy whenever I choose. I loved the inclusion of other Fairy Tale elements and mythological stories in this Rumplestilskin reimagining. The fantastical elements are met with those of horror and thriller genres which makes this story even more rich and unnerving. Ellerie is also a protagonist with sense and determination. Too often, YA novels have main characters who fall too easily into traps, but Ellerie keeps her secrets close to her chest, observes her surroundings carefully, and puts survival before anything else. Her dark, unsettling romance with Whitaker – a trapper and stranger to the Amity Falls community – also had me reeling.

There is so much symbolism and complexity in this novel. I cannot wait to reread it one day, discovering details I hadn’t noticed during my first read. A masterpiece, truly.