You’re all invited to a wedding. Sam and Chloe are getting married in Small Angels, the church of Sam’s childhood village. His sister Kate is along to help. But something is not happy with the imminent festivities at the edge of Mockbeggar Woods. It’s angry, manipulative and eldritch at the same time.

Small Angels is a patchwork of a book. Beneath it is a general, creeping, lurking terror of what will happen on the day itself. Beneath that is the history of the village, it’s myths and fables and how Sam and Kate’s childhood affects what is going to happen. And when it does, you’ll be genuinely terrified. I say that as someone who doesn’t “get” horror. But be warned, find something to hold on to.

There is the odd hint of the modern world, and where the unnamed village might actually be. But there is nothing to really tie it to one particular time and space – other than the fact that the hard drive of Sam’s laptop keeps wiping and he can’t get a mobile signal. There is also the internal logic that the villagers accept that Mockbeggar is haunted. Not just by the spirit, but also in the ghosts of angry dogs and a lost goose which plays with the children.

I should also mention that The Gonnes are a family of women, guardians of both the woods and Small Angels. They are depicted at one point as cooking meals of random ingredients thrown into a pot and you can make of that what you will.

There’s more than enough in Small Angels to make the jaw drop and the flesh creep. There is that tick and drip of information about what is going to happen. One, involving Chloe’s wedding veil is so horrifying I had to stop reading for a few minutes. She also acquires an unseen voice which narrates her wedding preparations and manipulates her into setting something loose.

I’m not going to say whether there is a happy ending. What I will say is it ends of a definite, unsettling minor key. Things might be normal (or as normal as they can be in a haunted village), but there is great uncertainty with it. It depicts perfectly the great leap of faith of deciding to give your heart and soul to someone.

I read this book three months ahead of publication and it was enough to give me nightmares then – now…it will make your flesh creep as the light seeps out of Summertime.

(Review by Kev)