On paper, I should’ve adored this book. Small Favors is replete with tropes I adore, and I was incredibly excited to read a book that intertwined horror elements with fae. Unfortunately, Small Favors struck me as generally unremarkable.

The horror elements felt too generic to be truly unsettling, and the villain(s) simply didn’t have the discomforting vibe I believe Craig was aiming for. If I had to boil everything down into one word, it would probably be “unsubtle”. Craig ended up overapplying the metaphorical charcoal when foreshadowing, and every narrative twist was easily predictable.

Neither were the characters particularly compelling: I found it extremely difficult to be emotionally invested in any of them or their relationships. Our protagonist Ellerie’s tension with her twin was a particular source of frustration for me- as the audience was never given the chance to see their relationship in a positive place, seeing them slip further away from one another doesn’t have the emotional impact it should. Neither did Ellerie’s romance inspire any particular emotion in me, and she seems to have no particular character arc. Since the characters are just that bit too generic, the “grand,” finale falls extremely flat. It’s certainly not a scene I should’ve felt impatient reading, since the novel was clearly building to that point, but impatience was the end result.

I did appreciate the historical setting, which was clearly well-researched and often pretty absorbing. The way the plot revolved around the protagonist’s livelihood, beekeeping, did much to help the storyline feel grounded. Bringing the fae into the context of an American pioneer town was an imaginative concept, but I can’t help but feel that it could have been better utilitsed. Craig is an obviously competent writer, and I can’t find fault with her dialogue, prose, or pacing, which is why I’ve rated it as highly as I have. But frankly, Small Favours inspired no feeling at all in me, and I wouldn’t be able to recommend it as a result.