Empty Smiles

"Katherine Arden has become one of my favorite authors, and her Winternight trilogy is a favorite series. I don’t usually like horror, but I’m willing to read anything she writes and gave her Small Spaces series a try. I ended up really enjoying it, and was relieved that her final book was released right at the same time I was finishing the third book. Empty Smiles was a decent ending to a good series, but felt like it’s atmosphere was a little off. The change in the Smiling Man’s character was a little confusing, and I wish we would have gotten more background on him. It also felt rushed, with the actual game between the Smiling Man and the kids being too quick and not very high stakes. The ending kind of came out of nowhere, but I will say the clowns were definitely creepy. Now I’m trying to patiently wait for Arden to release a new book. I’m excited to see what she writes next."

"This is the 4th book in a series that started with Small Spaces and it's best if you read the whole series in order, so read the first 3 before you read this one. The first book in this series was beyond spooky and was pretty scary, and the other two were just as good and spooky, but this one, while it was spooky, wasn't as good. I'm not sure what it was, but something was missing from the ending of this book for me. Other than it feeling like it was missing something, more explanation or background on The Smiling Man or something, it scared me but good this one with the clowns - Those clowns in this story are disturbing and somewhat terrifying even for me as an adult reading about these clowns in a Middle-Grade spooky read.<br/>All in all, I enjoyed this book and would recommend checking it out if you've been following the series and want to know what happens with Ollie, Coco, Brian, and Phil and getting their chance to find and get Ollie back. Also, if you want a great spooky MG read for this time of year, it's a good one. You know what would even be better is to start with the first book and read it all the way through all at once. It's a great spooky fall read, and it also illustrates and shows how important families and friends are and communication, supporting, and helping each other out. It also talks about fears and overcoming them and such. If nothing else, I'd read it just for the spookiness of the carnival and a little bit of jump scares I had from reading about those clowns. I already hated clowns, so this made me hate them even more. Also, if you have a phobia of clowns, be aware of the creepy clowns in this book.<br/>Thanks so much to NetGalley and Penguin Young Readers Group/G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers for letting me read and review this spooky story. All thoughts and opinions are my own."

"I wish, I WISH I could give this five stars. I really enjoyed this quartet of books. One for every season? Very clever! This is also one of my first introductions to middle grade horror. Very cool genre. <br/><br/>The first book was super creepy, and this one was equally so, if not more! The third book was my least favorite, but that’s okay. All were still good. <br/><br/>But this one was great. The ambiance, the monsters, the rescue, it was just such an immersive story with the carnival. And the elevator scene? Chilling. <br/><br/>But as much as I adored the first 197 pages, the last eight were… so, so rushed. And far too easy. I felt like I got no resolution for all the fear and angst and heroism that actually happened in the rest of the book. Was Arden on some kind of length constraint? This is why I can’t bring myself to give that fifth star. <br/><br/>Overall, this story feels VERY much like Coraline. Missing children, a series of objects hidden in multiple locations to escape, people literally being turned into dolls. I think this book is Arden’s nod to that book, given that the book actually makes a cameo appearance in this story."

"literally so good and super scary"