Book Review: The Small Hand by Susan Hill

 Hello, 

It's cold and dark today, so I hope you can go and grab a blanket and get cosy. Today is Halloween after all, and what better way to celebrate than by reading a spooky story. 

Today's review is exactly that. The Small Hand is a ghost story first published in 2010 by Susan Hill, the author of the famous horror story The Woman In Black.

I first saw this story only a few days ago, sitting merrily in the Oxfam Bookshop window. I can not resist a good ghost story and I first saw the beautiful embossed blue cover and thought "It can't be.. It is! Another ghost story!" 

I brought it straight away with a Victorian collection of ghost stories I also found - strangely linked to this, as in both antiquarian's are featured. This Victorian collection is a little harder to read, but this story is a perfectly formed and accessible ghost story. It follows Adam Snow, a rare book seller as he stumbles upon a derelict house one evening. The house is overgrown, dilapidated, disowned but he cannot help but approach. As he reaches the front door, the sense of a child's hand slipping into his overcomes him and the story is Adam understanding that this presence will not leave him. 

I love this story as it is not horror, not graphically scary, but eerie and spooky. Scenes of normality as interspersed with dreams and dread. We see the story of an ordinary man, to which nothing out of the ordinary has happened before, become obsessed with the ghost of a child reaching out to him. What we don't know is if this presence is gentle or sinister and this is what makes the tale so captivating. 

I loved the scenes of nature in this book and like almost every ghost story I've read, flowers and plants feature heavily. As if nature itself can be good or evil, with a fine line in between. 

As a disclaimer, the topic of suicide features quite a few times and could be triggering for those with certain mental health struggles, so do bare this in mind before reading. 

That being said, I loved this story. It was just long enough to keep me hooked but short enough that I could read it in only a few hours whilst brown autumn leaves swept around me. 

If you read it, do let me know your thoughts. 

Happy Halloween!

Molly