Review: Dead Voices by Katherine Arden

BOOK STATS

Rating: ☆☆☆☆
Title: Dead Voices
Author: Katherine Arden
Series: Small Spaces #2
Genre: Paranormal
Audience: Middle Grade
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: Renee Dorian
Length: 5 hours (256 pages)
Publisher: Listening Library; G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers
Release Date: August 26, 2019
Source: Library (Libby app)
Recommended for fans of:

SYNOPSIS

Bestselling author Katherine Arden returns with another creepy, spine-tingling adventure in this follow-up to the critically acclaimed Small Spaces.

Having survived sinister scarecrows and the malevolent smiling man in Small Spaces, newly minted best friends Ollie, Coco, and Brian are ready to spend a relaxing winter break skiing together with their parents at Mount Hemlock Resort. But when a snowstorm sets in, causing the power to flicker out and the cold to creep closer and closer, the three are forced to settle for hot chocolate and board games by the fire.

Ollie, Coco, and Brian are determined to make the best of being snowed in, but odd things keep happening. Coco is convinced she has seen a ghost, and Ollie is having nightmares about frostbitten girls pleading for help. Then Mr. Voland, a mysterious ghost hunter, arrives in the midst of the storm to investigate the hauntings at Hemlock Lodge. Ollie, Coco, and Brian want to trust him, but Ollie’s watch, which once saved them from the smiling man, has a new cautionary message: BEWARE.

With Mr. Voland’s help, Ollie, Coco, and Brian reach out to the dead voices at Mount Hemlock. Maybe the ghosts need their help–or maybe not all ghosts can or should be trusted.

Dead Voices is a terrifying follow-up to Small Spaces with thrills and chills galore and the captive foreboding of a classic ghost story.

MY THOUGHTS

Dead Voices was just as creepy and spooky as Small Spaces. I enjoyed the addition of Coco’s POV to Ollie’s; it was nice to get another perspective (and it was necessary to tell this story) and gain more insights into her character.

The haunted boarding school turned isolated ski lodge was such a creepy setting, because the renovations to the building did nothing to change its ghostly inhabitants. Small Spaces felt very influenced by urban legends, but Dead Voices was more of a traditional ghost story.

I found the conflict to be a bit too similar to the first book’s encounter with the smiling man, but I still really enjoyed this book and I can’t wait for the next book in this series.