Deep woodlands exert a perennial hold over the imagination. Small Angels, the new novel by Lauren Owen, plunges its readers into a richly weird woodland setting where the modern world gives way to something darker and much more deadly. Eight years after her acclaimed debut, 2014’s The Quick, Lauren has delivered another lush gothic tale that draws readers inexorably into its stories of ghosts, romance, revenge and reawakening.
Small Angels begins when outsider Chloe comes to the village next to Mockbeggar Woods for her wedding to local man Sam. In true folkhorror style, there’s something very disturbing in the woods, which the superstitious villagers won’t enter. ‘I think the countryside has a lot of scope for horror and if something goes wrong and you haven’t got people on call, or it’s a small community, there’s a lot of potential there for horror,’ says Lauren. ‘You can get away with so much more in the countryside.’
Where The Quick was largely set in a gothic vision of Victorian London, Small Angels’ horror comes from its rural setting, and the strange family, the Gonnes, who live by Mockbeggar Woods and keep its secrets. ‘I think folk horror was quite a big part of what I had in mind,’ says Lauren. ‘I love the idea of local ghost stories and local horrors. I spent most of my childhood close to York so ghosts and superstitions clinging to a place always struck a chord with me.’
Likeable, valiant Chloe
