Empty Smiles (Small Spaces Quartet)

I hate clowns. And I've been waiting anxiously for killer clowns, because they would make this creepy ride complete. This book delivered some creeptastic clowns, to say the least! Another wild ride that's part creature feature, part survival story, and a whole lot of crafty and cunning 11 yr olds managing to stay one step ahead of the bad guys. I hope we see more of the smiling man, because I still have questions for him...

The final instalment of the Small Spaces Quartet was, for the most part, fantastic. Muck like Dead Voice, this book had me on the edge of my seat with horror, suspense, and moments that straight up gave me chills. Creepy dolls, creepy clowns, and a carnival of horrors you could almost smell. All in all, a solid book and decent ending to the series.

--Slight Spoilers Beyond This Point--

However, I did have an issue with the ending, being it felt completely cut short. Up until the final chapter, I was fully invested in the race against the clock to find Ollie and the 3 keys before before dawn. I was soon shocked to discovered that within moments after Brian and Coco arrived at the demonic carnival, the book ended. It felt as if there were at least 5 chapters missing. While this didn't ruin the book for me, it was a bit of a let down to have the last fourth of the book just chapter previews for the first two books of the series. The third key they were supposed to find ended up being a cop-out, and all other characters lost their memories of the events that happened, so even the tearful reunion felt down-played. I just can't seem to wrap my head around it since the rest of the book was so good!!! Was there dead line issues or something?

I find it very hard to leave a three star rating because I truly loved the other books/series. I was loving this fourth & final book, it was creepy & such great story telling until the end. The end was a total rush leaving me confused a little & definitely disappointed. I really wish it was extended further, like more info on the Smiling Man had he grown to like Ollie & cared for her that’s why he warned her about not going out at night/not safe/frowning when she went in the Haunted House cause he knew it was dangerous? Maybe even fast forward few months or weeks later happy life with Ollie & the gang etc, knowing that this is the FINAL book, I just wish it didn’t end the way it did.

Long story short: Everything up until the ending is fantastic, creepy & exciting, still full of adventure, but the ending is totally rushed & left me thinking “Wait, that’s it?”

To the author, Katherine Arden, and the publisher: Please chalk up this outline of a story misleadingly published as a book to a product of pandemic-era rushed deadlines, and write and publish, respectively, the "real" conclusion to the Small Spaces Quartet. Maybe do it as an adult-level book (as opposed to YA) to provide an excuse for the re-do. My guess is that there were themes involving Ollie and the Smiling Man that were deemed inappropriate for YA, and the removal of such themes resulted in this gut-job of a novel. Re-writing Empty Smiles as an adult-level novel should result in a satisfying conclusion to the quartet. YA readers who read Small Spaces when it was published are likely at an adult reading level by now, so it makes sense to ramp up the writing level as well (as was done with Harry Potter). Grow with the readers and produce the book that I imagine Katherine wanted to (and perhaps initially did) write.

The Small Spaces Quartet started out incredibly strong with Small Spaces - one of my favorite books ever. I recommend reading Small Spaces as a stand-alone book (MAYBE coupled with Dead Voices, which is decent, but not as good as Small Spaces), as each of the ensuing three books in the series is a step down from the prior book in the series.

I was very, very let down by Empty Smiles - horrible to rush the concluding book of a series that started out so very well. Empty Smiles had so much potential, but the end result was more of an outline than a fully explored story. As others have pointed out, the ending was shockingly rushed. I believe it to be worse than the ending to the television series Lost, which previously held the record as the biggest let-down ending of all time. I read the physical book (hardcover, first printing of first edition), and there were 1/4 of an inch of pages remaining when I came to what I later discovered to be the last page (seems wrong to call it "the end" or "the conclusion") of Empty Smiles, so I thought that all was well - UNTIL I TURNED THE PAGE AND SAW THAT THE REMAINING PAGES WERE CHAPTERS REPRINTED FROM THE PRIOR THREE BOOKS IN THE QUARTET! Expletive! Way to let a reader down and then slap them in the face.

Anyway, definitely read Small Spaces and, if you like it, consider reading Dead Voices. The final two books in the quartet are skippable. They only serve to taint the reader's enjoyment of the first two books of the quartet (Small Spaces and Dead Voices).