Folk horror. Gothic thriller. Crime novel, a bit, maybe. You can’t readily pigeonhole Small Fires, but what you can say is that this is a remarkable work of the imagination. Just as the likes of William Blake and JRR Tolkien envisaged strange, distant realms and created whole mythologies for the people they wrote about, Ronnie Turner has concocted a place with its own weird folklore – a series of interwoven stories and superstitions, which serve to suppress a small, scared, isolated population.
The place doesn’t really have a name, but it’s an island off the Scottish coast somewhere. On the mainland, the island is referred to as God-Forgotten. The people don’t have an identity either, they’re just called the Folk. Rarely does anyone leave, but the Folk do absorb incomers hungrily and whether they survive or not… well, that’s open to question.
Into their midst step Lily and Della Pedley, sisters from Cornwall who seem made for this kind of environment. They’ve come to hide from their past, after being let off for the murder of their parents on a technicality.
We don’t know they did it, or whether one is a killer and the other has been tarnished by that, but quickly we get the impression that young, slight, beautiful blonde Lily is under the thumb of Della, who is bigger, five years older and seems to have a darkness about her. Despite their differences, the two are tethered by shared trauma. The Folk are drawn to Della, who relishes their stories and has a few frightening ones of her own, which she has told Lily over the years.
Lily has been deeply affected by Della’s stories, and the micro and macro aggressions she has suffered. But she has a practical mind and doesn’t believe that the Devil actually fell to Earth here, nor that he lives within the soil of this barren island. Stories of the Warden, whom nobody has really seen, don’t phase her but she does recognise that what the Folk believe could be a threat. Each year the Warden is said to Harvest three souls from the island’s population, and Harvest is due.
Silas, one of the Folk, barman at the Moloch Inn, is different. He seems free of whatever oppresses the Folk and is soft-spoken, wise and considerate. He empathises with Lily because he too had an abusive sister. Where Gaia went is a bit of a mystery, but Lily and Silas are drawn together. When three girls arrive from the mainland and Della begins whispering her stories to them, Lily and Silas fear the worst.
Small Fires – so titled because small fires within the earth and within people are a motif throughout – is a chilling, atmospheric and purposefully confusing read. As mentioned, it’s full of old tales, which often involve cruelty to children, by adults and other children alike. They’re put in the sea. They’re abandoned on the moors. One lives in a well. Throats are cut. Some of the kids are absorbed into trees.
With all these freaky legends – some from the classics, some invented by the author – you’ll quickly drift away from wondering whether the Pedley girls murdered mum and dad. Instead you’ll be immersed in their unusual new setting and worrying what might happen to them.
At first, it’s hard to tell when the book is set. The old stories and archaic phrases throw us back into the past – the 1930s, maybe. The 1830s? There’s even a witch, though maybe the 1630s is pushing it. But then someone whips out a laptop and listens to a podcast, which feels a little odd. Still, it’s very distant, lost in time.
When the killing starts, it is a little removed from our main characters, so the suspense builds gradually. The mystery here is in discovering who’s really pulling the strings on this island. We’re led one way, then another and Turner uses varying narrative perspectives and flashbacks, peppered with just enough ambiguity and foreshadowing. It’s perplexing and tantalising at the same time, and the big twists ahead are very satisfying, especially if you’re able to predict them ahead of time.
Not every crime fiction lover will take to Small Fires. There’s not quite enough suspense to make it a thriller, and if you’re looking for police, detectives and forensic evidence, well… However, there’s plenty of manipulation, murder and peril, and you must try to identify the culprits.
Folk horror is huge at the moment and this book wins big when it comes to atmosphere, taking us away to a creepy corner of the world and to the shadowy places within ourselves, where small fires may burn but may also be extinguished. I would read this one over again, and can easily imagine it as a film or TV series, shot a little like Blood on the Devil’s Claw.
Also see Looking Glass Sound by Catriona Ward.
Orenda Books
Print/Kindle
£6.49
CFL Rating: 5 Stars
Wonderful review, thanks for sharing your thoughts