Small fires

Description

Suspected of murdering their parents, sisters Lily and Della flee to a strange, unnamed island in Scotland, and their arrival puts in motion a horrifying series of events? Literary suspense meets folk horror in 2025’s most original, mesmerising modern gothic masterpiece?
 
‘Clever, dark, and visceral ? a vivid tale that will stay with me for a very long time’ Jo Jakeman
 
 ‘Like Stephen King on crack ? the most accomplished book I’ve read this year. Dark, gothic as hell, and genuinely scary’ M W Craven, on So Pretty
  
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Evil runs through this cursed island
And these wicked sisters are about to make it burn…
 
When sisters Lily and Della Pedley are persecuted for the shocking murder of their parents, they flee from their home in Cornwall to a remote and unnamed island in Scotland – an island known for its strange happenings, but far away from the whispers and prying eyes of strangers.
 
Lily is terrified of what her sister will might do next, and she soon realises that they have arrived at a place where nothing is as it seems. A bitterness runs through the land like poison, and the stories told by the islanders seem to be far more than folklore.
 
Della settles in too easily, the island folk drawn to her strangeness, but Lily is plagued by odd and unsettling dreams, and as an annual festival draws nigh, she discovers that she has far more to fear than she could ever have imagined. Or does she??
 
Chilling, atmospheric and utterly hypnotic, Small Fires is a contemporary gothic novel that examines possession, generational trauma, female rage, and the perilous bonds of family – an unsettling reminder that the stories we tell can be deadly?

Midsommar meets Midnight Mass in a folk horror, modern gothic masterpiece.
 
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Praise for Ronnie Turner’s So Pretty
 
‘Beautifully written and a real page-turner’ C J Cooke
 
‘Dark, lyrical and intriguing’ Fiona Cummins
 
‘Eerily atmospheric, with brilliant characterisation ? really gets under your skin’ Culturefly

‘An utterly chilling psychological horror of modern-day witchcraft, possession, murder and madness’ Essie Fox
 
‘Compelling and dark – draws you in from the very first page’ Heather Darwent
 
‘Twisted, toxic and deeply dark, this gives off Needful Things vibes – and that ending is just *perfect*’ Lisa Hall
 
‘This book sucks you in from the first spine-tingling chapter and weaves a dark, twisted and compelling sense of foreboding’ Claire Allan
 

What readers are saying?
 
‘I’m shook. This book is a force ? a masterpiece’
 
‘An ending that left me slightly dumbstruck’
 
‘As delightful as it is dark, with beautiful turns of phrase that can be at once both buttery soft and sharp as a knife’
 
‘Intense, creepy and utterly chilling’
 
‘A story that will creep under your skin and leave you desperately unnerved’
  
‘Exactly what I look for in a gothic thriller!’
 
‘Deliciously dark’
 
‘It shook me to the core’
 
‘Dark, chilling, with a touch of genius’
 
‘Twisted and unnerving’
 
‘Beautiful and lyrical prose brings the setting to life and creates a pulsing tension’
 
‘This book creeps up on you?’
 
‘Captivating and claustrophobic’