Tabitha King is the wife of Stephen King and a fine, fine author in her own right. As a kid, after I’d read through Mr. King’s oeuvre to date, I dived into what I could find of her work. And I really liked it! Whereas Uncle Stevie goes for flat-out horror, Tabby aims for maximum…discomfort. Her work is unsettling, not scary.

Honestly, I think that’s worse.

I had never heard of Small World, but I came across it at a local library fundraiser and picked it up. And oh…my…god. This book.

This book!

The prose itself is languid in that way of seventies and eighties prose. A lot of descriptive writing that is quite good, but not usually seen any more. But the premise of the book is so utterly bizarre and the execution so deeply, deeply disconcerting… I don’t even know how to feel about it! It’s just icky. In the best way!

In a nutshell: The grown daughter of a former president is obsessed with dollhouses. And then she meets a disgraced scientist who has invented a gadget that shrinks things. The story goes exactly where you think…but by pathways you don’t expect, and with details and elements that skirt the edge of horror and careen headlong into outright mind-fuckery.

The book is out of print, but check around the used bookstores of the analog and digital varieties: If you can get your hands on a copy, check it out!

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