Clocking out at 224 pages, SEE HOW SMALL will nag you and bother you, and haunt you far out of proportion to its page count. It doesn’t fit comfortably into any particular genre, though it has elements of mystery, horror, the supernatural, romance and straight fiction. You will want to scream in spots when reading it, and you’ll be saddened by other pages. It is as dark a book as you are likely to read this year.

SEE HOW SMALL opens with a senseless act of violence with a real world model, that being a still-unsolved multiple murder that occurred in Austin, Texas, in 1991. An ice cream parlor is the target of what is an arson fire, apparently for hire. Note the use of the term “apparent” here; a lot of what happens in the book approaches “apparent” or “maybe” or “sort of.” What occurs shimmers around the edges, so maybe it’s happening, maybe it isn’t. Witnesses are unreliable. Backs are turned in videos at precise moments. Rumor and innuendo are present. Maybe.

"Clocking out at 224 pages, SEE HOW SMALL will nag you and bother you, and haunt you far out of proportion to its page count.... It is as dark a book as you are likely to read this year."

Three employees, all high school students, are still working inside the establishment when the arsonists arrive. We already know that the perpetrators are not going to let them go, because the spirits of the girls have already been introduced. There are all sorts of “whys” in the book. Why didn’t the arsonists wait until the young ladies left? Why did they harm them? Why was an ice cream parlor the target? There is a potential answer to the last question presented here, but it’s never fully answered. There are two potential witnesses, one of whom is a war veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, the other being a single father who may or may not be involved in what occurred.

People feel guilt, sorrow, anger and suspicion, but everyone is helpless. None are more so than the three girls, who don’t seem to know much more than anyone else and really don’t seem to care, either. Their occasional casual intervention into the story is arguably the story’s most chilling aspect of all, as the narrative bounces back and forth in time from the present to before and during the arson. If you’ve ever wondered if the universe is either cruel or indifferent, this book answers the question: it’s both.

Scott Blackwood is not a debut author. This is his third novel, and he has written two nonfiction works concerning the Paramount Records label, as well as a number of short stories. SEE HOW SMALL is unlike any of those books, or anything you are likely to read in the near future. It takes its title from a statement in the narrative: “see how small the things that separate us.” Don’t expect answers to anything, but the questions will haunt you.