Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Smallest Thing
    The Smallest Thing
    The Smallest Thing
    Audiobook8 hours

    The Smallest Thing

    Written by Lisa Manterfield

    Narrated by Charlie Sanderson

    4/5

    ()

    Switch to ebook

    About this audiobook

    The very last thing 17-year-old Emmott Syddall wants is to turn out like her dad. She’s descended from ten generations who never left their dull English village, and there’s no way she’s going to waste a perfectly good life that way. She’s moving to London and she swears she is never coming back. 

    But when the unexplained deaths of her neighbors force the government to quarantine the village, Em learns what it truly means to be trapped. Now, she must choose. Will she pursue her desire for freedom, at all costs, or do what’s best for the people she loves: her dad, her best friend Deb, and, to her surprise, the mysterious man in the HAZMAT suit? 

    Inspired by the historical story of the plague village of Eyam, this contemporary tale of friendship, community, and impossible love weaves the horrors of recent news headlines with the intimate details of how it feels to become an adult—and fall in love—in the midst of tragedy. 

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSteel Rose Press
    Release dateAug 6, 2019
    ISBN9780998696942

    Related to The Smallest Thing

    Related audiobooks

    YA Coming of Age For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Devotional

      Sep 1, 2021

      Devotional
      11 min read

    • Article

      Summer Beach Reads

      Jan 10, 2021

      Summer Beach Reads
      7 min read

    • Article

      Pulling Up Azaleas

      Jan 10, 2023

      Throughout their lives, women are showered with bouquets of roses on numerous splendid occasions. But men? They’re only given flowers at their funeral. It’s a harsh world for men, as our lives tend to go unappreciated until death. Such was the case a

      22 min read

    • Article

      Rising Sign

      Feb 4, 2021

      Rising Sign
      10 min read

    • Article

      Begin Again

      Jun 14, 2022

      My grandfather came to live with me. There was nowhere else for him to go. What had happened to all his children? Death, decay, exile—I hardly know. My own parents died of pain. But I must not be too gloomy, at the beginning, or you will leave me, an

      6 min read

    • Article

      The Man I Should Have Married

      Dec 29, 2019

      The Man I Should Have Married
      11 min read

    • Article

      Seven Poems

      May 1, 2023

      There was a boy even stranger than I waswho’d call me in the eveningto see if I’d come to Scouts. Something in mehesitated. Then one morning during eighth grade English we got hall passesand did it in a stall in the bathroomtaking turns over the john

      3 min read

    • Article

      New Poetry by Shauna Barbosa

      Mar 12, 2018

      New Poetry by Shauna Barbosa
      2 min read

    • Article

      Longer on Moon

      Sep 22, 2022

      Longer on Moon
      19 min read

    • Article

      Who Was That Girl?

      Apr 21, 2021

      Who Was That Girl?
      7 min read

    • Article

      Diary of My Leg Hair

      Dec 8, 2022

      Diary of My Leg Hair
      21 min read

    • Article

      The Leather Coat

      Apr 4, 2024

      The Leather Coat
      6 min read

    • Article

      My Mother’s Stalker

      Jan 16, 2024

      My Mother’s Stalker
      24 min read

    • Article

      A PRECIOUS Moment In Time

      Jun 17, 2019

      There’s something about Lambrook Hall that always draws me back and I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve been here. I don’t really care if it’s hundreds, to be honest. I can’t resist it. I’m in the dining room again now. Not the ballroom or the lib

      6 min read

    • Article

      Crime Wave

      May 10, 2019

      Crime Wave
      13 min read

    • Article

      A Puzzle Of Nostalgia

      Aug 26, 2022

      A Puzzle Of Nostalgia
      5 min read

    • Article

      Summer Reads

      Dec 30, 2019

      Summer Reads
      7 min read

    • Article

      Every CLOUD

      Aug 31, 2022

      Every CLOUD
      6 min read

    • Article

      Musings On My Father

      Aug 8, 2022

      Musings On My Father
      5 min read

    • Article

      Islanders

      Oct 13, 2022

      Islanders
      8 min read

    • Article

      Two Poems

      Jan 1, 2021

      Light delimits the darkness as snowgives shape to the silence of winter trees.Above a rooftop, the shadow of illness hoversindistinguishable from the wraithsof common chimney smoke.Strip skin from flesh, flesh from boneto behold the comical, adumbrat

      4 min read

    • Article

      ‘Cygnet’: Featured Fiction from Season Butler

      Jun 25, 2019

      A excerpt from Butler's debut coming-of-age novel, set in an appealingly rich world with quirky, flawed characters and a dramatic oceanfront landscape. The post ‘Cygnet’: Featured Fiction from Season Butler appeared first on The Millions.

      4 min read

    • Article

      Life Beyond Zoom

      Dec 3, 2020

      Life Beyond Zoom
      7 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Smallest Thing

    4/5

    8 ratings3 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      ***This book was reviewed via XPresso Blog ToursEmmott Syddall wants nothing more than to leave the tiny English village of Eyam, that has been home to countless generations of her family. She's desperate to escape to London, with her boyfriend Ro, though Ro seems more reluctant to leave. Emmott’s father wants her to stay, eventually taking over the family tour business. Before she can leave, however, disaster strikes in the form of a deadly plague, and the quarantine that follows. Trapped in Eyam, Emmott, and her fellow villagers struggle to survive. This is a trying time, bringing out the true nature of each person. For Emmott's, it is a time of intense growth, as the dross in her life is burned away in the fires of plague. Through it all, Emmott loses people to betrayal and death alike, but she finds herself, and her true calling, and a new friend and ally in the young Red Cross relief worker named Aiden.I enjoy stories of pandemics and epidemics. These are among the most terrifying of the 'man Vs nature’ category. These stories speak to our deep, ancestral memory of the great slate-wipers, and the fear and knowledge that they will happen again. The reminder that humans really aren't top of the chain, and that death is random, an implacable reality that can strike any of us, at any time. There is no true villain, for virii simply do what they do. There’s no malice involved. Manterfield captured the feelings of despair, fear, and rage quarantine can engender. The still-healthy are trapped with the sick and dying, forced to watch loved ones suffer and die, all the while knowing they could be next. They are watched over by dread spectres, people in Haz-Mat suits, designed to protect them. Just seeing these suits often creates such feelings of fear because you know it means *something bad has happened*. It might not be contagion, but it's never a good sign. That fear is captured here. These people in their suits are as terrifying to the Eyam residents as their predecessors were to plague victims. Plague doctors’ get-ups were designed to block contagion as well, though the full grasp of transmission was lacking then. (I find them quite innovative for the times).(Insert plague Dr)I loved how the reader's emotions were drawn out via comparisons, such as death being an off switch on a remote whose batteries are then removed and thrown away, and through beautiful description. ‘The camera pans across the rows of stone cottages, the vivid hanging baskets, the church, the bus shelter, the school, and the tea rooms, but slashes of cold, hard metal interrupt the scene with the sterile invasive colors of Armageddon.’ Emmott’s thoughts on organised religion mirror mine… I hate the phrase “God called them back” when referring to deceased. She summed up my feelings nicely. Was God bored? Death and it's randomness sucks. Don't give me platitudes. I loved how Emmott's relationship with Aiden developed. The eyes are the window to the soul, it's said, and powerful conveyors of emotion and intimacy. When that is all you can see of a person's face (or body), you get to know them for what their soul reflects without opinion being tainted by their looks.Oh, squee! The modern plague doctors have a computer called 'Sherlock’.My only qualms were how childish and selfish Emmott came across at times. Much of this can be explained by how young, and relatively sheltered she was, so even that did add to authenticity. That she tempered that, and had such profound growth over the course of the story made it easier to deal with, though at times during the first third of the book I really wanted to thwack her. I appreciated that this was the author's re-imagining of a historical true story, updated for the modern times. She explains a bit about historic Eyam, and how those people *chose* to impose quarantine upon themselves to stop their pocket of Bubonic Plague from spreading. That is an amazing level of foresight and bravery. It made me interested in learning more of historic Eyam, and curious as to what prompted the author to chose it as a focus.????? Highly recommended, especially if you enjoy man vs nature stories.
    • 4/5
      Emmott Syddall wants nothing more than to leave her small town and move to London. She does not want to become another dead Syddall buried in the small Eyam cemetery. Emmott make plans to move to London with her boyfriend, Roland right before her 18th birthday. However, before she can get out of Eyam, her neighbors begin dying. At first, it looks like a weird flu, but no one really knows, and then, Eyam is quarantined. There is no leaving, the exits are surrounded by military patrol. Relief workers in yellow haz-mat suits flood the town and begin asking questions. No one wants to go out and about or interact with anyone else. Except for Emmott, who just wants to escape and her father, who just wants to help his neighbors. Emmott's mind begins to change about leaving when a suited up relief worker named Aiden begins visiting.The Smallest Thing is a creative re-imagining of the self-imposed quarantine of the village of Eyam in the 1660's due to the plague. At that point in time, the villagers of Eyam were seen as selfless, heroic- allowing the plague to ravage them, saving countless others. In modern times, with social media and aggressive TV reporters, the town is a spectacle, the victims are no more than statistics. Emmott is very easy to identify with, restless and burgeoning on adulthood, her story is one of growth and finding her place. I enjoyed watching her change her opinion of her father from a fearful man who is tying her down, to a hero who allowed her to grow. The virus also interested me, this was not just a resurgence of the plague, but something unknown, brought about possibly by climate change and increased human movement. The romance in this felt just right, not rushed, not insta-love, but definitely intensified by the situation. If not for the fact that it was a haz-mat suit, the fact that Emmott saw nothing but Aiden's eyes felt almost exotic their connection was based on something deeper than physical attraction when Emmott wants nothing more than to connect with someone. Overall, a heartfelt story of devastation and how a community can pull through. This book was received for free in return for an honest review.
    • 5/5
      I received this ebook in exchange for an honest review on ebooksforreview.com.Emmott, a 17 year old girl, is dying to break away from her village and make a life for herself in London. Her family has lived for generations in the same village, actually most people simply never leave. Every family expects their children to stay and pass on the village's history. Emmott has a plan to take off with her boyfriend Ro-she has a job and apartment already secured. Mysterious deaths begin happening and no one knows what's happening until one day-the entire village is quarantined off-making her break impossible. Her mother and sister are away visiting family, leaving her and her father alone. Emmott has never felt like she belongs there-except for one good friend and Ro, she's felt alone. Her father feels it's his calling to take care of the entire village-which leaves them dangerously close daily to contamination. Whatever this virus is-it's deadly. Emmott struggles because she needs her dad and cannot understand why he can't just focus on her and staying healthy.I hesitate to say much more on this. I was pleasantly surprised by this book because I was riveted from the very start. There are more very important characters but hate to spoil it!Will Emmott and her father survive this nightmare? Will Emmott ever taste the freedom she so craves?