Review -- The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

The Little Stranger

by Sarah Waters

Riverhead Books, 2009

510 pages

*I received this book from the publisher for review.

Summary: Taking place after WWII in the English manor house of Hundreds Hall, Dr. Faraday befriends the Ayres family as their home continues to deteriorate and odd things begin to happen. As each family member begins to hear, feel, and see strange and unexplainable things, Dr. Faraday acts as a confidante and tries to help the family understand what is happening to them.

Review: The Little Stranger is an amazingly well written and descriptive historical ghost story. Sarah Waters does a great job immersing the reader into the lonely and depressed world of the Ayres' family and Hundreds Hall. She also does a fantastic job of creating well rounded characters that you see develop throughout the story. Though many of the supporting character I very much enjoyed (especially Betty and Roddie) there were a few characters that I had a hard time liking towards the end (Dr. Faraday, Mrs. Ayres, Caroline). I especially had a hard time with Dr. Faraday and Caroline's relationship, he being so naive and she being with him for the wrong reasons. Overall, this book was a good read, but being so character driven and detail oriented the pace and plot was quite slow. My favorite parts were when odd and (sometimes) terrible things would happen to the family that were unexplainable. At those times, Waters had me on the edge of my seat. Rating: ***1/2 out of 5.

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