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The Little Stranger

By Sarah Waters

(61)

| Hardcover | 9781844086016

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THE LITTLE STRANGER by Sarah Waters

Review by Jana L. Perskie (DEC 19, 2009) With The Little Stranger author Sarah Waters departs from the settings, characters and style of her first three historical novels, Tipping the Velvet, Affinity, and Fingersmith, all set in Victorian England. N ... (read full critics)

mostlyfiction published on Thu, 30 Sep 2010

Haunted by shame

It is 1947; the nation is exhausted by victory, and neither the National Health Service nor the National Trust has yet come along to pick up the pieces. The scars of war heroes are fresh and great country houses are battered from the military's occup ... (read full critics)

guardian.co.uk published on Fri, 24 Sep 2010

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13 Reviews

1 person find this helpful

Creepy at times, and impossible to put down after the first couple of chapters. I was waiting for a massive twist at the end but instead (and not disapointingly) came away with questions that will keep me thinking long after I put it down. A must read.

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Lunarossa said on Jun 17, 2010 | Add your feedback

1 person find this helpful

I thought this book sounded like a nice atmospheric book about a haunted house. I was expecting more of a spooky story than I got there was little besides poltergeists in this house, but once I put my expectations I really enjoyed the story. It was a very oppressive story about decay. Decay of a onc ... (continue)

I thought this book sounded like a nice atmospheric book about a haunted house. I was expecting more of a spooky story than I got there was little besides poltergeists in this house, but once I put my expectations I really enjoyed the story. It was a very oppressive story about decay. Decay of a once glorious building and the mental decay of a once glorious family. It was quite claustrophobic and mysterious. Oddly unlike other book by Waters which just felt too modern this one actually felt like it was set earlier than it actually was. It reminded me of something written by Evelyn Waugh between the two world wars rather than after WWII.
I borrowed this from one of the lesbians I used to work with at the V&A and oddly this is a Sarah Waters book without any lesbians in it. I guess sometimes successful lesbian authors need to write about ugly straight people instead of attractive women so they don't get stereotyped, but it can be a bit disappointing. Like the Somerset Maughn here the main character kept pointing out how plain and ugly the woman was, to almost a similar point of distraction, even when he was supposedly falling in love with her. I'm not sure I liked the characters all that much, I felt sorry for them and their obsessions with the house but I found I wanted to keep reading despite this. While not a lesbian, the main male doctor did have a similar feeling to the butch characters in other of Waters books.
The book felt rather light on plot, I felt I wanted a bit more to happen but it was much more about creating atmosphere than anything else. And that it did very well. While not a ghost story as such, or a supernatural tale, it was definitely spooky.

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Robot-mel said on Oct 3, 2009 | Add your feedback

1 person find this helpful

oh, the inexhausted inventiveness of publishing executives. the book jacket, spotless new, is printed to look torn and creased, as if it was old. what for, pray?
anyhow, nothing you couldn't find in "the turn of the screw".

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Elsastella said on Jun 20, 2009 | Add your feedback

I am glad I read it, but I can't say I enjoyed it as much as Sarah Waters' other books, probably because I don’t really like creepy stories.
The writing, as ever, was beautiful to read and entirely transported me to the settings she created in this novel. Despite my dislike of the boring and pathe ... (continue)

I am glad I read it, but I can't say I enjoyed it as much as Sarah Waters' other books, probably because I don’t really like creepy stories.
The writing, as ever, was beautiful to read and entirely transported me to the settings she created in this novel. Despite my dislike of the boring and pathetic narrator, the mansion and the characters are portrayed so well that I just couldn’t put it down before I had finished it.

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momiji1020 said on Aug 2, 2011 about the Others edition | Add your feedback

Too long

A not very compelling ghost story that seemed to go on for ever without getting anywhere. I was glad when I got the the end and wished I had stopped earlier

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lankylad said on Jul 8, 2011 about the Others edition | Add your feedback