The Little Stranger
Abundantly atmospheric and elegantly told, *The Little Stranger* is Sarah Waterss most thrilling and ambitious novel yet.
After her award-winning trilogy of victorian novels, sarah waters turned to the 1940s and wrote the night watch, a tender and tragic novel set against the backdrop of wartime britain shortlisted for both the orange and the man booker, it went straight to number one in the bestseller chart in a dusty post-war summer in rural warwickshire, a doctor is called to a patient at hundreds hall home to the ayres family for over two centuries, the georgian house, once grand and handsome, is now in decline, its masonry crumbling, its gardens choked with weeds, the clock in its stable yard permanently fixed at twenty to nine but are the ayreses haunted by something more sinister than a dying way of life little does dr faraday know how closely, and how terrifyingly, their story is about to become entwined with his prepare yourself from this wonderful writer who continues to astonish us, now comes a chilling ghost story.
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Community Reviews
Set in Warwickshire, England after World War II, The Little Stranger is a truly creepy read.
The narrator, Dr. Faraday, is a 40-year-old bachelor physician called to Hundreds Hall, a crumbling old mansion, to attend to one of its servant girls, 14-year-old Betty. He learns from her that she's faked this illness to get away from the house because she finds it a horrible, scary place, but can't really explain why.
After tending to Betty, he sits down to tea with the family - Mrs. Ayres, a widow, who seems to want to dreamily hold onto the past and is oblivious that the house is falling down around her; her son, Roderick, wounded in the war, a brooding type; and her daughter, Caroline, a "plain Jane" who doesn't go in for fancy dress and likes to read poetry or knock about in the garden. From this point the doctor begins a relationship with the family which will draw him further & further into their lives and their troubles with the house, and his life will be changed forever.
We learn that Faraday started out life as a nursery maid's son. His mother had actually worked at Hundreds Hall for a short period of time, and he remembered visiting the place when he was a child (and taking a piece of it with him as a souvenir, unbeknownst to anyone at the time...). Given his beginnings, and given that he's a "mere" doctor, it's symbolic of the times that he is even invited into a friendship with the Ayres, an old guard elite family, a relic of the past, still trying to hold onto their status. At times some of their old snobbery shines through and infuriates Faraday, but he grows to love them all.
Little by little, strange things start happening at the house - strange footsteps in the hall, unexplained scorch marks and scribblings in impossible places, things seemingly moving by themselves, doors closing & locking the inhabitant inside - and starts to drive them all mad. Faraday, with his doctor's scientific mind, tries to find a logical explanation for these events. But what is really going on? Is the house being haunted by Mrs. Ayres' first daughter, Susan, who died of diphtheria at 10?? Or is it something else??
A slow build with the creepiness. I kept waiting for the Scooby-Doo ending: "It was old man Withers!" "And I would've gotten away with it too, if it weren't for you meddling kids!"
The narrator, Dr. Faraday, is a 40-year-old bachelor physician called to Hundreds Hall, a crumbling old mansion, to attend to one of its servant girls, 14-year-old Betty. He learns from her that she's faked this illness to get away from the house because she finds it a horrible, scary place, but can't really explain why.
After tending to Betty, he sits down to tea with the family - Mrs. Ayres, a widow, who seems to want to dreamily hold onto the past and is oblivious that the house is falling down around her; her son, Roderick, wounded in the war, a brooding type; and her daughter, Caroline, a "plain Jane" who doesn't go in for fancy dress and likes to read poetry or knock about in the garden. From this point the doctor begins a relationship with the family which will draw him further & further into their lives and their troubles with the house, and his life will be changed forever.
We learn that Faraday started out life as a nursery maid's son. His mother had actually worked at Hundreds Hall for a short period of time, and he remembered visiting the place when he was a child (and taking a piece of it with him as a souvenir, unbeknownst to anyone at the time...). Given his beginnings, and given that he's a "mere" doctor, it's symbolic of the times that he is even invited into a friendship with the Ayres, an old guard elite family, a relic of the past, still trying to hold onto their status. At times some of their old snobbery shines through and infuriates Faraday, but he grows to love them all.
Little by little, strange things start happening at the house - strange footsteps in the hall, unexplained scorch marks and scribblings in impossible places, things seemingly moving by themselves, doors closing & locking the inhabitant inside - and starts to drive them all mad. Faraday, with his doctor's scientific mind, tries to find a logical explanation for these events. But what is really going on? Is the house being haunted by Mrs. Ayres' first daughter, Susan, who died of diphtheria at 10?? Or is it something else??
A slow build with the creepiness. I kept waiting for the Scooby-Doo ending: "It was old man Withers!" "And I would've gotten away with it too, if it weren't for you meddling kids!"
3.5 stars!
This is listed as horror, but imo, it's less about ~hauntings (although it does mention the possibility of one) and more about psychological breakdowns. We never find out if there's an actual ghost behind all the shit that goes down, but that wasn't really what drew me into the plot. For me, it was about the breakdown of a family post-war, a changing society, and the need to hang onto a past that no longer exists. The characters are frustrating, the setting is bleak, and the house felt alive to me. It very much read in the gothic tradition, which is the sort of thing I've been super into lately (that and dark academia, which is similar anyway!)
I thought the characters and the way that the story was framed was very interesting. It was told from the POV of an outsider who really wants to be part of the family. He's obsessed with the house and its history, and it's implied that it's because he remembers the house with its former glory as well and wants to hang onto that. He's from a different social class than the family, but suffers from the same issues. I also really liked the inclusion of the maid, which remains the most clear-headed (although she believes there's something haunting the family). She is another character looking in on the family because she belongs in lower social class and getting tangled with their shit.
The main character/narrator did super annoy me though. There were parts where he was such an asshole and acted like a typical man, especially when he refused to accept Caroline breaking off their engagement and just kept being like "You're not in your right mind." For someone who claims that he knows about mental breakdowns/psychology, he couldn't see that coming like an idiot LOL. He also spent so much time dismissing the idea that there was something supernatural at work. Not that I necessarily think that there was - and even the supernatural was more described as the unhappiness of the family sort of taking a form and haunting the family - but he refused to listen to it at all and was super condescending. He didn't care what Caroline wanted and was mad when she wanted to sell off the house. After everything that had happened, that is totally understandable, dude.
I was torn on how I felt about the family. They were very frustrating, but also I felt bad for them in a lot of ways. Mostly Caroline, but also the other family members. They clearly tried to carry on, but weren't able to, and the weight of that "responsibility" was what ultimately brought them down.
ALSO, I had to take off half a star because the dog died, which is extremely unacceptable.
Anyway, I enjoyed this book not because of the supernatural aspect (potentially supernatural), but because of the psychological exploration of the characters and the effects their psychology has on their lives.
This is listed as horror, but imo, it's less about ~hauntings (although it does mention the possibility of one) and more about psychological breakdowns. We never find out if there's an actual ghost behind all the shit that goes down, but that wasn't really what drew me into the plot. For me, it was about the breakdown of a family post-war, a changing society, and the need to hang onto a past that no longer exists. The characters are frustrating, the setting is bleak, and the house felt alive to me. It very much read in the gothic tradition, which is the sort of thing I've been super into lately (that and dark academia, which is similar anyway!)
I thought the characters and the way that the story was framed was very interesting. It was told from the POV of an outsider who really wants to be part of the family. He's obsessed with the house and its history, and it's implied that it's because he remembers the house with its former glory as well and wants to hang onto that. He's from a different social class than the family, but suffers from the same issues. I also really liked the inclusion of the maid, which remains the most clear-headed (although she believes there's something haunting the family). She is another character looking in on the family because she belongs in lower social class and getting tangled with their shit.
The main character/narrator did super annoy me though. There were parts where he was such an asshole and acted like a typical man, especially when he refused to accept Caroline breaking off their engagement and just kept being like "You're not in your right mind." For someone who claims that he knows about mental breakdowns/psychology, he couldn't see that coming like an idiot LOL. He also spent so much time dismissing the idea that there was something supernatural at work. Not that I necessarily think that there was - and even the supernatural was more described as the unhappiness of the family sort of taking a form and haunting the family - but he refused to listen to it at all and was super condescending. He didn't care what Caroline wanted and was mad when she wanted to sell off the house. After everything that had happened, that is totally understandable, dude.
I was torn on how I felt about the family. They were very frustrating, but also I felt bad for them in a lot of ways. Mostly Caroline, but also the other family members. They clearly tried to carry on, but weren't able to, and the weight of that "responsibility" was what ultimately brought them down.
ALSO, I had to take off half a star because the dog died, which is extremely unacceptable.
Anyway, I enjoyed this book not because of the supernatural aspect (potentially supernatural), but because of the psychological exploration of the characters and the effects their psychology has on their lives.
What a delightful and delicate old-fashioned spooky story! There were some grippingly scary moments but mostly it's atmospheric and full of historical detail and human frailty. I wasn't familiar with the author but will certainly look up her other novels. And now that I've reached the ambiguous ending I may have to reread this one with a different eye.
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