Reviews

Fascinatingly different from how I thought it would be. I'm glad I read ahead of time that it was a slow burn, or else I might have lost interest. Because it was almost halfway through the book by the time

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truly supernatural events started occurring. And I thought from there, the action and suspense would really start to pick up, but it didn't. Instead, we have a very realistically paced "final girl" type story, where everyone but one person is gradually picked off. With this pacing, I felt like I could really understand all of them. I saw how joyful (albeit lonely) the family was to start off with, and how utterly dejected they became after this presence overtook the house. I found myself (by around the point of the doctors' dance) thinking, "I genuinely believe this romantic plot. I've seen all the subtle things over time that would have made two people like Caroline and the doctor fall in love, and I'm glad for them." And it was all the more realistic and heartbreaking that Caroline, overwhelmed with her own mother's ill mental health and feeling rushed into marriage by the doctor, would have pulled away and rediscovered who she is.

I think I would have liked a little more suspense or touches of the supernatural (aside from just "a bad feeling about the house") but all around still a very good story.

avl_book_girl's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

3.75

d_sebek's review against another edition

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3.0

Technically well-written but it was too much Brontë and not enough Poe…wanted a little more ghost story and less English country life.

antonia_reads_01's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

jcpdiesel21's review against another edition

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3.0

A heavily atmospheric throwback, but ultimately a bit unsatisfying. Waters sets the stage nicely for her story at the creepy setting of Hundreds Hall with the mysterious Ayres family as residents and Faraday acting as reader surrogate to observe the various events as they unfold. However, the pacing is very slow, bordering on excruciating at times, and the book is unnecessarily long, which makes it feel like very little actually occurs over the course of the entire novel. The ending left me with some food for thought with regard to the narrator and the exploration of evil and class as themes is interesting, but overall I found this to be a bit lacking.

stevie_blue's review against another edition

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challenging slow-paced

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No

2.75

Judgy judgy judgy, I can honestly say I wholeheartedly dislike the main character. I disliked the family as well, but this is in part because it was told through the main's eyes.

If this was a modern setting this guy would most definitely be the culprit. Wedging himself into the lives of the family, 'treating' them, having them sent away, and then marrying to take over everything. I never liked Caroline more than towards the end when she was standing up and speaking for herself.. but then of course she is 'irrational' according to the main. There were moments where I kinda believed he might love her but then he said something else that made me think he only wanted the estate and was seeing her as part of the deal. Maybe this was intended and maybe not, but I can't for the live of me think of another reason why he would want to be married within a month of someone dying and then live in the place where the person he supposedly loves has so many bad memories and didn't want to stay. I think if he had agreed to take her away, to his house or a new place, they might have been married (of course, this is working of the version where there is no ghost actually trying to kill the family..)

I think I would've liked the story better if it were told by a member of the family instead of this bitter outsider, who seems to believe he is entitled to everything and that at the same time everyone is looking down at him (whilst doing this exact thing himself to both the 'higher' and 'lower' class people that he interacts with.)

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