Reviews

The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

andreayari's review against another edition

3.0

A gothic novel, as I am now to understand what that means. Definitely crawled into my subconscious and scared it. Also was very good about creating a sense of not knowing what’s going on. Well written.

eleanor_rose22's review against another edition

mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

Very well written but just not that engaging and I felt the first 200 pages could have been much more condensed. It felt far too long to hold the suspense of a good ghost story, for me personally, and also just wasn’t my type of era/storyline. I also didn’t really like any of the characters: Dr Faraday is self-righteous and manipulative, Caroline is defined only by her plainness and forthright attitude, I felt so bad for Rod. I suppose it’s technically good and deploys suspense subtly and plays with the contemporary ideas of mental illness/poltergeists well,  but I wouldn’t have finished this if I didn’t have to for book club. 

Also NO verification on what actually happened wtf, I assume it was all Betty?!? Or was Dr Faraday the destructive ghost all along? So unsatisfying

a_beautiful_soup's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

books_with_lauren's review against another edition

4.0

Read my review here: http://laurencaton.wordpress.com/2011/03/06/the-little-stranger-review/

nyctheaterreader's review against another edition

challenging dark sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

emmaruth13's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

hjf95's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective relaxing slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

arelina's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Really tough read, but once I got into it there was a nice almost rhythm to it. 
It felt like almost nothing happened for the first half of the book but second half & last act were good. 
I think the writing style is really wordy(?), which I’m not used to but I do think I liked it. 

annisa_anggiana's review against another edition

mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

geenyas's review against another edition

3.0

Not your modern over-hyped ghost story. Slow-moving, and to be honest, many readers will find the payoff at the end unworthy of the effort. Still, well-written, evocative and subtly complex, it suited me okay for a bedside book.