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A review by ultramarine316
The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
4.0
Readers going looking for capital H horror might be disappointed with this one but I found it very enjoyable and artfully done.
Hundred's Hall is a grand English Manor inhabited by a family of faded aristocrats who can't afford to maintain the house but can't bring themselves to give it up. Waters does an incredible job of evoking the time period and for the first few chapters, it's like reading a non-existent eighth season of Downton Abbey. (Which is a compliment.)
Things go downhill for the unfortunate family but not for the horror lover who appreciates atmosphere and and dread as much as gore. I've read that The Cherry Orchard was intended as a comedy but misinterpreted as a tragedy. The Little Stranger is the Cherry Orchard written as a tragedy.
The narrator a quintessential hard working but humble country doctor with very mixed feelings about the resident's of Hundred's Hall, equally repulsed by their outmoded class pretensions and drawn to the lost English glory they represent. Through his eyes, it is easy to sympathize with the family and see the potential for horror in their situation.
Hundred's Hall is a grand English Manor inhabited by a family of faded aristocrats who can't afford to maintain the house but can't bring themselves to give it up. Waters does an incredible job of evoking the time period and for the first few chapters, it's like reading a non-existent eighth season of Downton Abbey. (Which is a compliment.)
Things go downhill for the unfortunate family but not for the horror lover who appreciates atmosphere and and dread as much as gore. I've read that The Cherry Orchard was intended as a comedy but misinterpreted as a tragedy. The Little Stranger is the Cherry Orchard written as a tragedy.
The narrator a quintessential hard working but humble country doctor with very mixed feelings about the resident's of Hundred's Hall, equally repulsed by their outmoded class pretensions and drawn to the lost English glory they represent. Through his eyes, it is easy to sympathize with the family and see the potential for horror in their situation.