Review: The Little Stranger
“I recall most vividly the house itself, which struck me as an absolute mansion. I remember its lovely ageing details: the worn red brick, the cockled window glass, the weathered sandstone edgings. They made it look blurred and slightly uncertain–like an ice, I thought, just beginning to melt in the sun.”
The Little Stranger, Sarah Waters
The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters was published in 2009 and is 510 pages. My friend, Nicole, recommended it to me, and since I’m on a gothic kick in my reading, I bought it.
I could tell you that the story is a gripping page turner in the style of an extended piece by Edgar Allan Poe, ripe with post WWII history, crumbling mansions, the ramifications of class warfare, madness, decay, ruin, mystery, love, and a haunting, but all I really need to say is that I read it in three nights, stayed up way past my bedtime (in spite of the fact that the book gave me the creeps), and now want to read everything by Sarah Waters.
This is the best book I’ve read in a long time, and I urge you to read it immediately.
Lara Taylor said,
February 14, 2011 at 10:18 pm
Dashing to see if I can get this on my kindle!
Just ran out of good fiction; coupla good non-fiction on there, but sometimes, you want a good story! 
thanks!!
Hallie Sawyer said,
February 14, 2011 at 10:38 pm
Crap on a cracker! You know that I’m filching from the grocery budget to foster my book habit because of reviews like this? If my kids end up eating pb&j at the end of the month, I am blaming you.
Erika Robuck said,
February 14, 2011 at 10:49 pm
I just finished reading some other reviews of this book and the ratings are mixed based on the ending (which I loved.) I’ll be interested to hear what you think if you read it.
(Hallie, I love that “crap on a cracker.” Must be a Kansas thing.
)
Hallie Sawyer said,
February 16, 2011 at 11:16 pm
I am pretty sure that is my University of Nebraska education hard at work whipping that oh-so-smart phrase out. I think it is a lack of brain cells thing. But thanks for being my friend anyway.
My Favorite Books of 2011 « Muse said,
December 16, 2011 at 9:42 am
[...] The Little Stranger, by Sarah Waters [...]