I have said before that I think one area where Sarah Waters really excels is in creating believable and vivid settings for her stories. I had to avoid reading this book late at night because I knew it would scare me if I did! I always find poltergeist-type phenomena very disturbing to read about and there’s plenty of that in this book, from moving furniture and inexplicable fires, to tapping noises, ringing telephones and mysterious handwriting that appears on the walls. This is a typical haunted house story, yet it was psychologically fascinating, very suspenseful – and genuinely spooky. Striking up a friendship with Mrs Ayres and her daughter Caroline, Dr Faraday begins to spend more and more time at Hundreds – and becomes involved in a series of increasingly strange and terrifying events. When Dr Faraday is called to Hundreds Hall, home of the Ayres family, to treat their young maid, he can’t help noticing that the house has deteriorated since he was last there as a boy. The Little Stranger is set in Warwickshire just after the end of World War II. I seem to be in the minority though, as I’ve seen some very mixed reviews of this book. This is the third Sarah Waters book I’ve read this year, the other two being Affinity and Fingersmith, and I think this one is my favourite.
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