I have finished The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters. I considered giving it a wide variety of ratings(2,3 or 4),but in the end I will give it 4 stars. It was incredibly well written. The subtlety of her writing and the depth of the characters were wonderful. Makes me think how different it is to read this kind of book, rather than a fluffy romance novel. I am struggling to deside if I would rate it higher than Wolf Hall(for a book group). I'm affaid if I don't, it's just because I didn't like the story as much as I liked the story of Wolf Hall. I can't say more without the warning.

Spoilers ahead!

I don't really have any critiques of the style or quality of writing. It was wonderful. It was just such a depressing ending that I can't deside what I think of this book.

It reminds me of the movie Premonition. Movie spoiler in this paragraph. The most depressing movie I ever saw. The ability of the wife to experience days out of order, causes her husbands death in the end. Incredibly well done as well, but in the end I'm not sure I was happy to have seen it and that's how I feel about The Little Stranger.

An evaluation of the story; I eventually grew tired of Faraday's need to make everything logical and disregard all supernatural posibilities. I think Waters wanted the readers to feel this way and start rooting for Caroline to break free. During the trial at the end I so badly wanted him to say, "no, there was something going on in that house that science cannot explain, so I can not say with any certainty that her death was either a suicide or the result of an unsound mind." But alas, he said yes to a suicide whilst of unsound mind. If Faraday would have demonstrated enough growth to at least consider the unexplainble I might have given this book 5 stars. I believe books are much better when the writer creates characters that demonstrate growth and those in this book do not. I guess I do have that one critique of the writing. I further would have liked Faraday to say goodbye to Hundreds and taken that job in the hospital of the bigger town, rather than continuing his deadend job. And what's with wandering through Hundreds at the end as if daring the Little Stranger to appear and shatter his tired assumptions of how things are. I would have liked that ending better too. The only one to demonstrate any growth was Caroline, when she told Faraday the wedding was off. She finally threw off Faraday's scientifically limited explinations, but then she was killed before she could leave. Her death was the most disapointing event in the book. I guess Betty was the only one to escape and perhaps grow up a little bit.

One theory I found interesting was put forward by Doctor Seeley. That a severely disturbed mind might have the ability to create something like a spirit, unintentionally coming out of the subconscious mind. A theory I have not heard before and found quite intriguing.

I find the idea of ghost, spirits and supernatural stuff to be quite interesting and would have found this book much more enjoyable if just one of the people had escaped the influence of The Little Stranger.

Additional thoughts on who the little stranger could be.

My first inclination would be to go with the ghost of the dead child, but if I agreed with the disturbed mind theory(and the more i think about it I might) Faraday would be the third choice on my list at best. He's too set in his logical ways to be involved in such a thing, even unconsciously. The obvious choice is Rod, already being damaged goods from his war injuries and failure to live up to family expectations. He's certainly disturbed enough to cause it, but I like a less obvious choice. The one person who was never hurt by any of this(just scared herself), showed her deviousness in her first meeting with Doctor Faraday faking that illness and got her dream job in the end. She was the only one in the whole book to show the cleverness this ploy would take. Betty! The dumb country bumpkin thing is just a cover. You can't help where or who raised you. She could be a mensa candidate that was just never in a position to show the depth of her mind. Her unconscious self dreamed up a way to get out of a place and job she didn't like. Doctor Faraday showed himself to be playable going along with her "illness." Betty was always there seeing who was struggling and therefore susceptible to being scared by the Little Stranger. The most desturbing possibility is that Betty could have knowingly been involved in helping the Little Stranger, just finishing them off with her conscious and unconscious minds coming together in the end or maybe it was all unconscious. Being there to hang the mother and push Caroline over the railing. Setting the fire in Rod's room is really a compelling case. She was there when everything happened. The perfect psychopath. She just wanted a factory job and everybody that got in her way died. Doctor Faraday wasn't in her way since he wasn't in line to own Hundreds so she didn't waist her time killing him. Then at the end scaring Caroline into leaving and therefore leaving the shakey engagement was much easier than killing the doctor. The last pages of the book indict her the most. If I had experienced half of what she experienced at Hundreds I'd be in a mental ward. That's what happened to Rod. He lived through the horrors of war, but not this? It was that bad to deal with. This explains why Betty stayed long past when any other servant would. Their long time servant fled, but not Betty who is new and doesn't like the job anyway? And Betty comes out of it so well adjusted she gets within view of the house without breaking a sweat? And with no counciling?That only makes sense if she's behind it all. Freaky!