The Little Stranger in Retro Chapter Chicks

Nov 10, 2017 Candi rated it liked it

Shelves: horror-creepy, historical-fiction, book-i-own

"I first saw Hundreds Hall when I was ten years old. It was the summer after the war, and the Ayreses still had most of their money then, were still big people in the district… 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."

What I liked mos "I first saw Hundreds Hall when I was ten years old. It was the summer after the war, and the Ayreses still had most of their money then, were still big people in the district… 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."

What I liked most about this, my first Sarah Waters' book, were the striking descriptions of the magnificent Georgian mansion. Once a splendid home that was renowned throughout the district of Warwickshire, Hundreds Hall now stands in a state of ruination, due to the effects of World War II and the Ayres’s declining family fortune. The characters are well-drawn, including the dignified Mrs. Ayres, her surly son Roderick who returned from the war with his share of battle wounds, her slightly awkward yet intelligent daughter Caroline, and the ingratiating family doctor, Faraday. From the time he first set eyes on Hundreds Hall as a child, Dr. Faraday has had a peculiar fascination with both the house as well as its inhabitants. When summoned to the estate to tend to the so-called illness of Betty, the newest family maid, Dr. Faraday rapidly becomes immersed in the Ayres’s lives and their attendant troubles.

The novel is constructed skillfully from the outset to be an eerie Gothic ghost story, with the rambling and decaying manor and a series of baffling and disturbing happenings. The story is written as a first-person narrative, from Dr. Faraday’s point of view. Now, I generally don’t find fault with books written in the first-person, as long as done so effectively. In this case, Dr. Faraday is not directly involved in many of the menacing goings-on at the house. Rather, he recounts the events told to him by the occupants of Hundreds Hall. He tells us what he heard from Caroline, or Mrs. Ayres, or Roderick, or in some cases the maid, Betty. The suspense was subsequently watered down for me as a result. Dr. Faraday is a famously unreliable narrator as well – which is not a complaint in and of itself; however, his removal from the events as well as his questionable credibility took me out of the plot a bit. There was no single character I liked, nor one sufficiently detestable for me to revel in my distaste – not even the purported ghost! Perhaps I unfairly kept making comparisons to one of my all-time favorite novels, Rebecca. I was searching for my Mrs. Danvers, trying to sympathize with the narrator, and looking for a climax that would electrify me. It just didn’t quite happen. I was left with too many questions and felt a shred of dissatisfaction as a result. Since finishing the book, I have drawn my own conclusion that I would like to put to Ms. Waters. I suspect she didn’t mean for me to truly know her intent, however, so I will have to be content with my own interpretation.

Despite my slightly lukewarm review, there were enough redeeming qualities to this novel that I will certainly read another title in this author’s repertoire at some point in time.

"The subliminal mind has many dark, unhappy corners, after all." ...more

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