The Little Stranger

Could hardly turn it off. Slow-paced and relentless, but kept surprising me with the twists it took. Lots of nice, subtle detail, classy foreshadowing, sly hints dropped gracefully while you're looking the other way. Days after finishing it, I'm still not entirely sure what happened. Oh, and don't listen in the dark.

Mary, Saltburn-by-the-Sea, United Kingdom

21/08/2009

The book is excellent - as many of the reviews on Amazon testify. Even more so, the narration is superb. I was a little uneasy initially with the (always difficult) approach of a male narrator to older and younger female voices, but after a few minutes all concerns were dispelled. I'll now look out books by the same narrator.

Nicholas, Grange over Sands, United Kingdom

16/07/2009

You won't find any of the twists and riddles that inhabit Waters' earlier works. Nor, for that matter, the lesbian overtones. But I think "The Little Stranger", like "The Night Watch", is a much greater achievement as a result. Waters is a consummate writer, in this novel displaying such mastery and maturity that she must surely be counted amongst very highest ranking British novelists. Indeed, I can think of no one I would rather read. Whatever her subject, she describes character, scenes and events with such economy and precision that must leave other writers almost wretched with envy. Indeed, I have never known her put a foot wrong; never a moment of pretentiousness, or boredom, or redundancy. "The Little Stranger" boasts a pace and atmosphere so chilling that I actually got the shivers while weeding the garden. Not many works of fiction can achieve that on a warm, sunny day. It is also beautifully read. The narrator has the perfect voice, accent and inflection for the novel's period, and was a joy to listen to. Indeed, if I had to choose one work to illustrate the sheer pleasure of listening to an unabridged novel, it would be this one.

Emma, Uplyme, Lyme Regis, United Kingdom

10/08/2009

I chose this because I had enjoyed 'The Night Watch' but in fact I think this was better - there were fewer characters and it didn't have that distracting reverse timeline. Not having read the blurb I didn't realise it was a ghost story, which was good, because I approached all the creepy happenings with Dr Faraday's scepticism....until near the end. Although the pace is slow, the story is beautifully told, and I was gripped throughout. I was listening to it while gardening. I enjoyed the descriptions of a country house literally falling to pieces around its inhabitants, and the very convincing 1940s atmosphere - how all the doctors smoke - and offer cigarettes to their patients! Those were the days, eh?

Mirium, SAFFRON WALDEN, United Kingdom

24/11/2009

The Little Stranger was my first Audible download. It was so absorbing that it only took me a week to finish. Any excuse and I drove for miles, hoping to get stuck in traffic so I could get in half and hour here and there - luckily the North Circular always obliged. This ticked all the boxes for me (strong plot, sense of place, great characterisation). It's an old-fashioned ghost story, set in a still class-ridden post-war world of upstairs and downstairs. The family doctor is of sceptical mind to all the strange things that happen in the house, so is perfect as the narrator. The setting, Hundreds Hall, which is the star of the show, is described so beautifully I could see it in my mind's eye, both in happier times and in its declining years. Mr Vance does a wonderful job of reading the book, the voices are pitch perfect, the quavering mother, the drawling toff son, the fourteen year old serving girl. It was all such a treat I just don't know how I'm going to replicate the experience with another book.

dollyone, United Kingdom

17/07/2009

I bought this because I have previously enjoyed Sarah Water's books. However this book, although well written and well read, is difficult to enjoy because it lacks humour and happiness. Its characters are not particularly likeable and the story charts a series of tragic and unhappy events with no light intervals. This is undoubtedly high quality literature but not a pleasure giving read - for me anyway.

Carol, United Kingdom

19/07/2009

For much of this book I wanted to scream - get on with it. Characters are unsympathetic and, Dr Faraday is a dreary, and in many ways, santcimonious narrator. Pages of dreary nothing-very-much punctuated with the odd shocking incident... so I suppose much like life at Hundreds Hall itself... Gradually, it crept up on me and eventually I did drop everything, settle down with a bottle of wine and devote an evening to finishing it. An abrupt and ambiguous ending had me clicking back through the chapters to re listen to certain sections - and eventually to search the internet for other people's conclusions. Have still not decided whether I'm right that.....no better not ...read it for yourself.

Christine, Wolverhampton, United Kingdom

02/08/2009

Excellent! So well written - as you'd expect from Sarah Waters -and the reader captures the character of the narrator exactly. A fab story - spoil yourself!

carrielou, Leicester, United Kingdom

05/08/2009

This is the first Sarah Walters I have downloaded and from the reading the reviews I was really looking forward to it but it just didn't reach expectations. It was slow and dull, even the allegedly "spooky" moments could not hold my attention. At no point did I feel any belief in any of the characters, who came across as very one dimensional. The ending gave the impression the author just decided she had written enough but was not quite sure where she was going. I only stuck with it to see how it ended, only to find that I knew no more at the end than I did at the beginning - sometimes in that situation the journey from beginning to end justifies this, but not so in this case. The social elements of the story were inadequately covered too, meaning that was neither a complete ghost story nor a complete social statement. The author would have been better sticking to one or the other. Very disappointing.

Lorraine, United Kingdom

22/12/2009

this was not as good as i expected. although the story is well narrated i felt that the story never really got going. I did listen to the end but im not sure it was worth the effort.Would be reluctant to listen to this authour again.

nickymcdowell, United Kingdom

14/08/2009

Good narration and scene-setting but I kept wondering when it was going to become particularly interesting. Post-war rural Warwickshire is an intriguing location for the setting and the description of what, presumably, is just pre-NHS times made me think about medical services in fairly recent times.

Graham, United Kingdom

14/12/2009