Customer Rating: 

Have read all SW's books and this is the worst to date. Lame story with a lame ending, left me thinking what was the point!

Customer Rating: 

I read the off putting reviews but decided to give it a go anyway. Why did I bother? I found it dull, not scary in the least as some have commented they found it. The characters were unengaging, and unlikeable, and to me the plot never really got going. I carried on with it but was so glad when it was over. Not one for a re-read.

I have read other novels by Sarah Waters that I really enjoyed, this one though sadly did nothing for me.

Customer Rating: 

I read this book after reading two reviews both stating that you'd be "scared to turn the next page" and "don't read with the light off." Quite how that is possible i'm still not sure. So I read the synopsis and really liked the idea of this once marvelous house falling in to rack and ruin whilst its owners try to keep up appearances whilst some malevolent force works it way through the family.

The book itself is written well with great prose and the author paints a fantstic picture of the setting and each of the charaters is well defined. The problem that I have with the book is that it just isn't scary, not in the least. the story spans 500 pages yet their is only a handful of incidents. I continued reading thinking that at some point things would turn darker but it never does. Nothing is ever clarifyed and the ending is a bit open ended (though the back of the book states NOT THE END)


Calling the book "the little stranger" is misleading also. I thought the title quite creepy but once you've read through you realise that the title has little in common with the story.

Maybe its me and other people will find this the scariest read of their lives. I often think about writing a horror novel as my imagination can be somewhat macarbe but I never deem my thoughts to be scary enough to put on page yet I think they would be alot more frightening than this. I guess my biggest problem with the book is that the premise is so good and could have been genuinely scary.

Customer Rating: 

Normally I don't entertain the horror genre; I think life's scary enough! So a book about a haunted house would not normally make it to my bedside reading pile.
The reason I bought this book is because I've read most of Sarah Waters and wanted to read this too. I was a bit apprehensive reading it and had mentally prepared myself for the inevitable scary moments.
It read however like the beautiful prose I've come to expect from Ms Waters. But then the book turned on me. The change was so sudden and yet subtle, it took me by surprise. It happened so unexpectedly that it seemed to creep up on me and creep me out.
I have never been more scared. Not since the exorcist! This was much worse. I'm a grown up woman who couldn't get out of bed for fear of encountering some `little stranger' in my own house which is a mid-terrace, centre of a town location!! Not an old house in a solitary, rural-setting at all! But fear is perhaps by definition irrational and two days on, I still haven't been able to shake off the book from my memory or indeed the dark thoughts...
Please read this book, but remember you might have to sleep with the lights on for a...er... well ..a few weeks...

Customer Rating: 

fascinating book. Written in a very straightforward style which makes the creepiness even more shocking.