The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

Copyright: 2009
Publisher: Riverhead
Genre: Fiction
Pages: none - audio
Challenges: none
New-to-me Author: Yes
Author's Website


Simple Description:
This is the story about how Dr. Faraday becomes involved in the lives of the Ayres and their house, Hundreds Hall. He is called in to treat their maid and then gradually becomes the family doctor and becomes part of their lives. Weird things happen at Hundred's. There is a dinner party and the dog attacks a little girl. Only nobody can figure out why because the dog is very gentle. They don't know why he suddenly attacked somebody. Then Rodderick, the heir to the house and only man in the family, starts acting weird. He seems to think there is something in the house that caused the dog to attack the girl. He thinks something is out to get him and his family. Soon his condition is so bad that Dr. Faraday thinks it is best to have him hospitalized, get him away from the house. This happens, but things continue to get worse. Now it is the mother who is being effected. She has bruises and scratches on her body but swears that she didn't do them herself. She thinks her little girl, the one who passed away as a child, is haunting her. Not only does this happen but the maid and other helper are hearing things. Strange things are happening in the house. Dr. Faraday thinks there has to be a logical, scientific reason, for this but not everyone agrees with him. There is also a bit of a romance between Faraday and Caroline, the other Ayers family member.

Now what you really want to know....my thoughts:
This book is said to be a ghost story, the house is haunted. I thought this was more of a story about Dr. Faraday. Sure, the house is haunted and that is important to the story however, I didn't think of it as a ghost story. It just seemed more to be about Faraday and his involvement with the Ayers. So..now that I have told you that. I must say that I really enjoyed the book. I thought the story was great. It wasn't fast paced but the story kept going for me, it definitely kept my interest. It's the first I have read by the author, so I can't tell you if it is as good as the others, but it was good enough for me to plan on reading more. In fact, I think several years ago that I tried to read one of her other books..Fingersmith...and stopped because I wasn't "in to it". Now though, after reading this one, I'm going to attempt it again.

This audio book was rented from my local library.