Well, I read The Little Stranger....

[BelligerentGhoul]

Anybody want to talk about it? :)

I read The Woman In White too - finally!

I loved The Little Stranger, did you like it?
Haven't read The Woman in White

I didn't dislike it but........

I just thought it was missing something, I think. I liked the narrator and thought the characterisation was pretty good but it just didn't seem to really get anywhere, I thought. I finished it feeling as if I'd heard it all before and the ending was predictable without having that awful/wonderful sense of inevitability that you get in the best/traditional ghost stories.

Tbh I was just starting to think, 'well, hurry up and die then' by the final quarter.

I only got to the end because it was my book group book. The rest liked it but I found it boring, and didn't like anyone.

I wished it had been scarier

Exactly Cyb. All the hype seemed to suggest it would be - but it wasn't. It all just felt a bit...spiritless, if that's the right word!

Yes, good word. I wanted more scampering along dark corridors in dead of night and fires and poltergeistery things. The Ghost Of Thomas Kempe by Penelope Lively (kids book ) is scarier!

I used to use that as a class reader, when I first started teaching eons ago!

Did you actually like the narrator or do you mean he was interesting? I couldn't bear him. I agree that the book is a bit blah tho.

OK, did he do it then? My reading group generally thought so.

I agree it could have been scarier, but I still found it very atmospheric. What was your take on the ending?

I felt it was a bit nothingy too - was disappointed at the end that it had all gone nowhere.

The Susan thing was really obvious and the characters didn't seem complete.

I really enjoyed it BG. I hadn't read any SW before, but looking forward to her others now. I didn't think it was as scary as the hype made out, but I didn't mind that, because I thought the characters were well drawn.

I rather enjoyed the ambiguity and lack of resolution.

I liked The Woman in White too when I read it years ago, but have largely forgotten it. Time for a re-read.

I liked him.

I thought The Woman In White was superb - maybe reading The Little Stranger immediately afterwards meant that disappointment was inevitable though.

No, I didn't notice the twist either!

God - if it's Martin Amis, just bin it. He's dreadful.

I think the twist is the 'Susan's the ghost' thing - pretty obvious for a twist so maybe I'm wrong!

I think there's a couple of contenders for the 'twist', to do with Faraday's role in the whole story. (Agree they are not really twists though). Still loved it.

Found the period and social class detail of it interesting but the actual story was pants imo.

Hated this book and felt like I'd wasted precious reading time on it. No actual story, and what twist?

It hadn't occurred to me that it might have been him until my MIL pointed it out

Nope, I don't think it was him. Nothing gave me that impression.

I thought it was Faraday - he's lonely, socially isolated, and inadequate, and seeing the house in such a dreadful state, given his previous connections with it, unlocks something sinister in him and it.

I really enjoyed it, and was genuinely creeped out by it (but I am of a very sensitive disposition! )

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/book_of_the_month/833985-And-our-Booker-shortlisted-October-Book-of-the-Month-is

Sarah Waters contributes to this thread - it was a really interesting book of the month discussion.

I enjoyed it and was scared in places. I have since read The Nightwatchman and really liked that so I'm going to read her other books too.

I enjoyed it but not as much as her others. I found the descriptions of the foundation of the NHS fascinating. To me the joy (the twist?) was the gradual realisation that Faraday's narration was or might not be as reliable as it first seemed. The ambiguity, to me, was its strength.