The last line...

I was not anticipating that I would love this book, yet here we are. I've read and enjoyed Sarah Waters before (Tipping the Velvet), but this was definitely superior. They're similar in that they're both historical, transportively atmospheric, slow-build character studies. But Tipping the Velvet had some pacing issues that I just didn't experience here. It was slow, but never once felt like a slog. 

In The Little Stranger, Waters uses the haunted house trope to explore the changing class and social structure of post-war England, and does so effectively. You feel for the family and their struggle to maintain their house, their status, and their heritage, even while you loathe their sense of superiority and stubborn denial of the realities of their crumbling world. You feel for Dr. Farraday and his inability to understand his role in the changing landscape of rural England and amongst his new friends, even while you want to smack him for being an overly involved and patronizing realist with a propensity for self-pity. I don't want to say too much more than this, but I cannot stop puzzling over the complex relationships and dynamics at play in this novel, and the way that the ending shifted my understanding of everything. And best of all, this was wrapped in a solid horror story that genuinely terrified me more than once. 

Anyway, I loved it. I'll be thinking about it for weeks, I'm sure.