Sunday, November 25, 2012

2012 Reading Challenge

It is pretty evident that I am not going to be able to finish the 2012 Reading Challenge with the 25 books that I had as my goal.  I came closer this year, and will be able to add a couple of more, but will fall short by a couple.  Next year will be better -- I think.

I just finished the latest book in my queue -- "The Little Stranger" by Sarah Waters.  It was reasonably lengthy -- just shy of 400 pages -- and took me a little longer than I had wanted it to.  I have read two other works of Waters, one of which I enjoyed, so I thought I would give this one a go and I have to say that it did not disappoint although it was a bit draggy in places, I thought.


It is the story of Caroline Ayers and Dr. Faraday with subplots concerning Caroline's mother and brother, Roderick.  It is a tragic story of a tragic family and it all started with the death of the eldest Ayers child -- Susan.  It is clearly a ghost story but it is only implied who the ghost is and the involvement of the ghost is vague -- not to be believed by most of the characters involved with the family.  I would like to say it ends well and, in regards to the parlor maid, Betty, it does but the ending is bittersweet and leaves the reader wondering about the stability of Dr. Faraday in regards to his attachment  to the house -- The Hundreds.

It is a good read -- I was able to stay with it and, at the end, couldn't put it down but that is usually my reading style.  It was "scary" enough to be a ghost story but much more psychological and frightening in a whole other way.  I will say, it makes me very glad that I am not privileged to own an old -- really old -- English manor house.  I think I would move after reading this.

I recommend this book but maybe on a sunny day.  If you are affected by SAD, the gloominess of the setting in this book might be just a bit much.

3 comments:

Jane and Chris said...

That sounds like an interesting book...but leave the lights on!
Jane x

JLS Hall said...

I just read this one a couple of months ago too, and really enjoyed it. Yes, very spooky -- definitely not a late-night read.

I've pretty much given up any hope of finishing any more books this year, although I'm WAY short of my goal of 50. Yeah, hoping next year will be more "normal." (Hah!)

Boyett-Brinkley said...

I thought I did pretty good this year -- having the challenge forced me to focus on reading more which I seem to have put on the back burner in recent years. However, I really should have met the goal but I still have a little time and several books in my stack are not long so I might get closer but if not, there is always next year!

Update

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