Faraday is bewildered by the sense of history, decay, and an air of strangeness he feels as he tours the sizeable property past its prime due to economic decline, high taxes, and the expensive upkeep costs driving the Ayres family further into poverty as he interacts with the people who live and work there. The narrator, Doctor Faraday, is called to Hundred Halls, the Ayres’ family estate, to treat the oldest son, Roderick, for badly-healed injuries he sustained as a pilot during the war. Receiving a warm reception and high critical praise, the book was adapted into a cinematic production in late 2018. The work is set in post-World War II London. Waters said, "I tried to keep it strange, keep what was happening genuinely odd, without closing it down with a neat explanation at the end." The ambiguity of the work is integral in its thematic development, driving the work’s central tone. Critics’ consensus regards this work as one in which a sense of terror and suspense steadily builds in a straightforward way that some say results in an anti-climactic finish. While Waters is typically known for her plot-twisting works with lesbian narrators, this work is a decided departure from her signature style and plot. The Little Stranger (2009), a gothic ghost story by novelist Jessica Waters, tells a tale of family, loss, legacy, and love with elements of the supernatural.
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