I've not read any of Sarah Waters and have heard she is a great writer. We chose her newest book for my book club because most had already read Tipping the Velvet and Fingersmith. I liked it as I've have never read a ghost story nor a Victorian novel before so it was a new and different experience for me. I think it was a little long and hard to get through being that I'm also in 2 other book clubs but I did enjoy the descriptive writing about the mansion, the furniture, the grounds and character's clothing etc. I like Caroline's character and found her independent and strong nature appealing. I tired of Dr. Faraday's need to be needed and what I would call co-dependence. At first I thought his motives were genuine compassion but it seemed toward the end to be selfish and needy. The hauntings were the best part of the book as I didn't know what to expect however they were few and far between with a lot of somewhat boring details in between.

hard read. more horror than ghost story.

Our group gave all 6s and 7s. We thought the book was fairly well written but not terribly compelling. Slow start, and we couldn't come to consensus as to what is was really about. We wish we had read "Lacuna" instead!

I really enjoyed this one. Although others did not appear to find it to be scarey enough for them, I am clearly easily frightened and was unable to read parts of it in bed at night!
I really felt the tension build in parts of the novel, and while it was rather unclear what had actually happened, I felt that that was rather the point of the story. It certainly gave us something to discuss.

Different but enjoyed it!

We enjoyed this book, however, felt that the ending was a little disappointing.

Very slow to start, but a supernatural, somewhat suspenseful story later on, with an inconclusive ending to discuss.