Natalie Waite is a lonely, imaginative teenage girl who lives under the pressure of her controlling father, a writer, and her depressed mother. When she goes away to college, she finds the new world unsettling, with competitive female students and a sinister encounter at a party. A figure called "the stranger" begins to appear, and Natalie's grip on reality loosens, so that readers cannot be sure what is real and what is imagined.
Shirley Jackson wrote it in 1951, and it is a short, strange novel about identity, family, and mental breakdown. Readers of The Haunting of Hill House or Sylvia Plath's work will see something similar, although this book is less supernatural and more psychological.
Inward-looking and open-ended; a moderate read.
Best for readers like The Empathetic Explorer. Which reader are you?
- Published
- 1951
- Language
- EN
