The Uninvited Guests [Kindle Edition]

I was so disappointed, I really wanted to love this book, but I didn't. I liked the characters, but the story seemed to drag on, with no suspense or build up of tension which I would have expected from this type of story. It seemed to suddenly rush to a conclusion after pages of plodding.

Sadie Jones' latest novel 'The Uninvited Guests' is quite a departure for the author; her previous books: The Outcast and Small Wars were both fairly serious relationship dramas set in the 1950s and were very different to this rather unusual novel.

In 'The Uninvited Guests' Sadie Jones moves her story to the late Edwardian era; it is Spring and it is the 20th birthday of Emerald Torrington who lives at Sterne, the family's beautiful but crumbling much-loved home, with her mother, Charlotte (beautiful but vague); her step-father, Edward (dependable but boring); her brother, Clovis (good-looking but lazy) and her younger sister, Imogen, better known as Smudge. Just as the family are about to embark on a celebratory dinner with a few close friends, a dreadful train accident on a nearby branch line brings a crowd of mysterious and not entirely respectable survivors to Sterne to be accommodated until the railway can make arrangements to have them collected. But until that happens the whole household is thrown into mayhem and confusion - especially when one of the passengers, a certain Charlie Traversham-Beechers arrives and, although at first, the family thinks he is there just by chance, as the evening goes on and becomes more bizarre by the minute, we discover there is a particular reason for Traversham-Beechers' presence at the party and he won't be leaving until he has achieved his rather ghoulish objective...

I did notice when I started reading this novel that it seemed as if the author was trying to write in the wonderfully quirky style of Stella Gibbons or Molly Keane, and I must admit to wondering whether the writing was a little too stylized or contrived - however, realizing the author was aiming for something different with this book, I put that thought aside and, once I got into the flow of this unusual and eccentric story, I found it rather entertaining and enjoyable. However, I recently read a review for this novel in 'The Telegraph' where the reviewer commented that Jones's latest book was a clever pastiche of early 20th-century novels - and while that may be true, I have to be entirely honest and say that, personally, I would prefer to choose one of the originals, rather than read a modern novel written in an earlier style. That said, Sadie Jones is an undeniably good storyteller and I shall be looking forward with interest to see what she chooses for her next fictional outing.

3 Stars.

I thought this was an excellent book - well-written, imaginative and thoughtful. Set in a pre-First World War country house, preparations for a birthday party are disrupted by the arrival of a rather mysterious group of strangers who need shelter after being involved in a train accident nearby. The disorder they bring to the mannered Edwardian world has profound consequences for the house's occupants. Although it is very different from either, I found echoes in the book of Priestley's An Inspector Calls and the Nicole Kidman film The Others. Its unusual premise may not be to everyone's taste but I found the whole thing engrossing and it has stayed with me strongly after finishing the book.

Initially I wondered whether it was a little over-written and whether I really cared enough about these people to want to read a whole novel about them. However, it gradually drew me in and quite soon had me spellbound. The characters are well drawn and a subtle, growing sense of menace develops. There is a delicate, inexplicit parallel between the loss of physical order and of the manners and conventions on which the characters have depended, and I thought the fracturing and eventual shattering of this reserve and the effect of this on each of them was very well drawn. Sadie Jones also draws a believable and touching portrait of how propriety, self-absorption and a rigid, misguided sense of duty can smother character and humanity, and how shared adversity can allow genuine human contact to restore them. She also reminds us of the overwhelming importance of simple kindness between people.

The writing style fits the story very well. To try to give you a flavour, after the guests have been fed she says, "Although they were, for the moment, satisfied, their mood had not greatly improved. If anything, there was an increased atmosphere of need; they seemed to suck the very air from the room with their opaque desires." I loved Jones's writing, which becomes almost poetic at the climax of the book.

I am puzzled by some descriptions of this book as a comedy, which I think are inaccurate. I didn't think it was intended as a comedy - I found it involving, thoughtful and ultimately very touching. I think it is an excellent book and recommend it very warmly.