The Uninvited Guests by Sadie Jones

Buy here*

Publication date: 2012
Publisher: Harper
Pages: 259
My rating: 2 stars
Ages: 16+

The Torrington household is preparing for a birthday party, when suddenly, the small party is made considerably larger by the inclusion of a group of survivors from a nearby railway accident. The family grudgingly opens their home, but things are quickly turned upside down and the celebration turns into something much more . . . other worldly.

My local library had touted this book as something that fans of "Downton Abbey" would like. While this takes place in the same time period, it's not anything like the classy period drama of a high society family with an army of servants.

For most of the book, I was annoyed at the family. They were the most forgetful people I had ever read about--the whole lot of them. The youngest, Smudge, seemed to spend most of her life in her bedroom being forgotten by everyone, including her mother. Then when the survivors come, they forget about them until they have to remember. And then none of them seemed to actually do anything; instead they all just reacted to whatever happened to them.

Mostly, I think, I wanted some explanations. There were a lot of strange things going on in that house, but nothing was explained until the very end of the book. If there had been some explanations scattered throughout, I may have found the book more interesting. There is a mild sex scene, but no language.

*I do not receive compensation from Amazon.