Shirley Jackson's craftsmanship is inspiring and this book is exactly what I needed after enduring a very long and poorly written tome. Here is a novel of concision and grace and more than a little intelligence. There are scenes so delicately suspenseful and evocative with such sparing detail (though never slipping into the iciness of minimalist prose) and yet others with a warmth and candor so natural I could hug them.

I would be hard pressed to come up with another novelist who can cover so much territory in so few pages so smoothly.