This book is essentially what The Turn of the Screw could have been, if Henry James hadn't been burdened with an overabundance of loquacity. The prose has enough of a 19th century feel to maintain the setting, but is nevertheless clear and easily readable throughout. As for the story itself, it is a delightfully creepy yarn in the classic ghost story tradition. Governess arrives to take care of a couple kids, things go bump in the night, and supernatural shenanigans ensue. One notable difference here from James' tale is that we the audience are never really in doubt of the narrator's sanity or the reality of the haunting; it's pretty clear from the get-go that weird shit is going down, and if the other characters in the novel don't believe, it's only because they haven't seen it for themselves. This distinction removes that particular level of mystery, but it also lets the scares be more explicit. It's not sleep-with-the-lights-on scary, but there are definitely some disconcerting bits, and the finale is quite satisfying.

My one complaint is that I would have liked the children to be fleshed out more as characters. They almost function more as part of the setting - plot pieces rather than characters in their own right (not unlike the kids in The Turn of the Screw, in fact). However, overall it was quite an enjoyable read.