Reviews - Little Stranger | The StoryGraph

5.57k reviews for:

Little Stranger

Leigh Rivers

3.61 AVERAGE

rockbison95's review against another edition

2.75

challenging dark emotional funny tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

kimpilcher's review against another edition

3.0

challenging dark tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

elemae98's review against another edition

3.25

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Tiktok made me do it.

I'm no stranger to dark romances and a lot of things within them don't really surprise me anymore and this book was the same, except for one scene (which will remain nameless for spoiler sake).

Now the book overall just really felt like a diary/smut book there's no real layers to the characters because when they're not clashing booties they're obsessed and thinking of the other. I feel like this book had great potential but the ending really disappointed me, I would've preferred it if they didn't get their HEA and just went their separate ways.

For the characters:

Olivia was especially annoying to me and I found her more to be a "pick me" girl than anything else plus I found her to be more manipulative than Malachi when the narrative seemed to be suggesting that Malachi was the manipulator.

Malachi... now I have such complicated feelings for him I don't know where to start. I feel like he's both the perfect outline for a dark romance MMC but at the same time he switches it over and all of a sudden he's a pookie MMC. So you can see my conflict.

Content Warnings

charbucks's review against another edition

2.0

dark sad fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This book is 90% spice without much substance. I like dark romance, but the chapters at the beginning of the book written from a child’s perspective made me feel icky given how sexual of a book this is.

yushii005's review against another edition

3.75

bc why’d this lowkey CHEWWWWWWWWWW

daianaonu's review against another edition

3.5

dark fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

helenhume's review against another edition

3.0

I devoured this book in one sitting. Is it going to win any literary awards? No.
Does it have deep prose or layered metaphors? Also no.
Does it even have likeable characters? Not really.
But was it easy to read and completely entertaining? Absolutely.

As dark romances go, it’s verrrryyy taboo — and with that comes a fair bit of cringe. But the tension? High. The heat? Off the charts. And honestly? I was here for it. Start to finish, it kept me hooked — messy, morally grey, and totally bingeable.

I’m giving it a solid 3 stars because while I enjoyed the ride, I just can’t rank it alongside my 5-star favourites, ya know?
You really can’t review dark romances without managing those expectations...