This was, at once, a very strange and entertaining read. The unsettling atmosphere settles under your skin and the way Mary behaves becomes more disturbing as the book goes on. You know the saying about how to boil a frog? You only start to realise Mary's influence to the full extent when it's already too late. Because yes, why shouldn’t she dislike the townspeople? And why should Charles be allowed in their home? 

Her relationship to Constance is also very strange. Constance is both her sister and a motherly figure but her decision making is dictated by Mary. Whether out of her own fear of the public, a sense of obligation to Mary or something else entirely; she does not seem able to defy Mary in any meaningful way.