Strange book

I'm reading The Uninvited Guests by Sadie Jones, and it finally got interesting. And very weird. It only took almost two hundred pages for that to happen, far more than I usually give a book. Not to mention the novel is only fifty-nine pages longer than that - I've read over two-thirds of the book already! It's very, very British, set in 1912, and involves a somewhat well-to-do family who may be losing their beloved estate, Sterne. It's Emerald's birthday, and there's supposed to be a party attended by a close friend of Emerald's and that friend's mother. However, things do not go as planned; there's a train wreck, and suddenly the family is being asked to house a group from the accident. A mysterious stranger also shows up at Sterne (cliche, but necessary), a man who obviously has some ties to the family - or the house - in some way.

As I said, I usually give books about fifty pages, then give up. I kept going with this one, and for the life of me, I really don't know why. It's been frustrating to read, as the punctuation is driving me batty! Lots of things I've been taught not to do/use when writing, such as colons and semi-colons in dialog. And the commas! Tons and tons of commas, as if the writer took them by the handful and just threw them across the page - and on every page. Maddening - and yet I kept reading.

It's nice that there's been some vindication to keep going. However, I'm not entirely sure where the story will end up. I could still be horribly disappointed, and then realize I spent a good week or so on this book for nothing. Time will tell...