I think the problem for me is that I'm a person living in the 21st century and I'm reading a book from the late 19th century so my idea of pacing is a little different from theirs. However the story still has strength. The plot is essentially the ghostly possession/haunting of two children in a wealthy home being observed by their governess. At first it's just the governess's observation of these geists but we soon find out the children are connected to these ghosts. The book catalogues the Governess's desire to protect the children she watches over and her slow descent as she realizes she is powerless.
I think that's the most fascinating thing from this book. This third party, someone who doesn't have anything more than a job obligation to these children so desperately wants to protect them. The fact that she's unable to save them and that she just has to observe is also something fascinating. She has to watch as two children slowly descend into whatever the ghosts have wished upon them.
That convention of powerless is something really empathizable and I see it come up over and over in Ghost/horror stories as a trope. This sense of power far beyond our own understanding is something quite common to fantasy but I suppose if a normal human being was all powerful than the book wouldn't be too interesting would it?
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