Fingersmith

I could not put this down. I literally spent all day on 12/30 just reading this. 400+ pages in one day, because I couldn't bear to part with it (thank you, Xmas/NYE vacation for giving me the slack to do it!).

This is hard to describe, and I want to avoid spoilers. I can say that it starts in a Dickensian setting, has a Gothic, crumbling mansion, a Victorian madhouse, a love story, and plenty of twists & turns. Even when I kind of knew where it was going, it was thrilling to see things play out! Sometimes it dealt with some disturbing content (child abuse, conditions in the asylum, etc.), but it was worth toughing it out!

Overall, it was an extremely satisfying read, Sarah Waters is a genius, and I can't wait to read her other stuff.

(Also, I had the lovely surprise of thinking, “Man, they need to make a movie of this,” only to find it has been adapted TWICE - a BBC miniseries and a Korean film by Park Chan-wook!)

I think I'm just maybe not that into historical fiction. Sarah Waters also has this habit (I say having only read two of her books) of making all the characters unlikeable and hard to root for. Tbh I preferred the movie, but this was compelling and entertaining and dark and had sapphics so there's always points for that.

I tore through this book. It captures the spirit and atmosphere of Victorian London (and the novels that inspired it) so well. Well, maybe I shouldn't say it captured the spirit of a time period I never lived in, but it captured what I imagine the spirit of Victorian London to be. That counts for something, right?

Anyway, this was an excellent novel that I couldn't stop reading. Great writing, characters, and a thoroughly engaging story. It's such a great feeling to be so completely wrapped up in a book, to try and guess how the characters will get out of their predicament and then be surprised by some surprising (but logical) solution. I don't think I've ever read a 500-page book so fast.

If you're into lesbian Victorian romances, con artists, and pornography, this is your jam!

Sue is a petty thief who is enlisted to help a conman steal the inheritance of a wealthy girl, but as time goes on, it becomes clear that there's a lot more to the grift.

The story is told from the perspectives of two different protagonists, with each showing a totally different view of what's going on. There are a few surprising plot twists, most notably the shocker at the end of part one.

Sarah Waters is a gifted wordsmith, with flowing prose and characters who are empathetic despite being awful people. The problem is the plot. Even back in the 1800s, it seems like there are way too many ways where this plot would fail. And in the end, Waters doesn't know how to resolve it, so she brings a surprise conclusion out of nowhere and resolves precisely nothing.

The book spends 500 pages building up a plot, backs itself into a corner, and then concludes it in the most contrived way possible. To say the last act was a letdown is an understatement.

The plot was excellent, but this book suffered from the weightiness of the prose and exposition.

Sue Trinder is an orphan growing up in the house of Mrs Sucksby, where they get by with petty crimes and selling stolen goods. It's also an informal grooming and gathering place for a number of crooks, the most elegant and big-game of all is one nicknamed Gentleman, who enlists Sue to assist him in a plot he has recently hatched to cheat a lady, the heiress of a hermit book collector, out of her fortune. To do so, Sue has to infiltrate the household and become a lady's maid to Maud Lilly, and convince her to marry Gentleman.

While the story was really good, I think the pacing was a bit off for me. The first arc was all right, it plodded along but it got unpleasant to read at the last part, to the point where I almost DNFed. Then we got hit with the first big reveal. It was a twist which I had called from the beginning, but which I had somehow lulled myself into thinking wasn't possible and therefore had forgotten about, but was surprised to find that I was right all along. That was enough to keep me going though.

The second arc was more exciting for me than the first, or at least the first half of it was. The second half kinda got too lengthy (did we really need like 20 pages talking about Maud's failed attempts at escaping, her going to find Mr Hawtry which landed her in a "house for destitute gentlewomen" and then eventually her going back to where she had begun?). The third arc was the slowest for me and which I skimmed the most, even though so many things were happening.

It's a weird feeling, because the plot twists in this story were really good and satisfying, but there was also just so much filler action IMO. Despite skimming the heck out of the third arc, I still understood the rough gist of what was happening. I can't help but feel that this book would've been way more enjoyable if it had been pruned into 300 or 400-page novel rather than a 550-page one.

I really, really enjoyed this book, until... I want to give this story more than three and a half stars but hand on my heart, I just can't. The first 4/5 of the book were brilliant with twists and turns that I didn't see coming but then the whole thing turned into a cheesy romance. In some ways the ending was appropriate to the gothic romance style of the story but I felt the final few pages deserved something better. Whereas the rest of the story took unexpected turns the ending was entirely predictable. I think I will have to digest it for a while and see if I change my mind but for now I feel that the ending wasn't up to the rest of the story.

I loved this book from beginning to end, and it's taken me two days to sit down to write this little review because I'm not sure what to say here besides, “I loved this book!” It took me a whole month to read it since this was a big book, almost 600 pages, and lately I've been reading shorter books, and I'm also a slower reader, so please don't think that this is a slow read or a boring read. This book is intense in a lot of ways. Even though it's long, there are many scenes where a lot is going down and you won't want to stop reading. So what's it all about? Well, I guess I could loosely call this a period mystery, but it's more of just a character study. I don't want to say too much since this story has many many twists and turns, and all of it is highly enjoyable. It takes place in and around London in the late 19th century, which is basically my favorite time period. The writing is descriptive and layered. I loved every page of this story.

Yes, this is a good yarn, but for something plot-driven like this (twist! twist! twist!) this could have profited from some major trimming. Once the reader is in on the twist and clearly understands the character motivations, there's clearly no need for scenes stretched this long.

Also possible that the highly accented voices in the audiobook caused me to get rather annoyed at some of the characters.

Waters has definitely improved her pacing skills since this book. It dragged on for me, to the point of unenjoyable. The twists were really great, and some of them were such a knife to the heart. I wasn't overly impressed with the ending, though I appreciated the glimpse of happiness they could have. Overall, not my favorite.