Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
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Book Reviews of Fingersmith
Book Review: Dark and engrossing - Will you read continuously until finished? Or slam it shut and hide from the tale on its pages?
Summary: 5 Stars
Sarah Waters' Fingersmith is not for those faint of heart. When you begin her amazing book you may recognize her graphic descriptions of the sad and deplorable conditions of the lives of the "working-poor" in Victorian London thanks to similar characterizations provided by authors such as Dickens, Emma Donoghue and Sheri Holman.
Well sit down. That's just the warm up. Get a fresh drink ready to help you wash away the disgusting taste that will be soon left in your mouth. Get your teddy bear. Ms. Waters is about to introduce you to some things you haven't before considered.
Be ready for duplicity, manipulation, heartbreak and suspense on par with few other historical fiction novels. Prepare for yourself to confront abandon, hopelessness and confinement. Prepare for heartbreak. Prepare for love.
Can one prepare for such conflicting situations and feelings? Of course not. That's the joy of this wonderful story. Waters will surprise you and horrify you time and time again. I wanted to put the book down and hide; I wanted to quit reading and yet was compelled to continue. Thank God I did. This is one of those books that will burn its story into your mind.
I also recommend the wonderful "Crimson Petal and the White" by Michael Faber for another enthralling and dark story of Victorian England's seedier side.
Book Review: Impossibly hard to resist yet so gentle in its draw......a sublime experience
Summary: 5 Stars
Im not one for long winded reviews, so this will be short. Also, I have not yet finished the book - yet I'm compelled to leave a review.
Waters picks up where Dickens and Maugham left off and elevates the genre to new levels. Fingersmith is a tour-de-force of victorian historical fiction. The story is no doubt brilliant, the historical detail so sound that it creates a virtual victorian experience in the readers mind. But the real wonder is in the characters. They are so vivid, with emotions so palpable that they completely engulfed me , making my real life somewhat of a blur since I started reading. Maud's vulnerability is painful for the reader, but at the same time it makes her so alluring. You just want to reach out through the pages and comfort the girls at times, and your inability to change anything just adds to the sense of helplessness, making you read on feverishly with your heart in your mouth.
I never knew that i cared for lesbian themed fiction but this book was an eye opener. The relationship between the two girls is stirring, gentle and beautiful. It will leave you with a longing in your heart that is likely to haunt you for long after you put down this book.
I read the little stranger before this and did not think it could get any better - I was wrong!
Book Review: Better Than Stealing!
Summary: 5 Stars
The excellent BBC film-adaptation of "Fingersmith" led me to this novel. Having never read Sarah Waters, I didn't really know what to expect, except, of course, information having to do with the general plot structure. Part of my motivation for reading the book was to help clarify some of what went on at nearly break-neck speed in the film. It did that, and more. Meticulously crafted and often elegantly written, I found myself scarely able to put it down. It's a story about love, obsession, greed, opportunism, delusion, deception (and their multiform vagaries)--not to mention the limitations imposed upon people by sheer fate. Thrown together by an elaborate scheme, two young women (one, an illiterate thief; the other, a virtually imprisoned but well-read heiress) meet, become friends, then, impractically enough, fall in love. Oddly, the literally and figuratively pent-up heiress, Maud, turns out to be the more interesting of the two. Some of what she says in her narration about her discovery of desire through the fingersmith, Sue, is, quite frankly, startling--and beautiful. Both are funny, compelling characters, enmeshed in circumstances beyond their comprehension (initially) and control. The end, like the rest of the book, doesn't disappoint. It's rather fitting, and leaves you wanting more.
Book Review: This book held me hostage.
Summary: 5 Stars
I could not put this book down. And aside from the last Harry Potter book (book #6) this is one of the few books I've read so exhaustively fast that friends and family were a little peeved at my putting them off until I finished.
Needless to say--the page-turning talents of Ms Waters are tremendous.
She wraps you into Victorian England in a way that is part of the story and of our protagonists lives rather than being overly descriptive to show off historical research for it's own sake. Just the same, if you're a fan of Victorian anything (esp. hypocrisy), you'll love the way she immerses you in it.
The story of our two main protagonists, who's fates seem almost completely controlled by others (except of course, for their love of each other) is set among a thick plot of thievery, debauchery, gentlemen society, London squalor and a lunatic asylum (all key victorian themes). The pace is quite fast through all three parts of the book, though I did think it got a little tired in the asylum chapters. however the book regrouped & I loved how it finished.
I've just found that a BBC series was adapted from the book and can't wait to see it on DVD.
I highly recommend this book.
Book Review: Fingersmith
Summary: 5 Stars
It took me three weeks to read Fingermith, but I must confess I really enjoyed reading it. Developed in a very old-fashioned atmosphere, Fingersmith caught all of the reader's attention to the main characters: Sue Trinder and Maud Lilly.
Sue Trinder, is an orphan that grows up in a house, full of fingersmiths (term used to designate mean thief), raised by Ms Sucksby in London. An unscrupulous man commonly known as Gentleman invites Sue to join him to his plot of winning the heart of a naive, young heiress named Maud Lilly who is kept among books by her obsessive uncle. As part of the plot Sue is sent to a full of shades mansion in the countryside to serve as Maud's maid. Maud is the owner of a fortune but she can only receive it if she marries. The plot is that Sue will help Gentleman convince Maud to marry him. Once married they would send Maud to a mad house and both would share the fortune. However, things do not go as planned. Sue and Maud soon become close friends which develop into a mutual physical obsession.
I think that one of the book merits is the rich language used by the writer and the way she set up things in such atmosphere that gets the reader really into the scene.