Fingersmith

[MarionCole]

I was prompted to read it by the twist thread a few weeks ago.

Bloody good read, isn't it.

[IndridCold]

When you've caught up with your chores 'Affinity' is good too .

[ColonelBrandonsBiggestGroupie]

I thought it was rubbish but I appear to be alone in this.

[megapixels]

Is it ok to post spoilers here? Want to discuss some stuff but can't do it without mentioning things.

[TotalChaos]

I wasn't keen either, thought it was a bit overlong and overblown. Much preferred Tipping the Velvet, thought it was more fun. CBG - out of interest, do you also dislike Shadow of the wind?

[ColonelBrandonsBiggestGroupie]

Not read it - started it and was v quickly bored by it so gave up without really giving it a try tbh.

[bluebump]

Oh yes I thought this was brilliant, as I do all of her books. I actually liked The Night Watch the best but not many people agree with me.

[MarionCole]

I think it's OK to post spoilers mega, but then I've read it now!

Perhaps you could put SPOILER ALERT at the top of the post.

[megapixels]

Thank you MarionCole, well SPOILER ALERT then :).


I didn't enjoy the book as a whole, but I enjoyed huge parts of it - the descriptions of London for one. I was expecting a twist so saw the first one coming, but quite late. I realised it by the way the doctors were speaking to Sue, it seemed obvious that they thought she was the patient. There were no characters I actually liked but weirdly enough it didn't keep me from reading on.

Were we supposed to feel sympathy for Mrs. Sucksby? It seemed like her final act in taking the blame for the murder was an act of redemption for everything she'd done. If so it didn't do it for me, I thought she was repulsive and was happy to see her hanged. It seemed to me like the author meant for Gentleman to be the real villain of the whole plot (his blood dripping into Sue's chamber pot, washing over the all-seeing eye), but I don't see why as neither Sue nor Maud were anything to him.

When Sue was in the madhouse and Maud ran away in London the story read very much like a Western version of A Thousand Splendid Suns. I felt so much despair at the helplessness of their situations and that even their immediate fates could only be determined on the say-so of men. Which made the ending quite confusing, was it possible for two ladies of that time to live by themselves, in a lesbian relationship? The servants for example would know what kind of relationship they were having.

After the first twist I thought the others became more predictable.

[Cutelittlecatlover]

I totally agree megapixels. I read it after reading the twist thread on here and I think I would have enjoyed it more if I hadn't had such big expectations iyswim. I saw the twist coming because I knew there was one, the bit when Maud was giving her dresses to Anne and saying she looked like the lady gave it away for me.

I thought the big twist would come later in the story so I was a bit disappointed when I got to the end and realised that was it!

[MarionCole]

I didn't see the twist coming even though I knew there was one!

[tiredemma]

Affinity is brilliant.

Love Sarah Waters

The TV adaptation of Fingersmith is also V good