I’m very late to this but, Fingersmith! 😍

[FoxRedPuppy]

Just finished. I’ve had it ages, got it in a charity shop. But I hadn’t read it, I’ve had a thing with not reading and now I’m recuperating from a health thing and I’m discovering all these books!

I loved it, I was just about to go to bed, finished the end of Part one and was 😱 and had to keep reading.

Realise it was published 20 years ago!

I loved this! There’s a great tv adaptation too. Gosh I read it about 17 years ago and couldn’t put it down!

If you like the author I also recommend Affinity

Oh I loved this in my teens! Memory is shocking now but there's a big twist isn’t there

Her books are great

Yes I like Fingersmith but Affinity is even better.

and then we have The Little Stranger, the best of them all.

such a brilliant writer.

Yes I really enjoyed this. Especially the twist. I was listening to it whilst running and did a little skippy thing!

Love Sarah Waters but I haven’t read this one.
Just read The Little Stranger, a very atmospheric haunted house story. Really enjoyed The Paying Guests too. Brilliant, old-fashioned storytelling.

Weirdly I have just finished this myself! I did enjoy it and loved the twists but found it difficult to read sometimes, parts were hard work for me. It's the longest I've ever taken to read a book to be honest.

i think it’s the quickest I’ve read a book in a while. Last night I spent the whole evening reading until midnight!

I've not long finished it. Guessed the first twist but not the others. So well written

Can’t believe nobody’s mentioned Sarah Waters’ first book, Tipping the Velvet!

OP, I was about to put Fingersmith down for the night when I got to the twist & ended up being very tired next day at work.

I also read this in the last year - brilliant, a twist that turns everything on its head, then another twist at the end! Such vivid descriptions of the lives of poor Londoners, and you really care about the characters.
I then - kind of by coincidence as I found it in a charity shop not long after - read The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber, which is set in a similar world (about Victorian prostitutes rather than thieves), with a similar feminist / lesbian slant - but IMO not as good as Fingersmith, though I did enjoy it.

My all time favourite author and her best book by far, I recommended this book to a friend and she texted me one night with WTF!!! I knew exactly what page she was on!! Love it. The atmospheres she builds are electric in all her books, I have a reread around xmas every year as a treat. Rumours that she is writing currently abound, hurry up Sarah!!

I LOVED The Crimson Petal and The White, @IdaPrentice! There was a good adaptation of that too, with Romola Garai.

I've enjoyed a few Sarah Waters books but they sort of all fade into one for me, in retrospect...was Fingersmith the one with two women and a man? vague

For a similar vibe, try The Meaning of Night and it's sequel The Glass of Time, by Michael Cox.

Isn’t it incredible? I live in hope that SW will write at least two more novels. She is the writer I dream to be.

I too read it a very very long time ago but remember my mouth dropping open in shock at the midway point. Great book.

I loved Tipping the Velvet too

Also thought Faber's Crimson Petal was fab.

thanks for recs, this is all very much my genre.

Fingersmith and Tipping the Velvet are my two favourites of hers. I haven’t been able to get into any of her others, not sure why really as they’re obviously well loved.

I’ve not read this but will put it on my list! I read The Little Stranger in a day, many years ago when I was able to do such a thing. Absolutely wonderful writing.

Affinity is currently 99p on kindle store if useful to anyone

I love all of Sarah Waters’ books and this one left me gobsmacked and elated when I read it over 15 years ago. Weirdly, I re-read it last year, and didn’t really enjoy it!! Maybe sometimes it’s better not to go back?

There is a film adaptation set in 1930s Korea called The Handmaiden which is fabulous.

I read it last year and loved it too! Great writing and great plot - you don’t always get both! I read The Little Stranger years ago, also really enjoyed that but Fingersmith was my favourite. Must check Affinity and Tipping the Velvet.

I too LOVED this book.
Can’t wait to read Affinity and The Little Stranger.

@EmeraldRoulette
Oh my….Crimson Petal and the White! What a book.