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Original poster

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

52 replies

FoxRedPuppy · 21/04/2025 21:41

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!

OP posts:
LoudSnoringDog · 21/04/2025 21:47

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

LoudSnoringDog · 21/04/2025 21:48

If you like the author I also recommend Affinity

Starryknightcloud · 21/04/2025 21:48

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

notatinydancer · 21/04/2025 21:49

Her books are great

EmeraldRoulette · 21/04/2025 21:49

LoudSnoringDog · 21/04/2025 21:48

If you like the author I also recommend Affinity

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.

Wardrobehanger · 21/04/2025 21:50

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

RustyRed · 21/04/2025 21:53

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.

NorrisToenail · 21/04/2025 21:56

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.

Original poster
FoxRedPuppy · 21/04/2025 21:58

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

OP posts:
Purplebunnie · 21/04/2025 22:20

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

EmpressaurusKitty · 21/04/2025 22:25

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.

IdaPrentice · 21/04/2025 22:31

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.

irishcelticwitch · 21/04/2025 22:31

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!!

Hephebe · 21/04/2025 22:34

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

Hephebe · 21/04/2025 22:35

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

HouseCaptain · 21/04/2025 22:36

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.

WeirdyBeardyMarrowBabyLady · 21/04/2025 22:42

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

EmeraldRoulette · 22/04/2025 00:23

I loved Tipping the Velvet too

Also thought Faber's Crimson Petal was fab.

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

ThisIsMyYearToFindMyself · 22/04/2025 00:37

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.

Namerchangee · 22/04/2025 00:40

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.

wwyd2021medicine · 22/04/2025 15:05

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

MargotMoon · 22/04/2025 15:15

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.

TalkFastThinkFaster · 22/04/2025 23:38

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.

MonkeyTennis34 · 23/04/2025 11:08

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

MonkeyTennis34 · 23/04/2025 11:10

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