Fingersmith

Set in Victorian era London the novel is a wickedly fabulous pastiche of the overly melodramatic literary style of the period and includes one of the best plot twists I have read in ages. Waters has created a varied cast of Dickensian characters, none of whom I would trust as far as I could throw them, and I also loved her scene-setting. The faded glamour of Briar House, the dingy terrace of Lant Street, and the terrors of the asylum all became very real as I kept reading. My favourite part of Fingersmith was the dual viewpoint. Seeing scenes that we thought we already knew, but now through a completely different lens provided great tension and I appreciated how each character had a distinctive voice so it was easy to follow their take on the story. Occasionally Fingersmith did feel a tad overlong, but generally the writing kept to a good pace and I was always keen to find out what would next befall our heroines.

Going into reading this, all I knew about was that Sarah Waters writes historical novels with lesbians in them, so what's not to love (if you're me)? The story surprised me a bit, because it was waaaay gloomier than expected.

17-year old Sue Trinder is a fingersmith, a thief in Victorian London. An orphan, she is living in the house of Mrs. Sucksby who 'farms' babies for money, taking in orphans and selling them. Sue loves the folks at the house like a family, and Mrs. Sucksby is like a mother to her. One of the scoundrels at the house comes up with a daring plan to get married to an heiress with the help of her lady's maid and then have the wife sent off to an asylum so that he and the maid can split the inheritance between them. Sue agrees to be the lady's maid and travels to the house Briar, where she meets Maud Lilly, the lady who is about to be swindled out of her inheritance. Which is not as easy as it first seems, and twists and turns throughout the whole story.

Sarah Waters manages to write in a very Dickensian style. Briar is gloomy, dark, and full of hidden secrets, like Mr. Lilly's library, and the streets of London are dirty, smelly and dangerous. I found it to be quite the page turner, because the story twists in so many unexpected ways from the original plot that it's hard to predict how it might end, and keeps you reading.

My one issue is that the two main characters who have their own points of view, Sue and Maud, are not always very likeable, which meant I was less moved by events than I should have been. Which ultimately makes me stop my rating at 4 stars. If you like gloomy, Dickens-style novels and don't shy away from a girl loving another girl (mind you, it's hardly explicit), it's a good read.