Book Review: Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

[alias_sqbr]

This was great. I watched the miniseries of "Tipping the Velvet" (another book of hers) and found it a bit over the top, but this is like a cross between Jane Eyre and Oliver Twist only darker and more morally ambiguous plus lesbians (and not as well written, obviously, but still pretty good). The characterisations and plot slipped into the cliches of the Victorian melodrama it's a pastiche of here and there, and I picked up some weird attitudes to fat/large women in places, but as the story progressed it got much more nuanced and interesting than I was expecting. It was incredibly readable too, I got through all 548 pages in two days.

I need more easy-to-read well written stories with strong female protagonists and happy-ish endings, I'm getting sick of romance novels and shojo manga.

Comments

[fred_mouse]

have I pushed Nina Kiriki Hoffman at you? At least one of hers fits this description very well. I have three I would be willing to lend, except that I think I've currently lent them to cupidsbow.

[sqbr]

I have never heard of this author! So that I can pursue multiple avenues of acquirement: what do you recommend in particular?