Fingersmith

Victorian romance! With a twist (well many twists). The Oregon Shakespeare Festival is making this into a play for 2015. Everyone at work is reading this book. Great plot. Could not put this book down.. Glad I had purchased for my kindle so I could read it all night long.

My headline exaggerates a bit, but only Dickens has more plot turns and revelations. And the passion of Sue and Maud is intense although graphic only once. This is a tour de force. I have read Paying Guests, too, but prefer this book because of the plot twists and grubby settings.

_Fingersmith_ ranks with, perhaps surpasses, my long-favorite Victorian styled & set modern novel, John Fowles' _The French Lieutenant's Woman. _Fingersmith_'s early scenes are from the poorest, most crowded, and most corrupt streets of Dickensian London. Then the novel takes a turn into real depravity, as we visit the world of the Victorian sexual imagination -- a world where very nasty books take the place of human emotion and human contact. The extraordinarily well-rendered settings are worth the 5 stars; the twists and re-doublings of Waters's plot stand as a bonus. Great reading!

If you like a good past centuries story with lots of plot twists , surprises, and illicit love themes this story is for you . It is beautifully written and fun to read , but keeps you guessing and second guessing from start to finish ! Who is double crossing who is the million dollar question!

I learned of this book while reading a biography of Willkie Collins. Fans of Collins and Dickens might enjoy this unusual take on mid-18th century life from a female viewpoint. The story drags on a bit, but there are entertaining twists here and there. Of more interest to female readers than male readers, although I reject the notion that it's only for lesbians.

Twist and turns you will not predict in advance. If this were not clearly documented as authored by Waters, I would have sworn it is a recently discovered unpublished book written by Dickens.

Waters does an excellent job of researching the context this story.

Very different and a eyebrow raising read!

I can't say enough good things about this marvelous book. Our heroine, Sue, is a marvelously innocent narrator--when she tells of her crooked, impoverished life, she is bright and charming, a girl you could hear talk forever. Our other narrator is weak and cruel yet stakes a claim for affection, too. To tell anything more would deprive readers of a marvelous experience in reading. This is a tale to get lost in.

I can't say enough good things about this marvelous book. Our heroine, Sue, is a marvelously innocent narrator--when she tells of her crooked, impoverished life, she is bright and charming, a girl you could hear talk forever. Our other narrator is weak and cruel yet stakes a claim for affection, too. To tell anything more would deprive readers of a marvelous experience in reading. This is a tale to get lost in.

This novel by Sarah Waters is not merely entertaining: it contains suspense, a sense of history and treats its genre, one time taboo, with compassion and understanding bringing to light the injust treatment meted out to unprotected women, especially those with an inheritance.

Dickension London comes to light, and the author exposes the carefully hidden pornography Victorians indulged in clandestinely.

The love story between Sue and Maud is tender yet sensual but never distasteful.

Fingersmith was not what I expected. This movie is quite good. This movie has plot, climax and ending. If you want to see this movie, rent it or buy it but read the summary on the back of the dvd. Fingersmith is worth viewing.

I've now enjoyed several novels by Sarah Waters, and each one has been satisfying. I have an English degree, and spent most of those years enjoying this type of historical women's literature. I love Waters' complicated female characters, and the updated lesibian sensibility that defines her stories. This was a great story for twists and turns and "bad girls with hearts of gold" or at least tarnished sterling silver!! Can't wait for her next story!

Excellent "twists" in the story .... kept me reading and rooting for the ending I wanted. The happenings in the asylum were overdone and I kept wanting the author to hurry and move through that part. However, this part is certainly based on facts that are appalling and worth the reader's awareness.

Another outstanding piece of writing from Ms Waters. A little too long and drawn out, but still very, very good. Several good twists in the plot. I liked the plot of this book better than either Tipping the velvet or aAfinity.

This book, which is very Dickensian, is disturbing as to the wickedness that exists in the world, but be SURE to read it to the end, which I must refrain from saying any more about so as not to spoil it for you.

Many years ago I was addicted to gothic mysteries, but in recent years I have read memoirs and novels that aren't gothic. I have been longing for a gothic mystery in which I might lose myself. Fingersmith filled the bill. I couldn't put it down. I was living the story with the two primary characters, Sue and Maud. Cross a Dickens novel with a gothic mystery with an erotic romance of the same-sex kind, and you have Fingersmith in a nutshell. It's the story of two girls with mysterious family backgrounds whose lives converge. Throw in a handsome roguish stranger and a few more amoral characters and you have the makings of a haunting, suspenseful, and ultimately very moving story. It's quite slow-moving which I don't mind at all. In a way there are two stories because the same scenario is repeated so that we can have the perspectives of both of the primary characters. I know that some readers may find this manner of writing to be tedious or repetitious. But most of the time I found this manner of writing to clarify matters very well. I'd say that if you enjoy a typical gothic mystery where much of the action takes place inside homes and if you like a slow-moving, descriptive story that makes you feel as though you're in the characters' homes, living their lives, give this a try. I cried at the end (always a good sign). I know that many readers complain that certain books don't tie up the loose ends, but there is definitely closure in this book and I think you'll be pleased with the ending--I was!

All of Sarah Waters' historical novels accomplish a wonderfully vibrant pastiche of period style and storytelling. Into these vivid imitations, Waters stirs the motifs of the postmodern historical metafictions (textuality; the queer; conspiracy and con game; the tensions between narrative formula, realism and historiography; gender/genre equally as performance) in a way that is so natural it seems she is merely lifting the crust of 19th century fiction (or early 20th, in the case of The Little Stranger) to find what is already baked in the pie. Fingersmith is the most elaborate of her novels (I haven't read the newest, The Paying Guests, yet), with the trickiest machinery of plot and theme. A girl from London's criminal underworld is drawn by her family and their circle into an intricate plot against a privileged young lady her own age; the mastermind of the grand deception, "Gentleman", mesmerizes and manipulates everyone seemingly effortlessly, but the girls, one the instrument and the other the target of his machinations, both pampered and cherished in their way and both exploited in their way, might overthrow him if they combine, but only after the exposure of seemingly endless wheels within wheels of control, coercion, and commodification/instrumentalization. The unfolding of the endlessly deceptive narrative is as suspenseful as the best sensational Victorian serial novels and the explorations of the postmodern themes alongside as satisfying as canonical monuments of modernism and magic realism.

If you are looking for a great lesbian themed movie for your collection, then you have found it! Lots of twists and turns in this drama to keep you interested until the very end. I love Tipping the Velvet and I love Fingersmith. Must have!

First Sarah Waters novel and I was presently surprised by the quality of the writing. Absolutely LOVED the flow of this story. It's a con story of a heist within a con. I shan't say anymore. Lovely and brilliant and a good deal sexy.

Very well crafted story of 2 women with shared & twisted fates. A very good read that kept me riveted. I was sorry when it ended. I don't want to tell more of the story, because it's filled with surprises & I don't want to spoil it for anyone.
I highly recommend it.

Interesting story and plot, with twists and turns. I think it would make an interesting movie. It would have been a more enjoyable read if it had been more heavily edited, as it seemed to run a little too long in parts.

I borrowed the frst copy of Fingersmith from my grandaughter on her recommendation and took it eveywhere because I couldn't stop readng. I damaged it with water and replaced it for my grandaugtee because it definitely is a book you want to have in your library.

. . . but how can we have a story where nearly everyone is a schemer, a betrayer, avaricious and ruthless, and we still love the story? Well, Sarah Waters, you’ve got the answer for that. How can one as a young girl be a reader and writer of pornography and we find her in nearly pristine innocence? Oh, Maud. How can one be raised and trained by thieves and be clueless and loveable? Oh, I get it: Susan is the answer. I knew the plot was going to have twists, even saw the little hints about what those were, and somehow I was still surprised and pleased at how the twists spun the tale. This is one tale with a wealth of the sleight of hand you would expect with a title like that.

The author has a very different writing style which is a little difficult to get used to at first. Once you get into the story, however, it's fascinating; lots of twists and turns! It really kept my attention and made me wonder how things would turn out.

This is my third Sara Waters book, the first being The Paying Guests and the other Tipping the Velvet. These have all been excellent and my only negative thought is that there only a couple more of hers to read.

Well written, cleverly switches views and tells the same story from different perspectives, making the plot twists even more interesting. Great if you love Jane Austen type books but enjoy a more adult read.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Set in "old time" London, where thieves and villains were commonplace, I felt I was taken back in time through Sarah Waters excellent literary writings. The book was extremely addictive reading, there was many a night I could not draw myself away from reading it and go to sleep. Susan, the main character in the book is a naive, but lovable rogue who narrates the events that came to pass that changed her life forever. The book had so many twists and turns, and I was enthralled by every paged I turned. I highly recommend this book, it was an absolute pleasure to read!Fingersmith

This was a wonderfully well done period piece . I'm a huge movie buff & this was very cleverly done . More often than not , I can accurately guess what's around the corner ... not this one ! Left me in moments jaw dropped . A must have film for any true collector of lesbian films ! Visually stunning ... Sarah Waters is a fabulous writer . If you don't have it already ... Buy it today !

I purchased this book because one of my favorite authors, Karin Slaughter, said it was one of her favorites. I was skeptical at first because it is not a thriller, but once I started reading it I was hooked. Sarah really knows how to make you feel every emotion and keeps you guessing the entire book. I'm a huge fan!