Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

10 reviews

fran2567's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Amazingly written, sometimes a bit dark, but worth to keep reading for the incredible plot. Great plottwist and development of women characters. Shows women in the complexity of who they, plays with the ‘saint’ or ‘harlot’ stereotype that tents to be put on women.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Bullying, Confinement, Domestic abuse, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Outing, Drug use, Sexual content, Self harm, Abandonment, Violence, Pregnancy, Murder, Mental illness, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Lesbophobia, Abortion, Self harm, Blood, Child death, Suicide, Sexual violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Pedophilia

If you have trauma of forced institutionalisation or sexual abuse by a family member, then I would not recommend this book. It does have a happy ending and the main characters reclaim their trauma.

zeus_strider's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Forced institutionalization, Emotional abuse, Murder, Child abuse, Sexual violence, Medical trauma, Gaslighting, Sexual content, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Confinement, Toxic friendship, Death, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Domestic abuse, Pedophilia, Drug use, Toxic relationship, Rape, and Misogyny

Minor: Child death, Abortion, Lesbophobia, Mental illness, Blood, and Abandonment

maddramaqueen's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Death, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Confinement, Homophobia, Rape, Sexism, Grief, Sexual content, Forced institutionalization, Abandonment, Classism, Drug use, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Lesbophobia, Medical content, Toxic friendship, Outing, Ableism, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Murder, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Child abuse, Body shaming, Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, Cursing, Mental illness, Addiction, Alcoholism, Blood, and Fatphobia

erynlasbelin's review against another edition

emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No

5.0

There aren't enough stars for this book. The writing is gorgeous: the historical elements are well done, the atmosphere is vivid, and the two protagonists have such distinct voices. All the primary characters are complex, realistic, frustrating, sympathetic - even the villains. And the twists! I can't remember the last time a novel kept me on the edge of my seat like this.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Medical content, Sexual assault, Misogyny, Toxic friendship, Blood, Confinement, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Violence, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Lesbophobia, Outing, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Grief, Ableism, Child death, and Sexual content

Minor: Body shaming, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Alcohol, Pregnancy, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Animal cruelty, and Homophobia

zoiejanelle's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative lighthearted mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

(another library audiobook rental) 

i definitely would have enjoyed this more if i read a physical copy, but the audiobook was also very good! 

this is a fantastic lesbian classic that really appealed to my historical fiction fan brain. the details of the culture/customs era and setting were really fun and added some levity to the darker plots. 

Sue’s perspective in parts one and the end of part three were hilarious, but the scenes at the asylum were honestly nauseating at times. Maud’s point of view was less funny, more thoughtful and romantic. I loved that she had feelings for Sue before Sue realized her own feelings. 

several of the plot twists were brutal, though i admit i spoiled many of them through impatient googling. the pacing was about right, and the romantic element kept me on my toes the entire time. although i really liked living in each character’s head, some parts did drag on and on, which is why this only gets a 4/5 from me. 

overall, i enjoyed the complexity of how each woman felt about themselves and each other, their clear motivations, their unique histories, and their satisfying, poetic ending. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Classism, Toxic relationship, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Lesbophobia, Misogyny, Murder, Sexual content, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Sexual assault, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Gaslighting, Confinement, Domestic abuse, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Alcohol, Homophobia, Blood, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Ableism, Child death, Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual harassment, and Grief

surelyinthefountain's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

It's good! The prose is lush and descriptive. There's this moody, claustrophobic feeling that the writing does so well -- you really get the sense that everyone's got a predestined role to play with little real agency as they rattle on towards their ultimate fates. Fortune feels like a character, and that's pretty neat.
There's a lot of content in here that's uh...pretty triggering, to say the least. Thematically, the book is in no small part about trauma -- its effects, its consequences, etc. -- so it kind of needed to be so. I don't think Waters ever goes gratuitous with it, either. But yeah, the forced institutionalization stuff in here is no joke.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, and Blood

Moderate: Child abuse, Sexual assault, Bullying, Drug use, Mental illness, Physical abuse, and Eating disorder

Minor: Pedophilia

emfass's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Forced institutionalization, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Death, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Bullying, Child abuse, Sexism, Violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Lesbophobia, Domestic abuse, and Misogyny

Moderate: Animal death, Animal cruelty, Sexual content, Mental illness, Drug abuse, Drug use, Rape, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Child death, and Trafficking

Minor: Religious bigotry

sherbertwells's review

adventurous emotional hopeful tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

“My name, in those days, was Susan Trinder” 

When the leader of my local GSA suggested reading Sarah Waters’ novel Fingersmith, her one-word pitch was “Dickensian.” After reading the book, I find this comparison less than apt: what makes a book “Dickensian” in the first place? The weird names? The reversals of fortune and revelations of inheritance? The emphasis on morality? Fingersmith has all of those and more.

But despite his authorial virtues, Charles Dickens could not have written Fingersmith for the simple reason that it’s too gay for his Vicotrian sensibilities. The novel’s premise—an experienced criminal named “Gentleman” recruits a naïve girl for the con of a lifetime—is a mere tchotchke in Dickens’ wheelhouse. But none of his corseted (albeit progressive) stories would allow Susan Trinder and Maud Lilly to fall in love. Nor would they be written from Sue’s earnest, slangy first-person perspective. The credit for this style belongs entirely to Sarah Waters, the Welsh novelist who has made queer historical fiction her bread and butter.

Known for sapphic Victorian adventures like Tipping the Velvet and Affinity, Waters expands on the best aspect of Dickens: his combination of humor and empathy. Her characters, especially Sue and the maternal fence Mrs. Sucksby, are surprisingly nuanced and she includes lots of writerly flourishes that make the reading experience enjoyable. Take the scene where Gentleman teaches Sue how to “dress” a chair:

“He squatted at the side of the chair and smoothed his fingers over the bullying skirts; then he dipped his hand beneath them, reaching high into the layers of silk. He did it so neatly, it looked to me as if he knew his way, all right; and as he reached higher his cheek grew pink, the silk gave a rustle, the crinoline bucked, the chair quivered hard upon the kitchen floor, the joints of its legs faintly shrieking. Then it was still” (34)

Sexy, right?*

Besides the desire for queer representation, the main draw of Waters’ books is their author. Like Dickens, Sarah Waters is a brand—but not one I’m terribly interested in buying. Fingersmith is a fun story but not a particularly great one.

If you grew up on Six of Crows and are ready for something more adult or are a Useless Lesbian™ looking for a heroine like yourself, you might enjoy Fingersmith or the rest of Waters’ catalog. Her books are cool. They’re twisty. They’re gay as heck.

But don’t call them “Dickensian.”

*I have no idea if this is sexy.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Violence, Blood, Drug abuse, Drug use, Addiction, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Sexual content, Homophobia, and Death of parent

Minor: Sexual assault and Rape

Mrs. Sucksby runs a "baby farm," a Victorian business that cares for babies and occasionally sells them.

kimmysanders's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Read as an ebook from the local library]

Books like this generally don’t hit my radar. I do love well executed historical fiction, but as you might know from reading my review of The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep, I’m not a Dickens person. Victorian England is not my particular wheelhouse. But I do like Korean film, and The Handmaiden, Park Chan-wook’s sumptuous 2016 film, follows the initial plot of this book relatively closely, so I was curious to read the original.

Because this is a suspense/mystery book, describing the plot too much would give up some of the twists, so once again I’m going to be light on details. The twin hearts of the story are Sue Trinder, a 17-year-old orphaned girl raised in a London thieves’ den by her adoptive mother Mrs. Sucksby with hopes of eventually doing something that will make her fortune, and Maud Lilly, a 17-year-old orphaned girl raised by her uncle in his lonely country house to be his secretary and reader. The two are connected by Richard Rivers (called Gentleman in London for his fancy ways), a conman determined to marry Maud for her inheritance and use Sue to help him by installing her as Maud’s maid. Once Maud and Gentleman are married, Maud will be declared insane and committed to an asylum, and Gentleman will inherit her fortune. That’s the original plan, but Sue and Maud are both keeping secrets, and nothing will turn out the way that either of them expect.

This is an exceptionally atmospheric book. You really feel the damp and slow decay of the Lilly house, the claustrophobic heat in Mrs. Sucksby’s London rooms. You can almost hear the clock tick and the soft swish of silks in the silence of slow passing hours. There’s a lot that doesn’t happen, which serves to set off the things that do. The narrative depends on its two main characters, and you are kept in suspense as to how you feel about them — whether you pity one and root for the other, love one and hate the other, or accept both with all their graces and faults. It’s quite effectively done, and until the end you’re not sure where anything is going or what will work out, if anything at all.

This is a long book, at 511 pages, and some of it does drag in places when you’re waiting for something to happen. If you can bend yourself to the pace, it’s worth it, but it’s difficult. Also, the content warnings for this one are numerous. There are very detailed scenes of involuntary confinement and medical trauma/abuse. There is also what Maud does for her uncle, which

could easily be considered sexual abuse of a minor or at the very least a deeply inappropriate adult/minor relationship

. There is a lot of child abuse, this being Victorian England. And of course, there’s sexual content, although it’s really not particularly racy by today’s standards.

I found this overall fairly enjoyable, if long. I had forgotten a lot of the main plot points from the film, and the third act is quite different altogether. Sue and Maud are flawed heroines but they’re thoroughly engaging, and in the end you cannot help but fall for both. Their story is quite lovely, in its own awful way, and they each have grit and beauty to spare.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Physical abuse, Sexual content, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Murder, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Blood, Child death, Cursing, Death of parent, and Drug use

hardy314's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

I truly adored this book. The characters had great chemistry, the central mystery and twists were interesting and enjoyable, and the ending is satisfying.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Sexual content, and Confinement

Moderate: Addiction, Incest, and Drug use