Reviews with content warning for Murder - The Paying Guests

first half was really good, second half was really boring. and yet i couldn't put i down. but it could have been 200 pages shorter. there was so much character introspection and yet their feelings still seemed to change at random.

i feel like after the murder it could have been really good but it was just boring. and i knew it would probably end well for the characters, but i feel like it was way too easy for them. they just lied their way out of it with no consequences. and nothing actually happened after the murder. just a lot of investigation and no action.

THAT SAID, i liked it.

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ergative's review

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dark emotional reflective tense slow-paced

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

5.0

I really, really liked this book. I found it easy to sink into the narrative prose; I found all the awkward uncertainties about how a relationship is progressing very convincing; and I think the ending could have so easily taken an easier way out (fess up; or don't fess up but be ruined by guilt ever after), and instead somehow managed to make things (maybe) come out okay. When I was little, I remember my father (??) explaining that it's easier to write a sad ending than a happy ending, because 'rocks fall, everyone dies' is easier to plan than a solution that fixes the problems you'vve introduced into the narrative. This book is perhaps not quite so binary as sad ending/happy ending, but I kept on expecting things to end badly in a way that felt rather inevitable, and the fact that Waters managed to avoid that in a way that still felt believable was very impressive.

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julialmds27's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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mullemit's review

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I feel cheated, I’m honestly so annoyed.

I don’t like murder stories, I think it’s overdone, it’s not suspenseful to me, it’s gross and deeply uninteresting. And I did not see it coming in this story which makes it so much worse, because I was enjoying the social suspense, the slow portrayal of 1920s expectations of women, and now I don’t want to continue the book, because this “twist” changes everything.

The only other thing I have to add, is that I think Sarah Waters majorly stepped up her dialogue-game with this book, too bad I won’t be finishing it.

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sinceremercy's review

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dark sad tense slow-paced

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

2.5

This review contains spoilers.

The first act of this book is very slow, but I found a lot to like about it. The concept of the central romance appealed to me, as did the setting which was well brought to life.

As I got through the second act and then the third, it became clear to me that I really dislike the main character (Frances). I took some issues with her to begin with, and I really disliked the first sex scene between the main characters; Lilian asks her repeatedly to stop and Frances tells her she "can't" which I just didn't like, but honestly was willing to overlook it because romance genre can Be Like That... Except that she continues to be extremely pushy with Lilian in other ways throughout the book. At one point in the third act after Frances lashes out at Lilian unjustifiably, Lilian tells her "you always bully me" which struck me as being extremely true and extremely uncomfortable given that that's basically the same problem Lilian has with her husband.

Frances bullies her into deciding to leave him, then bullies her about her decision to terminate her pregnancy, makes the decision to out their affair to her husband, bullies her a bit about the aftermath of that, bullies her into deciding to come forward, then bullies her into staying silent again, then bullies her repeatedly for staying silent... It's kind of overwhelming.

Almost worse than that is that Frances has a consistent lack of faith throughout the relationship. Essentially any time she's apart from Lilian for more than a day she starts to wonder if she even ever liked her at all. And at a certain point her lack of faith rubbed off on me; I'm not confident actually that they will be happy together or that Frances will be constant to her, especially given what happened to her earlier relationship with Chrissy, which she doesn't appear to have actually learned anything from— she just overwrites her own memories to say that it's different with Lilian and that she never actually felt as strongly for Chrissy as she does for Lilian. ...But her feelings for Lilian, while strong in the moment, don't seem to hold a lot of staying power after all when anything comes between them.

All in all I just feel bad for Lilian. I was compelled to finish this book but I liked it much less by the end than I was expecting to by the beginning.

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