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laurendonnelly3's review against another edition
dark
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-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
pchoc's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
inthebooknook's review against another edition
5.0
Dickensian vibes, masterful suspense writing, literary fiction that isn’t boring and pretentious. I now plan to read everything by Sarah Waters.
deanna_rigney's review against another edition
3.0
This is a whole lot of Victorian London a la Dickens (think orphans, pickpockets, lunatic asylums, etc.) The story is entertaining and told by two separate characters. You start out thinking one thing, but then a big switcheroo in point of view brings a whole lot of new stuff to light and you’re like, “Oh my!” I enjoyed the tale but found the work overall to be heavy on wordiness yet light in the substance department. You’d think with a book this thick you’d have some character development, but alas, not much occurs.
hmatt_official's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
bubbly_tea's review against another edition
dark
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
I didn't like the writing style. The plot does have potential and is quite interesting but because of the writing it was difficult for me to get through. I skipped a lot of pages in between and everytime I started reading again it didn't feel like I was missing important information.
hesmykindofgirl's review against another edition
3.0
2.5/5 stars
I really wanted to like this book more than I did. One of my main issues with it that it was just too long. It was really frustrating having to go through the same events again from another pov. The nature of the story also meant that the main narrator often took a long time to realise things the audience already knew from seeing things from Maud’s perspective. Though this was great at creating tension in some places, it mostly just led to the same pieces of information being repeatedly revealed to the audience.
Some of my issues with it will inevitably come from the fact that, like a lot of people, I watched the movie first and definitely preferred it. Not only did this make the long sections feel longer, as I was aware of what was about to happen and so didn’t feel the tension, but it also meant I was unfavourably comparing events of the book to how things happened in the film. I loved The Handmaiden so much because the women win! You spend the film thinking that one woman, or the other, or both, are being outwitted by the men, but they turn out victorious! They outsmart everyone trying to outsmart them and they get away!!! But in Fingersmith they are just passive victims to the plot. Literally nothing that Maud and Sue do impacts how the story plays out, and they are instead just dragged along by the narrative. Even Richard Rivers’ death wasn’t confirmed to be by Maud’s hand!
The most damming aspect of this book, however, is the fact that I did not feel the romantic tension between Maud and Sue at all. I was starting to feel it somewhat from Maud’s side towards the end of her first section of narration, but did not feel any pull from Sue’s side at all. This meant that the long wait for the payoff was simply not worth it for me.
Ultimately, I gave this film 3/5 rather than 2/5 stars as I do still remember the shock that I felt when watching the twist play out in the Handmaiden for the first time, and I definitely think that I would have enjoyed this book and its various twists far more having not seen the movie first.
I really wanted to like this book more than I did. One of my main issues with it that it was just too long. It was really frustrating having to go through the same events again from another pov. The nature of the story also meant that the main narrator often took a long time to realise things the audience already knew from seeing things from Maud’s perspective. Though this was great at creating tension in some places, it mostly just led to the same pieces of information being repeatedly revealed to the audience.
Some of my issues with it will inevitably come from the fact that, like a lot of people, I watched the movie first and definitely preferred it. Not only did this make the long sections feel longer, as I was aware of what was about to happen and so didn’t feel the tension, but it also meant I was unfavourably comparing events of the book to how things happened in the film. I loved The Handmaiden so much because the women win! You spend the film thinking that one woman, or the other, or both, are being outwitted by the men, but they turn out victorious! They outsmart everyone trying to outsmart them and they get away!!! But in Fingersmith they are just passive victims to the plot. Literally nothing that Maud and Sue do impacts how the story plays out, and they are instead just dragged along by the narrative. Even Richard Rivers’ death wasn’t confirmed to be by Maud’s hand!
The most damming aspect of this book, however, is the fact that I did not feel the romantic tension between Maud and Sue at all. I was starting to feel it somewhat from Maud’s side towards the end of her first section of narration, but did not feel any pull from Sue’s side at all. This meant that the long wait for the payoff was simply not worth it for me.
Ultimately, I gave this film 3/5 rather than 2/5 stars as I do still remember the shock that I felt when watching the twist play out in the Handmaiden for the first time, and I definitely think that I would have enjoyed this book and its various twists far more having not seen the movie first.