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ranbara's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
oh.. this is the book of all time. to be a tom from whitstable in 1888..
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Confinement, Infidelity, Sexual content, Miscarriage, Domestic abuse, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual harassment, Misogyny, Sexual violence, Drug use, Grief, Death, Alcohol, Cursing, Lesbophobia, Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Blood, Forced institutionalization, and Abandonment
thelaurasaurus's review against another edition
challenging
informative
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
A saucy lesbian romp around Victorian London, let down by a cast of characters who were either unlikeable or underwhelming. I’ve read and enjoyed three other Sarah Waters books, so I was surprised at how much of a slog this, her first novel, was. In some ways it felt like a series of set pieces rather than a fully formed story. In fact it was the final scene, spread across a day at a socialist rally, that saved it from a 2-star rating.
I read the 20th anniversary edition, published in 2018, and it was interesting to read the new afterword, where Waters raises all of my complaints and more. I hadn’t thought of a novel as a snapshot of a period of an authors life in the way she describes it, so that was an interesting new perspective.
If you’re looking to get into Sarah Waters, then The Night Watch, set in London during WWII, is my favourite.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Minor: Homophobia
juliastern__'s review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
lighthearted
sad
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? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Grief, Toxic relationship, and Sexual content
Moderate: Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Death, Toxic friendship, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and Sexism
Minor: Forced institutionalization, Miscarriage, Infidelity, Racial slurs, Lesbophobia, and Alcohol
clover_patch_story's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Homophobia
flowersforfroggo's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.0
All cards on the table, I picked up this book purely because it was on a list of must read spicy sapphic novels and, as the true smut goblin I am, I wanted a fix.
Tipping the Velvet is a genuinely good read and I was hooked and along for the ride from the moment Nan was sitting in her little corner booth in the theatre longing for Kitty to throw the flower to her.
I devoured this book, annotating along the way, and while I happily tagged many a page blue for spicy scenes, by the time I read the final line the whole book was filled with rainbow sticky strips to mark bits and pieces of writing that sung beautifully.
Sarah Waters has such a way of capturing the excitement of first love and the first flickers of desire and we see these moments of sapphic love play out so vividly on the page. So much so, that there is an element of cringe early in the book with Nan expressing her inner thoughts about Kitty that took me right back to being sixteen, when everything was bright and new and just a little spiky. Fellow smut goblins will rejoice at the tasty sex scenes scattered through the book. Not overly explicit, but delicious enough to keep things interesting.
Overall, Nan does not have an easy life and she comes across as selfish and careless with those she loves, but I still rooted for her every step of the way and I loved to see her identity evolve. She is so alone in her world, even surrounded by the other characters and what struck me was that she is constantly being given an identity to perform for others. Nan’s relationships in the book are all in one way or another controlling and it made me sad to see that she doesn’t ever really get the space to settle into herself and be seen.
“Oh! I feel like I’ve been repeating other people’s speeches all my life. Now when I want to make a speech of my own, I find I hardly know how.”
Girl, tell me about it.
It’s only towards the end of the book that she finds her fit and realises there are other girls like her who present the same way. We can’t be who we don’t see. It’s rare to want more from a book but I would have loved to have followed her journey of self expression and gender identity a little more.
Nan is not a perfect character and it is certainly not a perfect love story but it is gritty, messy and so very enjoyable. Tipping the Velvet is absolutely worth the random pick up and has earned its place on the spicy sapphic list. Would read again.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual content and Domestic abuse
Minor: Lesbophobia and Sexual assault
outerscout's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
medium-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
4.5
if therapy were both around & helpful in the 1890s i'd say nancy needs it. a beautiful story with a beautiful, hopeful ending
Content Warnings
Graphic: Classism, Emotional abuse, Lesbophobia, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, and Confinement
Moderate: Transphobia, Racism, Abandonment, and Racial slurs
tiernanhunter's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
sad
medium-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
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Homophobia, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Rape, Abandonment, Alcohol, Pregnancy, Xenophobia, Toxic relationship, Classism, Cursing, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Lesbophobia, Racial slurs, and Grief
marleywrites's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
This review will contain spoilers.
“Tipping the Velvet” covers a span of about eight years in the life of Nancy Astley, from age 18-25. Nancy essentially has her gay awakening in her small hometown where she helps prepare oysters when a musical act of Miss Kitty Butler arrives at the theater. The two eventually grow closer and their relationship blooms, plateaus, and falls. The rest of the novel follows the aftermath of everything, and how Nancy moves on from it all.
I found this novel to be extremely impressive. I was engaged from the start— the prose is beautiful and visceral, and the author painted a realistic picture of Nancy’s perspective throughout this novel. Nancy’s emotions are strong and intense, and we see the range of feelings she experiences in exquisite detail.
I found Nancy’s story fascinating. Her character was well-developed and we saw her grow throughout the novel in a fascinating and treacherous way. Nancy has been through a lot— and in a way, she’s quite privileged through some of situations she finds herself in. However she is simultaneously a survivor of multiple questionable sexual situations with a partner who has a significant powerful advantage over he, she is a renter, she loses everything all at once.
What I found most intriguing was the emotional changes that Nancy experiences throughout the story. The shift from Kitty being the only thing that can save her, to realizing she doesn’t need her at all anymore, is one that I think anyone who’s had a first love and first heartbreak can relate to. The emotional distance she holds herself at with Diana, with Zena, and with Florence (at first) protects her, but also hurts her. I enjoyed watching the slow but steady shift as she learned to trust and love again, and to recognize it as something steadier, and to learn what it means to have a partner who is proud to be yours.
The writing style of this author has captured me completely— when I finished this novel I immediately went and added all the rest of her work to my TBR. This was a stunning debut and I can’t wait to read the backlist.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Lesbophobia, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Grief, and Infidelity
Moderate: Death, Violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Cursing, Drug use, Racial slurs, Abandonment, Blood, Alcohol, Suicidal thoughts, Classism, Emotional abuse, and Outing
Minor: Miscarriage and Racism
foreveristhesweetestcon's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Tipping the Velvet certainly started out great. I was immediately impressed by the marked and beautiful prose Waters wrote with. It was the kind of writing that made you pause and marvel and want to live in the author’s thoughts forever. The novel also began with a very compelling romance as well as adequate pacing—I fell almost as much as in love with Kitty as Nan did (little did I know, there would be so much more to the novel).
It’s one of those books that you need to be interested in the subject matter to fully enjoy and appreciate, however. Nan King’s 1890s London greatly paralleled the Prohibition-Era New York that I wrote my APUSH research paper about, so I was certainly intrigued by all the music halls, the cross-dressing, the toms and mary-annes. And you can tell Waters had done her research. However, between the drastic plot changes and sometimes dragging scenes of unlikeable characters, there were quite a few times when Waters lost my attention. That being said, the gorgeous prose and Nan’s multidimensional development were reason enough for me to finish the novel.
And I am glad I kept going. I was often rewarded by reappearances of important characters—Florence and Kitty, of course, but also Zena, Diana, Billy-Boy (though I would have also loved to catch a glimpse of Mrs. Milde and Gracie again). I did not love the ending (I think I had issues with the pacing—too slow in the middle, too rushed at the end), but Nan’s development into a much more honest, hardened, and loyal individual was incredibly worthwhile.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Sexual assault
Moderate: Homophobia
moss_martii's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Grief, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Lesbophobia, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Physical abuse, Sexual content, and Classism