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crispydegas's review against another edition
The prose is good but the convoluted plot with 5 different time periods is played out poorly especially when we jump from interesting character developments (Birdie and Plain Joe) to the most boring man on earth (Leonard). Also Elodie is a bitch to her bestie for no reason, she's marrying a man she does not love but makes that everyone else's problem. Fingersmith Birdie was more interesting to read about than her falling in love with a high-society artist and becoming his muse. Indeed she goes from being the clockmaker's daughter into the artist's not-legally-married wife. Her sense of agency was there in childhood with a Little Women-esque meet-cute with Lauri- I mean James Stratton . Then it diminishes as she grows older and moves into Birchwood Manor. If this is Morton's way of telling us that we will settle down and become boring pricks as we move from adolescence into adulthood, I don't want to hear it. Also I disagree with comments that this is a Gothic novel, I have never met a happier ghost. Cheers, 21st century women of England, I hope you meet a man who isn't Edward Radcliffe lest you end up in an Edgar Allen Poe-type of situation.
Content Warnings
Minor: Child death and Pedophilia
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