A review by vacantbones
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

3.0

And so you see it is love - not scorn, not malice; only love - that makes me harm her, in the end.

As 2022 chugs along and I continue my quest to read several books a month from the far end of my TBR list, I find myself wondering: how did some of these books end up on the list? I don't mean this in a bad way, necessarily, but I have my staple genres that I stick to and those that I tend to avoid. Namely, I generally find myself bored to tears by historical fiction. Like the thieves among its pages, Fingersmith sneaked onto my reading list without a second glance.

I enjoyed this read much more than I would've thought thanks to the interesting plot and characters and the romance that unfolds before our eyes. Sue and Maud are both strong narrators that can carry a story.

This seems to be an unpopular opinion, but Fingersmith was just *way* too long for my liking. The retelling of certain events through Maud's eyes provides important context but also makes the read feel tediously long, and I could've done without how detailed the madhouse scenes are. A beautiful story is being told but my interest continued to ebb and flow until the very end.