A review by kaiyakaiyo
Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I griped and moaned the whole way because i hate to see people suffer or make bad choices but man was this a treat! 

i haven’t read much historical queer lit, and i fear i have been missing out. The yearning, the early stirrings of identity movements, the longing, the muff-diving… phew! Gender in this book is sooooo fascinating and I would have loved to get my hands on this to write about at Davidson. My past profs should be glad I didn’t bc I would have been insufferable.

Nancy was a whirlwind of a character, and I didn’t mind how internal the book was because it was so moving to see Nancy grow so realistically. She was selfish, kind, cruel, naive, learned from her mistakes, made the same mistakes anyway, silly, proud, bold— she felt like a person in the room with me in a way few authors can achieve 

The relationships depicted are heartbreaking and heartmending in turns, and the sex work was depicted so starkly yet without stigma. 

In the afterword, Waters talks about improvements she’d make on this early work of hers, and while I totally agree with them, frankly that excites me for Fingersmith. This is a very, very good book. Any book Waters thinks is better? Hell yeah

Fun tidbit: I got the recc from a stripper on instagram reels that in part uses her platform to advocate for women in her field to find workplaces where they feel safe and get the pay they deserve and I think she’s so cool. She is also sapphic so when she recommended books I hadn’t heard of I decided to try. Very glad I did! 
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