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A review by sinceremercy
The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters
dark
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
This review contains spoilers.
The first act of this book is very slow, but I found a lot to like about it. The concept of the central romance appealed to me, as did the setting which was well brought to life.
As I got through the second act and then the third, it became clear to me that I really dislike the main character (Frances). I took some issues with her to begin with, and I really disliked the first sex scene between the main characters; Lilian asks her repeatedly to stop and Frances tells her she "can't" which I just didn't like, but honestly was willing to overlook it because romance genre can Be Like That... Except that she continues to be extremely pushy with Lilian in other ways throughout the book. At one point in the third act after Frances lashes out at Lilian unjustifiably, Lilian tells her "you always bully me" which struck me as being extremely true and extremely uncomfortable given that that's basically the same problem Lilian has with her husband.
Frances bullies her into deciding to leave him, then bullies her about her decision to terminate her pregnancy, makes the decision to out their affair to her husband, bullies her a bit about the aftermath of that, bullies her into deciding to come forward, then bullies her into staying silent again, then bullies her repeatedly for staying silent... It's kind of overwhelming.
Almost worse than that is that Frances has a consistent lack of faith throughout the relationship. Essentially any time she's apart from Lilian for more than a day she starts to wonder if she even ever liked her at all. And at a certain point her lack of faith rubbed off on me; I'm not confident actually that they will be happy together or that Frances will be constant to her, especially given what happened to her earlier relationship with Chrissy, which she doesn't appear to have actually learned anything from— she just overwrites her own memories to say that it's different with Lilian and that she never actually felt as strongly for Chrissy as she does for Lilian. ...But her feelings for Lilian, while strong in the moment, don't seem to hold a lot of staying power after all when anything comes between them.
All in all I just feel bad for Lilian. I was compelled to finish this book but I liked it much less by the end than I was expecting to by the beginning.
The first act of this book is very slow, but I found a lot to like about it. The concept of the central romance appealed to me, as did the setting which was well brought to life.
As I got through the second act and then the third, it became clear to me that I really dislike the main character (Frances). I took some issues with her to begin with, and I really disliked the first sex scene between the main characters; Lilian asks her repeatedly to stop and Frances tells her she "can't" which I just didn't like, but honestly was willing to overlook it because romance genre can Be Like That... Except that she continues to be extremely pushy with Lilian in other ways throughout the book. At one point in the third act after Frances lashes out at Lilian unjustifiably, Lilian tells her "you always bully me" which struck me as being extremely true and extremely uncomfortable given that that's basically the same problem Lilian has with her husband.
Frances bullies her into deciding to leave him, then bullies her about her decision to terminate her pregnancy, makes the decision to out their affair to her husband, bullies her a bit about the aftermath of that, bullies her into deciding to come forward, then bullies her into staying silent again, then bullies her repeatedly for staying silent... It's kind of overwhelming.
Almost worse than that is that Frances has a consistent lack of faith throughout the relationship. Essentially any time she's apart from Lilian for more than a day she starts to wonder if she even ever liked her at all. And at a certain point her lack of faith rubbed off on me; I'm not confident actually that they will be happy together or that Frances will be constant to her, especially given what happened to her earlier relationship with Chrissy, which she doesn't appear to have actually learned anything from— she just overwrites her own memories to say that it's different with Lilian and that she never actually felt as strongly for Chrissy as she does for Lilian. ...But her feelings for Lilian, while strong in the moment, don't seem to hold a lot of staying power after all when anything comes between them.
All in all I just feel bad for Lilian. I was compelled to finish this book but I liked it much less by the end than I was expecting to by the beginning.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Murder
Minor: Homophobia