A review by moonpix
The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters

5.0

I think perhaps her best novel. It's funny how different the first half is from the second, they could each almost be their own novel, but it worked for me. I always find something to complain about with her books; she constantly gets so close to writing a true modern classic without ever quite making it there. But I do have to appreciate her dedication to depressing historical dyke drama. The real theme of all of her work is (im)morality and there's a lot to pull apart in what the novels express about it.. I love art that contends with nihilism but some of her work gives into it so fully. Beyond any moral qualms I have with this (and I do hate framing criticism in that way) it often results in flattened characters and themes that lack texture and subtlety. I felt that here the ending left more room for interpretation.

Recommend for fans of The Secret History <3


"She didn't know. She would never know. And the not knowing wasn't like the absence of something, it was like another burden, a different shape and weight from the last."