Leah's Bookshelf
Likes: Horror, macabre, fairy tales, ghosts, hauntings, serial killers, zombies, werewolves, shapeshifters, vampires, time travel, orphans, clones, thrillers, classics, gothic
I like to read anything that tells a good story, duh ;) Genre doesn't really matter much but I tend to read dark fiction and fantasy the most. I skip chick lit and romance novels with a few exceptions for the extraordinary.
My ratings system:
5 stars - ADORED; plan to read over and over and over.
4 stars - ENJOYED; will likely read once or twice more.
3 stars - LIKED; may or may not read again ... someday.
2 stars - MEH; no plans to read again.
1 stars - I didn't enjoy the story and was lucky to finish.
0 stars - I couldn't or wouldn't finish for reasons that may or may not be listed in the review box.
Fingersmith by Sara Waters
Rating: 3.5 of 5
The cover blurb of Fingersmith describes a "Dickensian novel of stunning thrills and reversals...A superbly plotted story of...heartbreaking betrayals," and that it was!
Only, it was filled to bursting with villains. Every character in the book, except the infants and poor Charley Wag, was out for themselves and, having been abused and betrayed by others, believed themselves justified in doing the same villainy to others. On the one hand, I could empathize with Maud and Sue; on the other, I loathed the pair of them. Don't get me started on Gentleman or Nurse Spiller, both of whom I wanted to suffer way more than they did.
It took about 250 pages before anything happened that I did not foresee. I wasn't bored at all, but I was compelled solely out of curiosity as to how the whole long con would play out rather than actual caring for anyone in the story. The ending was fast and pretty which surprised me given the 500 pages leading up to it. Still, it was satisfactory.
Waters is now firmly on my must-read list.
