Affinity by Sarah Waters Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Affinity
Book Review: compelling story, with a twist to the end.
Summary: 3 Stars
This is the first historical fiction novel that I have read. I found the language set in Victorian era a bit hard to get used to at first. The changing narrative also threw me a bit, but once I was familiar with Water's style it became easy to read.Margaret becomes a Lady Visitor at Millbank prison to befriend those women who toil and suffer their isolation behind bars. Selina, a spiritulaist medium becomes the object of Margaret's visits. Their relationship grows and is the intricate point of this story. The story contains hints of ghosts, theivery, secrets and forbidden love. The ending was a twist and in my opinion, very real.
I give this novel at 3.5 out of 5 stars, as it was an interesting read, but not my usual taste in novels. Water's does build her characters and make them real to the reader. I would recommend this novel to others.
Book Review: dark and surprising
Summary: 5 Stars
Affinity is more polished than Waters' previous award-winner "Tipping the Velvet". While Tipping the Velvet was an epic of love and position lost and gained over a lifetime, Affinity focuses on a short period of time and two main characters. The scope of this novel is as tight as a short story, with no trailing pieces left unresolved. There is definitely a Gothic touch, with the dark brooding prison, the yellowish London fogs, and the black mourning clothes that the heroine must wear. This book could be described as a mix of the mysteries of Sherlock Holmes with a Dickensian critique of Victorian society.The story is about a Lady Visitor, Margaret, who begins visiting the women of Millbank prison because charity work should help get her mind off her dear father's death. There she meets Selina Dawes, a spiritualist who is jailed for an assault that occurred during one of her seances. There are many mystical things that happen in this book, and the reader is left to puzzle out whether to believe in the spirits or look for a logical explanation. Margaret herself is a skeptic, not sure whether to believe in Selina's tales of spirit friends.
The ending comes as quite a surprise, and like the Sixth Sense or Fight Club, will have you paging backwards to look for the clues you missed.
Book Review: it was saved by the end
Summary: 2 Stars
I picked this book up because a friend recommended it, I dont know if I will be listening to him in the future. The book is only about 350 pages and it took me a week to read it, where normally it would take about 2 to 3 days, (I normally get really into books and cant put them down). This book is extremely boring for the first 300 or so pages. I dont like the way its narrated. The author switches back and forth between the main character's diary entries, Margaret Prior and Selina Dawes', the prisoner. I didnt mind so much reading Prior's take, it dragged a bit, but it has a few interesting bits. BUT, the sections where Dawes narrated were EXTREMELY BORING, and most of it seemingly pointless, I think now that Ive finished the book. I think that either some of the story was left unexplained, or I didnt pay close enough attention, because I still dont know who Peter Quick is, but I dont think I really care.
The only reason Im giving this more than one star is the end. The last 40 pages or so were very good and came as a pleasant surprise. I wasnt expecting that at all.
Would I recommend this book? Only if you are really patient and enjoy boring books with fairly surprising endings.
Book Review: slow-paced; poorly written; unsexy
Summary: 2 Stars
I picked this up at my local library after reading heaps of praise for Sarah Waters and her three books: Tipping the Velvet, Affinity, and Fingersmith. I just wanted a good, well-written, engrossing novel featuring juicy lesbian interaction and a perhaps enlightening Victorian slice of life. Seems reasonable, right? Wrong. I consider myself a fairly literate person but I could barely get through Affinity. Picking up this book became a chore- not that it's written with difficult or esoteric verbage...it's just simple-minded, clumsy, and BORING. Sarah Waters employs the device of storytelling via diary entries...current ones from the heroine, Margaret, and ones from a few years back from her would-be lover, Selina...Having to constantly flashback several years becomes maddening as Margaret's entries are far more interesting and contains much more "voice" than the drab Selina's.
As for the book's lesbian content... Not hot, sorry. For instance, Waters (through Margaret) continually describes Selina- the supposed [symbol of sex] and object of desire- as waifish, homely, greasy-haired, and with cracked lips and red hands...Who the heck knows why Margaret or anyone else would find this woman attractive or potential romance with her enticing. Margaret's physical appearance is never described and since she is your typical "plucky" outspoken type (her public behavior, by the way, is completely out of time in Victorian England, I might add) I had no sense of her being attractive or interesting. There is no heat to this book. It is chilly and cold as the jail cells in which it takes place. I'd also like to add that the "twist" at the end is laughably bad.