Helpful Score: 5
Waters is always hit or miss for me. I really enjoyed "Fingersmith", can't even recall "Affinity" and with "The Night Watch" I couldn't finish it. I read half the book and realized I was forcing myself to continue so I stopped. It was too bleak, and way to slow for my tastes. I suppose I was just impatient with the unraveling of the story and frankly, none of the characters interested me enough to care about why they ended up where they did.
Helpful Score: 5
If you read Water's book Fingersmith - this is different yet similar. She does have a way of drawing you in to a period - in this case London, WWII - this is a backward chronology, which is different. Story focuses on 3 women and a young man, friends, lovers, and intersections.
Helpful Score: 4
Prize-winning British author Sarah Walters turns out another great read, this one set in WWII-era London, where the nightly bomb barrage sharpens every human emotion. The stories of four interconnected young Brits are told over a period of several years - but their later chapters appear first in the book... and then in the next sections, the reader is taken back to see 'why' things happened as they did. Love, heartache, betrayal, friendships, are played out against the incredible bravery of dealing with nightly ambulance runs, far-away lovers, and the awareness that untimely death is happening all around them.
Helpful Score: 3
This is a wonderful book with very strong,qwirky characters. set during WWII,England,during the air raids.
the book is written "backward" thru time. there are lesbian sex scenes,so beware if this upsets you.
the book is written "backward" thru time. there are lesbian sex scenes,so beware if this upsets you.
Helpful Score: 3
This book was a little hard to keep up with. It is actually being told backwards, from the end to the beginning. Omce you catch on to that fact it is enjoyable. It is in very good condition.
Helpful Score: 2
After having read The Fingersmith, by the same author (which I LOVED), I had high hopes for this one. Gave it 119 pages of my time, but it never caught my interest the way Fingersmith did. Never finished this one, and I didn't find it appealing at all (though perhaps it may have gotten more interesting towards the middle and end?). A dissapointment.
Helpful Score: 2
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, the fourth I've read by this talented author, Sarah Waters. I especially enjoyed the details of personal experience during the Blitz of London. Waters demonstrated her writing craft by going back in time, leaving the reader to wonder what had happened before and how was she to tie it all together in the end of the book. It was like a mystery unveiled.
As a fan of Waters' Victorian novels, I was looking forward to her venture into another time period. I found it lacking - the characters were unengaging and in the end, I gave up on this novel.
Helpful Score: 2
I read about 80 pages of this book and gave up on it. It was boring, to put it plainly. I was so disappointed b/c I'd wanted to read it for a long time and it is set in my favorite time period and place: WW II England and immediately after. The characters were just dully written and the way it goes backward in time from 1947 to 1941 is confusing and takes away any twists and magic the book might have had, had she written it in a more straightforward way. Also, 3/4 of the characters seem to be homosexual, which is something to point out, in case it bothers any potential readers. It didn't really affect my opinion of the story...I just found it very dull. I've only gotten 80 pages in in a 2-week timespan, and I usually have read 2 books or more during that time frame.
Helpful Score: 1
Good book. Moves backwards in time, so it is a little difficult to get into at first. But then you are hooked. A different kind of story.
Great if you like Historical fiction - an interesting perspective on WW and the effects on women...a little graphic in parts but generally a great story!
Helpful Score: 1
what a waste of time. the book is written in reverse chronology. my guess is that it was written this way to hide the fact that the story did not have a coherent flow. this might have been better as a series of short stories. no - i take that back.
Helpful Score: 1
I loved Sarah Water's book Fingersmith so I had high hopes for this book. I was disappointed. Waters is a talented writer, but the characters are supremely unlikeable which was difficult.
Something different, but very enjoyable. I plowed through this book. Give it a try.
Sarah Waters knows how to do a historical novel--you always have a sense of place and time with her. I liked the backward structure of this one, the gradual unfolding of the recent past that explains why the characters are where they are at the outset of the novel. Life is unfair and love is not pretty, sex will mess you up, but the author isn't going to stick in any anachronisms.
Well, this one just didn't really do it for me. Have loved Fingersmith but this one was just off the mark for me.
The style of writing the story was very disjointed, jumped around from year to year and it didn't go in order.
I didn't connect with the characters, they just weren't all that relatable to me and I found them tedious.
Seems to be a hit or miss with Sarah Waters for me.
The style of writing the story was very disjointed, jumped around from year to year and it didn't go in order.
I didn't connect with the characters, they just weren't all that relatable to me and I found them tedious.
Seems to be a hit or miss with Sarah Waters for me.
