carolynf's review
2.0
The first 25% was an interesting period piece about a newly impoverished young woman and her mother trying to get by after WWI by taking in boarders - a young married couple. Which really was not smart since the mother was already concerned about her daughter's "sapphic" tendencies. They should have rented to very old ladies or something. The next 25% featured the two young women falling in love with each other very suddenly, but not at first sight. They meet and you expect them to go for each other right away, since it is a Sarah Waters novel. Instead they seem completely indifferent to one another and like two weeks later after you've given up on them suddenly there is all this pining and longing and brief bouts of frantic sex. The last 50% was a very long and drawn out Law and Order episode, more interesting than the pining section but just went on forever! The whole book is about 500 pages, which is I think about 200 too long for the story. I don't think the main characters were quite as flat as some of the other reviews have stated. My criticism is more with the plot, which was so padded that I paged impatiently through even the dramatic bits.
christiek's review
2.0
DNF because the library wants it back and I am not enjoying it enough to pay the fines for the another week it'll take me to finish. Also, at 250 pages in I can't even begin to imagine what is left of this story to take another 350 pages.
lgsplace's review
1.0
I cannot believe I read this entire book. It was dreadful. To accompany a stupid story line, the book was unnecessarily drawn out and repetitive. I cannot and do not recommend it.
leilabintik's review
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Another beautiful Waters novel written with tension and female desire. Half the book is dedicated to the blossoming romance that soon turns sour in the second half where the classic Waters crime drama unravels.
Frances' and Lilians romance is sweeping, enthralling and definitely too good to last. At no point in the novel did I fully trust either of them, and yet, I rooted for them anyway. Frances is wholly relatable in that she is dissatisfied with her life and feels that her best years have passed without her really doing anything with them. Struck by a Hamlet-esque indecision, Frances is a character not brave enough to jump until she is forcefully pushed off the cliff. She falls for Lilian (though, in my opinion, it could have been any woman who showed interest). Lilian is guarded and layered, making a character we want to unravel while also being distrustful of.
The prose and characters ran the show and while the crime, cover-up and courtroom drama were interesting, it ran on for about 100 pages too long and there were no surprises that I didnt see coming.
The fourth Waters novel I've read, it comes in second behind Tipping the Velvet, followed by Fingersmith and Affinity.
Frances' and Lilians romance is sweeping, enthralling and definitely too good to last. At no point in the novel did I fully trust either of them, and yet, I rooted for them anyway. Frances is wholly relatable in that she is dissatisfied with her life and feels that her best years have passed without her really doing anything with them. Struck by a Hamlet-esque indecision, Frances is a character not brave enough to jump until she is forcefully pushed off the cliff. She falls for Lilian (though, in my opinion, it could have been any woman who showed interest). Lilian is guarded and layered, making a character we want to unravel while also being distrustful of.
Spoiler
Did she plan to kill leanord? Did she know of the baby before she let on? How sincere are her feelings for Frances?The prose and characters ran the show and while the crime, cover-up and courtroom drama were interesting, it ran on for about 100 pages too long and there were no surprises that I didnt see coming.
The fourth Waters novel I've read, it comes in second behind Tipping the Velvet, followed by Fingersmith and Affinity.
lynnedf's review
1.0
Horribly cliche. Far too long, dragged out and predictable. disliked the protagonist, had very little sympathy for any of the characters and simply wished I'd never started this book.
notasilkycat's review against another edition
4.0
I wasn’t expecting this book turning into a crime story and had some mixed feelings about this turn. When finished though I thought it is a very good indeed and I most probably will be returning to this story again. It is a book when details matter so it is a slow paced and can be easily accused of being too long. But all this actually worked for me.
babysmom's review against another edition
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
3.0
katdid's review
5.0
She could feel herself advancing steadily but helplessly into a state of dejection - as steadily and helplessly as if she were being screwed into it.
Waters' [b:Fingersmith|45162|Fingersmith|Sarah Waters|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327879025s/45162.jpg|1014113] is one of the few books that, out of all my loves, I devoutly wish I'd written myself. It was the first novel of hers that I read and while her body of work is consistently impressive none of the others have spoken to me in the same way. But The Paying Guests is, I think, her masterpiece. (I say that but in all honesty Fingersmith still has my heart.) Set in London in 1922 it details the events that transpire when Frances and her mother, living in reduced circumstances following the deaths of the family males, rent out part of their house to a young married couple. Waters creates the sense of time and place so completely that it actually threw me out of the story - How does she know that? I thought more than once about a minor detail. The level of research that clearly made the backbone of this novel is staggering. But the narrative is entertaining too!
Frances I thought was such an interesting and well-drawn character; the word "bravery" gets thrown around a lot in the book but I do think Frances is maybe Waters' bravest creation. She knows who she is and she has a level of emotional courage in declaring her feelings that kinda took my breath away. And because of this - because of who Frances is, and what she wants - we seem to come to the turning point of the novel much earlier than I'd anticipated. And then everything is accelerated - the narrative fairly gallops away. Look, I know it's probably not a lot of people's cup of tea; that's okay. But you have to give the rest of us this one. It's pretty amazing, what Waters can do, and if you're into it then you could read about household chores and high-spirited strangers in the train carriage and awful teeth forever. I really felt, though, that she nailed the pacing with The Paying Guests.
This morning I was trying to describe the book to someone who'd never heard of Waters. "It's lesbian fiction... set after World War I," I said lamely. But labelling it like that is doing the work a huge disservice. It's a love story, and consequently it is really fucking terrible: awful things happen, and dreadful things are said, and hard decisions are made, and lives are destroyed.
Spoiler
No one escapes unscathed. Despite the trial ending with the best possible outcome - and I really found that moving, that the jury (against all expectations) believed the testimony of the accused's neighbour, the one person who more than anyone in the story stepped up and did the right thing at great cost to themselves - you just can't believe that Frances and Lilian will enjoy a happy life together. It was kinda brutal, that - like, they have no choice but to love each other however little either of them might want to.But the feeling had something wrong about it. The lightness was the lightness of ash. She was scorched, dried out.
hamletslover's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Medical content, Blood, Grief, Lesbophobia, Sexual content, Sexism, Infidelity, Death, and Toxic relationship
hendersonj84's review
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.5