Reviews with content warning for Racism - Tipping the Velvet

Gorgeous sapphic bildungsroman with a sprinkle of "Napoleon Dynamite", a pinch of Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle" but sticks the landing much better with more nuance than either.

I love this book so much.

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foofymcgriddle's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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abbie_'s review against another edition

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adventurous emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

After reading Gentleman Jack, a book about Anne Lister, in December, I was keen to read more Sarah Waters. Although she acknowledges it’s not historically accurate per se, she’s shining a spotlight on queer relationships that were undoubtedly happening in 19th century England, but were just never talked about or named publicly.

Tipping the Velvet is set in the late 1800s and, I don’t really like the word ‘romp’, but it fits this book perfectly. At surface level it’s an entertaining and, indeed, saucy Victorian romp, but if you look more critically at it (and I don’t mean in terms of historical accuracy), it is flawed. Waters herself admits that, there’s a very interesting article about her thoughts on Tipping the Velvet, her debut, in The Guardian. She basically lists everything I also thought was not so great about it, and it’s refreshing that an author can talk critically about their own work! Namely, Nan is supposed to be confident and sexy but often comes across very selfish, a Black character just feeds Nan’s character development, and it needs cutting by at least 100 pages.

While it’s definitely not perfect, I appreciate Waters writing lesbian characters into history where, although their real-life counterparts did exist, they have previously flown under the radar.

Only one Sarah Waters left for me now - let’s hope her editor was braver with The Night Watch!

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