Reviews with content warning for Homophobia - Tipping the Velvet

My god! I feel a fool for putting off this book for so long. Astounding—easily one of, if not my best books of the year. Not just a book, but literature… something I’ve been missing! Yes, my only complaint is that the beginning is slow; it’s true, the first 3 or 4 chapters I had a hard time getting through. But after that—wow, did I race through it this week! Yes, Nan is unlikable, but she’s real; isn’t that part of the point? You want your heroines to be perfect all the time? She is real, and quite unique, and all the characters around her are equally fleshed out. I also kind of wish that it was historically accurate; I didn’t realize it wasn’t until I read that bit bu the author included in someone else’s review. But that doesn’t really take away from it—the world feels so real, who cares if it isn’t?

Content Warnings

denimtuxedo's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad medium-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? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

foofymcgriddle's review

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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!

Content Warnings

bluedilly's review against another edition

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emotional medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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