lidia710's review
challenging
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
i'm not sure how i feel about this book. i really enjoyed the reading process, the morally gray characters, themes of sexuality, religion, power, creative writing and most deeply explored are position in society of women and of the poor. I'm not sure how I feel about the ending being so... abrupt and undefined. the book as a whole has given me much to think about, i couldn't get it out of my head and the pace really picks up in the 2nd half, I was so intrigued I read more than half of the book in single sitting. No content warnings from me because there's truly so many to list.
darbyart's review against another edition
3.0
Basically it is the story of Sugar. Sugar is a 19-year old prostitute that is well read and intelligent. She is waiting for the opportunity to pull herself out of the misery of poverty when William Rackman comes into her life. William Rackman is the heir to a perfumery business who found Sugar when looking for a specific erotic skill. William's enchantment with Sugar leads him to purchase her making her his exclusively. He tries to give her every comfort he can think of and in exchange she's open to his every whim, available any time. This story is mostly about Sugar's life when she becomes William's mistress.
I really enjoyed the story of Sugar. Seeing how her mind would go through things. Seeing how she spent her days from prostitute to where she ends up towards the end of the book. I enjoyed Agnes and Sophie too. But the people they encountered at parties and William's brother and his love interest....and the other prostitutes....I could have been fine without reading about. I felt the story went on a little too long to get to where it got in the end. I also didn't really enjoy the writing style it confused me at times. The author would be talking Sugar and something she is doing and the sentence would end and then the next paragraph would be about William's brother thinking about the woman he loves. And then whatever Sugar was doing that last paragraph often wouldn't be brought up again. And well that is a very unique writing style but I still got frustrated wanting to know what happened next. Sometimes it would be revealed through other parts of the story but at times it wouldn't.
I know lots of people loved this book and although I liked it - it is not a book I would reread. Especially from how this book ended. It did leave me wanting more of Sugar but disappointed me because I wasn't going to get that chance.
I really enjoyed the story of Sugar. Seeing how her mind would go through things. Seeing how she spent her days from prostitute to where she ends up towards the end of the book. I enjoyed Agnes and Sophie too. But the people they encountered at parties and William's brother and his love interest....and the other prostitutes....I could have been fine without reading about. I felt the story went on a little too long to get to where it got in the end. I also didn't really enjoy the writing style it confused me at times. The author would be talking Sugar and something she is doing and the sentence would end and then the next paragraph would be about William's brother thinking about the woman he loves. And then whatever Sugar was doing that last paragraph often wouldn't be brought up again. And well that is a very unique writing style but I still got frustrated wanting to know what happened next. Sometimes it would be revealed through other parts of the story but at times it wouldn't.
I know lots of people loved this book and although I liked it - it is not a book I would reread. Especially from how this book ended. It did leave me wanting more of Sugar but disappointed me because I wasn't going to get that chance.
janedoelish's review
5.0
One of my favourite novels of all time. The narrator, the characters, the humour, the plain humanity warming this otherwise bleak scenario: just about everything about it is perfect to me.
thisotherbookaccount's review against another edition
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I refuse to believe that I have lost patience for chunky books, but this book is seriously testing this belief of mine.
I was introduced to Crimson Petal and the White as an alternative — or successor, if you will — to Fingersmith by Sarah Waters, one of my favourite books of all time. Both are set in Victorian England and both feature the rise of street urchins (or, in this case, a prostitute) up the social ladder.
The key difference between the two, though, is that CPATW is overwritten, it’s too long and far too aware of its need to be ‘literary’ — without actually offering anything new beyond a Dickensian tale with a whole lot of dicks.
I’ve chipped away at this book for about a week, and I am only just a hair over one-third through this massive tome. Faber’s verbosity is tuned to 11 in this book, and I am convinced that, if you were to remove every other word in this book, you could still follow the plot just fine. In fact, at one point, I started skipping paragraphs and I could still follow what was going on with the characters. While I appreciate the recreation of Victorian England and how immersive the atmosphere is, it got way too much by page 200. Victorian England was FILTHY in the 19th century. We heard you the first thousandth time, Faber.
There also aren’t anything special in CPATW. Sugar, the protagonist, is different from the other prostitutes because she reads. OK, sure, but how she managed to move up the social ladder does not involve anything beyond seducing the right horny customer and getting him to buy things. Like prostitution, this is a tale as old as time. You don’t have to go through a 800-page doorstopper to be retold the same story.
For the story, Faber has also created a cast of characters, each written as protagonists of their own stories. I understand that these side characters are there to give, and I apologise, character to the society, but they go on tangents that ultimately end up nowhere.
Judging by the summary of the book, I am glad that I am bailing out now. The rest of the book does not in any way justify its overbearing length and word count.
I refuse to believe that I have lost patience for chunky books, but this book is seriously testing this belief of mine.
I was introduced to Crimson Petal and the White as an alternative — or successor, if you will — to Fingersmith by Sarah Waters, one of my favourite books of all time. Both are set in Victorian England and both feature the rise of street urchins (or, in this case, a prostitute) up the social ladder.
The key difference between the two, though, is that CPATW is overwritten, it’s too long and far too aware of its need to be ‘literary’ — without actually offering anything new beyond a Dickensian tale with a whole lot of dicks.
I’ve chipped away at this book for about a week, and I am only just a hair over one-third through this massive tome. Faber’s verbosity is tuned to 11 in this book, and I am convinced that, if you were to remove every other word in this book, you could still follow the plot just fine. In fact, at one point, I started skipping paragraphs and I could still follow what was going on with the characters. While I appreciate the recreation of Victorian England and how immersive the atmosphere is, it got way too much by page 200. Victorian England was FILTHY in the 19th century. We heard you the first thousandth time, Faber.
There also aren’t anything special in CPATW. Sugar, the protagonist, is different from the other prostitutes because she reads. OK, sure, but how she managed to move up the social ladder does not involve anything beyond seducing the right horny customer and getting him to buy things. Like prostitution, this is a tale as old as time. You don’t have to go through a 800-page doorstopper to be retold the same story.
For the story, Faber has also created a cast of characters, each written as protagonists of their own stories. I understand that these side characters are there to give, and I apologise, character to the society, but they go on tangents that ultimately end up nowhere.
Judging by the summary of the book, I am glad that I am bailing out now. The rest of the book does not in any way justify its overbearing length and word count.
mglen's review
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
theladydoor's review
4.0
One advantage to "reading" books as audiobooks is that I always remember where I was and what I was doing as I was listening. Every book gets that extra flavor added to it. For some books, it's a calm nighttime feeling, as I'm listening to it to get to sleep. For some, I remember knitting a particular garment along with it, or jogging on a treadmill with its steady pace flooding my ears. This book took me an incredibly long time to read, nearly six months for some reason, so it is associated with a lot of things. Most of all though, it is associated with Australia. I took a vacation to the southeast coast of Oz earlier, and that's where I listened to most of the book. I finished it on a rainy day in Brisbane while I wandered around the botanical gardens, taking pictures of rain-drenched flora, and surrounded by the damp, clean smell of a passing storm. If I close my eyes and think about the book, I feel myself transplanted back there.
The book itself was a captivating and enthralling journey through the darker sides of Victorian England. The main character, Sugar, is a young prostitute bred and born in the brothels. She is no ordinary "hooker with a heart of gold" though; she spends her free time writing a novel of revenge and hate, condemning the men who have used her to inventive and torturous deaths. She is able to unflinchingly give all men the pleasure they pay for, but she is always looking for an escape from her dreary existence.
That escape comes in the form of William Rackham, a rather inept purveyor of scented soaps and lotions. He himself is looking for an escape from his troubles: an overbearing father, a sanctimonious brother, and a mad wife. He falls for Sugar and sets her up in a house of her own, eventually bringing her to his own home as a governess to his child, whom his wife cannot acknowledge as her own.
While I found Sugar's story of social climb and ambition captivating, I also loved the story of Agnes, William's wife, a naive and pious girl who is entirely uninformed about sexual matters. Her ignorance of even her own menstruation leads her to believe that her monthly bleeds are a result of a demon living in her body. It was fascinating to read about her descent into madness, and I though Faber captured her fevered fragility with excellent skill.
I loved the narration device in this novel. At times, it seems as though the book itself is talking to you, drawing you in, and leading you along to discover its characters. Jilly Bond was an excellent narrator, and I very much enjoyed my experience reading this book.
The book itself was a captivating and enthralling journey through the darker sides of Victorian England. The main character, Sugar, is a young prostitute bred and born in the brothels. She is no ordinary "hooker with a heart of gold" though; she spends her free time writing a novel of revenge and hate, condemning the men who have used her to inventive and torturous deaths. She is able to unflinchingly give all men the pleasure they pay for, but she is always looking for an escape from her dreary existence.
That escape comes in the form of William Rackham, a rather inept purveyor of scented soaps and lotions. He himself is looking for an escape from his troubles: an overbearing father, a sanctimonious brother, and a mad wife. He falls for Sugar and sets her up in a house of her own, eventually bringing her to his own home as a governess to his child, whom his wife cannot acknowledge as her own.
While I found Sugar's story of social climb and ambition captivating, I also loved the story of Agnes, William's wife, a naive and pious girl who is entirely uninformed about sexual matters. Her ignorance of even her own menstruation leads her to believe that her monthly bleeds are a result of a demon living in her body. It was fascinating to read about her descent into madness, and I though Faber captured her fevered fragility with excellent skill.
I loved the narration device in this novel. At times, it seems as though the book itself is talking to you, drawing you in, and leading you along to discover its characters. Jilly Bond was an excellent narrator, and I very much enjoyed my experience reading this book.
badmc's review
Intriguing and with a strong voice, but in the end too uncomfortable for me to read.
heeresjenny92's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0