A review by flowersforfroggo
Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters

adventurous emotional sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

All cards on the table, I picked up this book purely because it was on a list of must read spicy sapphic novels and, as the true smut goblin I am, I wanted a fix. 

Tipping the Velvet is a genuinely good read and I was hooked and along for the ride from the moment Nan was sitting in her little corner booth in the theatre longing for Kitty to throw the flower to her. 

I devoured this book, annotating along the way, and while I happily tagged many a page blue for spicy scenes, by the time I read the final line the whole book was filled with rainbow sticky strips to mark bits and pieces of writing that sung beautifully. 

Sarah Waters has such a way of capturing the excitement of first love and the first flickers of desire and we see these moments of sapphic love play out so vividly on the page. So much so, that there is an element of cringe early in the book with Nan expressing her inner thoughts about Kitty that took me right back to being sixteen, when everything was bright and new and just a little spiky. Fellow smut goblins will rejoice at the tasty sex scenes scattered through the book. Not overly explicit, but delicious enough to keep things interesting. 

Overall, Nan does not have an easy life and she comes across as selfish and careless with those she loves, but I still rooted for her every step of the way and I loved to see her identity evolve. She is so alone in her world, even surrounded by the other characters and what struck me was that she is constantly being given an identity to perform for others. Nan’s relationships in the book are all in one way or another controlling and it made me sad to see that she doesn’t ever really get the space to settle into herself and be seen.

“Oh! I feel like I’ve been repeating other people’s speeches all my life. Now when I want to make a speech of my own, I find I hardly know how.” 

Girl, tell me about it. 

It’s only towards the end of the book that she finds her fit and realises there are other girls like her who present the same way. We can’t be who we don’t see. It’s rare to want more from a book but I would have loved to have followed her journey of self expression and gender identity a little more. 

Nan is not a perfect character and it is certainly not a perfect love story but it is gritty, messy and so very enjoyable. Tipping the Velvet is absolutely worth the random pick up and has earned its place on the spicy sapphic list. Would read again.
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