Fingersmith

4.5! The Handmaiden is one of my absolute favorite movies, and despite knowing all the twists already (or so I thought) the book was still gripping and surprising and kept me on my toes. Drags a bit in part 3 but the ending saves it. Lesbian Charles Dickens indeed!

I could not put this down. I literally spent all day on 12/30 just reading this. 400+ pages in one day, because I couldn't bear to part with it (thank you, Xmas/NYE vacation for giving me the slack to do it!).

This is hard to describe, and I want to avoid spoilers. I can say that it starts in a Dickensian setting, has a Gothic, crumbling mansion, a Victorian madhouse, a love story, and plenty of twists & turns. Even when I kind of knew where it was going, it was thrilling to see things play out! Sometimes it dealt with some disturbing content (child abuse, conditions in the asylum, etc.), but it was worth toughing it out!

Overall, it was an extremely satisfying read, Sarah Waters is a genius, and I can't wait to read her other stuff.

(Also, I had the lovely surprise of thinking, “Man, they need to make a movie of this,” only to find it has been adapted TWICE - a BBC miniseries and a Korean film by Park Chan-wook!)

I think I'm just maybe not that into historical fiction. Sarah Waters also has this habit (I say having only read two of her books) of making all the characters unlikeable and hard to root for. Tbh I preferred the movie, but this was compelling and entertaining and dark and had sapphics so there's always points for that.