The Paying Guests
Ratings53
Average rating3.5
It is 1922, and London is tense. Ex-servicemen are disillusioned, the out-of-work and the hungry are demanding change. And in South London, in a genteel Camberwell villa, a large silent house now bereft of brothers, husband and even servants, life is about to be transformed, as impoverished widow Mrs Wray and her spinster daughter, Frances, are obliged to take in lodgers.
For with the arrival of Lilian and Leonard Barber, a modern young couple of the ‘clerk class’, the routines of the house will be shaken up in unexpected ways. And as passions mount and frustration gathers, no one can foresee just how far-reaching, and how devastating, the disturbances will be.
This is vintage Sarah Waters: beautifully described with excruciating tension, real tenderness, believable characters, and surprises. It is above all a wonderful, compelling story.
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This book is not as it seems, while also being exactly as it seems. I love the language, the characters, the way emotion is conveyed. Still, it goes down an odd path–it's not a bad path, just one that doesn't quite fit the tone of the rest of the book, for me. The pluses far outweigh the minuses, however, and I look forward to reading more from Waters.
not too sure what I think about this book to be honest; really enjoyed the first half but the second half not so much, the pace was a bit too slow. My least favourite Sarah Waters book since Affinity (but I think my taste has changed significantly since The Little Stranger came out).
Would have been 3.5 stars
This was my first Sarah Waters book and at first I found it to be long and slow but the more I was reading, I could,'t stop. There's romance, some suspense and some suprises in this book. A great book.
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