Average Rating: 
Rating:  - The BEST BOOK I ever read by the BEST AUTHOR !!
Fingersmith is quite simply the best & most enjoyable book I have ever read. It is the story of Susan & Maud, two orphaned girls who live very different lives in Victorian England. However although they don't it, their fates are entwined beyond separation. The story takes you from the depths of despair to the heights of happiness & includes great tragedy, sadness & also love. But it doesn't stop there as Sarah Waters takes you through virtually every emotion possible & boy do you feel them. Too say anymore about the plot would be to destroy the immense enjoyment I experienced reading this book, for other people who are yet to read it. However I simply couldn't write this review & not say that this book also has the greatest plot twists I believe ever written. You just don't see them coming & they leave you astounded. Sarah Waters is undoubtedly the best new author around & this book should definitely have won the 2002 Booker Prize in Britain, for which it was nominated. She has the incredible talent of describing things, places or circumstances just enough, that your mind fills in the blanks & makes you believe you are there eperiencing the story, not reading it. You can almost see the smog hanging overhead, hear the chiming of the clock or feel the chracters emotions in moments of sadness or fear. I read this entire book (548 pages) in 5 days staying up till I almost fell asleep because you just can't put it down. I just had to know if a character was going to avoid a desperately horrible fate or was caught by one of the twists. I also agree with an earlier reviewer who said finishing this book isn't the end, it does affect you long after you've read it. Sarah Waters description is so good, that it gives you an idea of just how far families were willing to go in Victorian times to deal with their female relatives who they considered were ruined or had shamed them or had a mysteriously illness that they didn't understand, so it must be madness. If you haven't read this book yet, get out there & read it now, for I would have given it a 10 out of 5 if possible.
Rating: - The only question is...why didn't it win the Booker???
"Fingersmith" is the first Sarah Water's book I've delved into, partly because I've been scarred by terrible Victorian fiction in the past, and partly because I was afraid how her novel's would treat their overtly lesbian material. I was overjoyed to find it subtle and touching, without any signs of being tainted by public perceptions of lesbian relationships. "Fingersmith" is a multitude of things. It is a mystery, a thriller, a horror and a love story. It is also a superbly detailed and well crafted historical novel. I'm gushing I know, but the truth is that I couldn't put it down. The story is that of Sue and Maud, the love they bear one another and the tangled web that lies, deceit and family machinations weave around them. Add some intriguing plot elements (a bibliography of indecent literature and a madhouse) and stir with a truly delicious, but layered, villain, and "Fingersmith" comes out ripe and lush. There are some ingenius twists and turns, and true gut clenching moments when disbelief mingles with pure enjoyment. I'll step back a moment to attempt an objective evaluation of the craft and style. Sarah Waters does not write in the slickest of prose, and many people may feel compelled to turn back after the first chapter. It is true that the first person narrative lends itself to a disjointed and clumsy beginning, but it won't take long for your palette to adjust. For those coming to the novel fresh from forays into other Booker material (and particularly this year's winner "The Life of Pi"), the dichotomy will seem clear and apparent. Miss Waters is the author of plot driven novels, she is not a post-modern contemporary author driven by allegory and oxymoron similes. She follows hard on the footsteps of Dickens (although far more compelling) and inherits the voice of an Elizabeth Gaskell modernised for the 21st century. Don't allow this relative simplicity of style to put you off, the effect if by no means shallow or transparent. I promise you a truly gripping read if you perservere - the kind you remember from childhood when books were about turning the page and staying up all night to reach the end, not churning over the existentialist questions of existence.
Rating: - Simply incredible
Fingersmith is, quite simply, one of the best books I have read in a long time. Sarah Waters is the newest British author to capture my attention. Fingersmith, her newest book, is set very evocatively in a den of pickpockets and thieves in Victorian London.Reading Fingersmith is like taking a journey. In the same way that Dickens, Wilkie Collins or Charles Palliser could transform a reader, Waters is a magician. Her characters are believable and real; her setting is breathtaking (you can practically smell the stench of London); the plot is complex, but accessible. All and all, Fingersmith is virtually perfect. The main character, Sue, is filled with a combination of wide-eyed wonder and worldliness. Her story is one of love, betrayal and struggle; but this is no historical romance. Sarah Waters writes in a very literary style and new readers are sure to recognize her talents.
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