Affinity (1999)

fiction (historical fiction: ghosts/spirit mediums, women prisoners, women's mental health, LGBTQA interest)
I think I liked Tipping the Velvet better (maybe because things actually happen to progress the plot?), but it's been a while.
atmospheric, character-driven, slow. ( )

Took two readings to fully appreciate. I'm a big Sarah Waters fan and have been for many years. I've read all of her books, in the order that they were published. My first reading of Affinity left me very disappointed. Many of my friends had read it and raved about how great it was - it's the favorite SW book for some of them. 
 
After reading nothing but lesbian fiction - primarily romance - for several years, I've gotten back into reading horror and thrillers and mysteries. It took me quite a while to give Waters' The Little Stranger a shot. I was less than thrilled with The Night Watch because I found it pretty slow and it didn't hold my interest. The backward storytelling didn't help. But once I got into The Little Stranger, why I fell in love with her work in the first place came back. Except now she was telling ghost stories. It started me thinking about Affinity again and I decided then that I would eventually give it another shot. 
 
I picked up the audio version of the book and a couple days ago I finally loaded it up and got to listening. This time around I can finally say that I completely enjoyed Affinity. I believe that my expectations of it being a lesbian romance ruined the book for me the first time around. I kept waiting for the romance to really pick up - you have to remember that this book followed Tipping the Velvet and Fingersmith, both romances (although Fingersmith is more of a mystery) - and when it didn't, I suppose I felt a bit betrayed. Misled, at least. 
 
Going into the second reading knowing that it isn't a romance but a paranormal mystery of sorts made a huge difference. I was able to fully appreciate the twists and turns and let myself really see the relationships as they were written, not as my subconscious kept telling me they were supposed to be. 
 
Sarah Waters can write some emotionally dark fiction. I love it and can't say that I'm sorry that she's not writing romance anymore. Although there was definitely a romantic angle in The Paying Guests it was so much more.
 
Hurry, Ms. Waters, hurry! I'm ready for a new book! ( )

I picked this up expecting it to be entertaining fluff like 'Tipping the Velvet', but I was actually far more impressed by this than I was by Waters' first novel. The protagonist here is far more likeable than Nan, in my opinion, and there is a darker feel to the book, due in part to it being set in a prison, but also due to the plot itself. ( )

This book is a masterpiece of plot, characterization, and style. But it made my heart hurt too much for me to love it. ( )

Another Victorian gothic from Waters. This one certainly can't be described as a thriller, as its pace is slow and fairly lacking in drama. I kept waiting to get a hint of what she was up to, and when I thought I had, she finally revealed the twist, and then I felt a little stupid not to have suspected something. The ultimate ending, however, did not surprise me. The narrator is Margaret Prior, a troubled young woman who has suffered a mental breakdown ending in a suicide attempt after her father's death. The rest of her family doesn't get her at all, and shows very little interest in trying to. There are hints of a romantic attachment to the woman who eventually married Margaret's brother; her sister Priscilla is totally absorbed in plans for her own wedding and honeymoon trip to Italy, while Mother is only concerned with propriety and appearances. Margaret takes up the role of "Lady Visitor" at the women's wards Millbank Prison, which is as gothic and horrid a hell-hole as you can imagine. The details of life for women convicted of everything from petty theft to murder are grimly fascinating, if you are of a mind to be fascinated by such things. Margaret naturally becomes somewhat unnaturally attached to one woman, who introduces her to the concept of spiritualism (meaning contact with the dead). This can't end well, we know, but Margaret finds her visits with Selina to be high points in her dreary life, and she begins to imagine a future...well, that's enough. If you're in the mood to drift along through a couple hundred pages of good writing where nothing much happens, to get to the "aha" moment, this is a decent read. Not up to Waters' best efforts (Tipping the Velvet or Fingersmith), but not many things are. ( )