“She was like milk – too pale, too pure, too simple. She was made to be spoiled.”

One of my goals for 2017 was to tackle some of the longer books on my TBR — ones I’ve maybe been avoiding in order to keep my count high in previous years! At almost 600 pages, Fingersmith definitely qualifies as long, but the writing hooks you in pretty quickly and it’s hard to put down. Unfortunately, I don’t think the novel as a whole quite held up to the magnificent plot twists — but damn, those twists were impressive.

“I give myself up to darkness; and wish I may never again be required to lift my head to the light.”

Set in Victorian England, Fingersmith is the story of Sue Trinder, an orphan raised by a woman (a baby-farmer) named Mrs. Suckbsy — primarily to commit petty crimes. A fellow con artist called “Gentleman” offers Sue and Mrs. Sucksby an incredible opportunity: to make Sue the maid of a woman that Gentleman wants to seduce, marry, and then abandon in a sanitarium (as he runs off with her inheritance, of course). Sue goes along with the plan, but eventually comes to feel strongly for her mistress — and unsure if she can carry out the plan.

This book has several magnificent twists that I absolutely did not see coming, and should be read simply for that reason. Unfortunately, I found the rest of it to be a little too long, and a little too dull at times. A lot of the plot gets rehashed, and while I see why that was done, I found myself skimming parts of it as a result. Still, it’s a decent read, and grimy Victorian London makes for an excellent background.