Affinity

After her father's death, Margaret Prior becomes despondent. Before he died, she was to have gone to Italy with him and her friend, Helen, with whom Margaret was in love with. Now Helen is married to Margaret's brother and their sister, Priscilla is also getting married. Her physician suggests that Margaret become a Lady Visitor at Millbank Prison, to be a comfort and example to the women. Margaret meets several of the prisoners and becomes obsessed with one, Selina Dawes, a spiritualist imprisoned for fraud. I don't want to say much more about the plot for fear of giving something away. But let me say that I loved this book. It takes place in Victorian London, it has a Dickensian prison and wardens. It has psychics and mediums. Margaret is a lonely character. She does not want to marry or have children. She is haunted by her love for Helen and desperately sad over the loss of her intellectual father, the only one who understood her. Margaret's story alternates with that of Selina's and we see how she ended up in prison. Though I was not a fan of Waters' The Little Stranger which everyone else raved about, I thought Affinity was incredibly well-written, with fleshed out characters and a brilliant plot. Her descriptions of Millbank Prison, the matrons in charge of the women prisoners, and the prisoners themselves are very well researched, as are stories of the spiritualist community. This book is a must, must read! It is very atmospheric and Gothic-like. In case I didn't mention it, I loved it. my rating 5/5

When I finally learned how to read at the late ago of seven I stopped seeing words as a series of letters and started seeing pictures instead. Not just the picture one word projected or one sentence, but the whole book. I started reading books as though they were movies and so learned to read faster because I was so immersed in the atmosphere of the book. Atmosphere has always been the most important part of the book to me. If I can't really believe my surroundings while I'm reading then the book just isn't worth finishing. From the very first page of this book I heard creepy piano music, saw dim lights that were almost depressing and a lot of the color gray. This may not seem like an atmosphere you'd want to spend 350+ pages in, but it fit the story so well that I was just lost in the book. The author's power of description was perfect and made reading this book a true experience. "Affinity" is told in two parts, a narrative in diary form set about a year in the past from the main story from the point of view of Selina Dawes, a young spiritualist in 1870's London arrested for assault and fraud and a diary by Margaret Prior a wealthy spinster who has become a lady visitor at a prison to take her mind off some mystery shrouded event in her life.. The two alternate-Selina with extremely vague and short entries that leave you wondering if she has spiritual powers or is just a clever fraud and Michelle detailing everything that happens in her unhappy home life and her obsessive visits to Milbank prison. The two together bring forth at atmosphere of grayness, misunderstanding and silence, weather imposed by prison guards or polite society. Truly they do so seem to have an affinity to them. But as the book progresses and we learn more of Selina and Margaret strange things start to happen. Items disappear from Margaret's bedroom and Selina says that the sprits took them-and on top of that she knows things Margaret could have never told her. A sort of link develops between the two leading to their final plan and the revelation that changes everything. I liked this book a lot and was very surprised by the turns and twists its story took. That atmosphere as I've said was excellent and really did its job of transporting the reader into the story. But for some reason the story didn't call out to me so while I did like this book I didn't love it. Four stars

Sometimes you might hope for an atmospheric novel that will sweep you into its pages. Now I must remind myself, be careful what you wish for. This story is filled with seances, toxic fogs, stuffy drawing rooms, human misery, and hundreds of pages of freezing cold, damp, smelly, prison cells. Is it atmospheric? Yes. Is any of it an atmosphere where you want to linger? No. This book tells an odd story in an odd way. The chapters skip back and forth over a few years in the 1870’s in London. We hear the story of Selina, the clairvoyant, during her heyday running seances mainly at the home of her patroness in London. And then we hear the story of Margaret, a wealthy young woman suffering from a lost forbidden love, grief at her father’s death, and her dread of a hopeless, loveless future in the repressed society. It is hinted that Margaret is being watched carefully after a failed suicide attempt. Besides dosing her with opiates, her treatment is to “do good” by being a lady visitor at the woman’s prison. Not a great idea. Margaret’s story is told in her first-person journal entries. The stories of Margaret and Selina overlap because Selina is in prison after the death of her patroness following a séance gone wrong. The best part of this story is the ending-partly because you are thankful that the book is finally over and partly because it is in the clever ending that a plot is revealed and tied up. The writing is good although the reader remains distant from the characters. The tone and feel are very dark and oppressive. The pacing borders on glacial. The book is 370 pages that reads like 500 pages- not a good thing. It becomes repetitive in establishing the prison conditions and the background material. This was a book group selection for my group. In one sense it was successful, because the selection got me to read some thing that I otherwise would not have chosen. But this book did not touch my heart, enlighten me about human nature, or provide insight into an unknown aspect of the world.

Pas de spoilers: Roman fabuleux! J'ai eu du mal à rentrer dedans, l'écriture en forme de "journal" est un peu déconcertante au début car le contexte n'y est pas présenté dès le départ, mais la suite du roman est extraordinaire! Les personnages sont décrits avec beaucoup de profondeur, d'émotions. Ms Prior, est attachante, et bouleversante de sensibilité. L'auteur réussit à nous plonger dans l'histoire, l'immersion est totale, Le suspense est insoutenable jusqu'à la fin...que je ne qualifierai pas pour ne rien gâcher aux futurs lecteurs. Cette lecture m'a bouleversée pendant des jours après la fin du roman, ce qui est très rare pour moi. Acheter ce roman les yeux fermés! Très bonne lecture à tous :-)

This mesmerizing story with its authentic characters is just a special kind of book: you cannot stop reading before it is is finished. The beginning is dark and nebulous and you dont really know what the writer wants to tell you. After a few pages the story sees a unanticipated acceleration which opens windows to different stories you would not have imagined. For me: a good choice to spend my precious spare time.

The affinity takes a while to build. The story is a series of journal entries made by the two protagonists - one chronicling the life of Margaret Prior, a lady and the other, the life of Selina Dawes, a young spiritual medium. Margaret's entries are in real-time. She pours into her book her secrets and her heart. She's a troubled woman who seeks to gain a new interest in life. Selina's entries predate her incarceration at Millbank Penitentiary. They give us a glimpse of her life as a spiritual medium and her petty transactions, gifts, as she refers to them. Margaret visits the women's wards as a Lady Visitor. It is during one such visit that she comes across the infamous Dawes. Her interest in the vilified girl is piqued by several visits to the grim prison. And there begins our tale of spirits, love, and yearning. The book is slow to set the stage, unlike Fingersmith which captured my fancy right from the start. The book is grim, grimmer than Grimm! It nearly put me off but I persisted and wow, was I rewarded. Even though, I guessed the end and suspected the right things, the book still managed to rattle me. Sarah Waters works her magic through the pages, ensnaring us, (albeit a bit later in my case,) and resurrecting before us the cold Victorian London and the dreary Millbank prison. This book was worth the patience it demanded and its climax makes up for much of the slow pace in the beginning. Another Awesome from Sarah Waters. '

Todo perfecto

Good condition