Spooky, sexy and suspenseful - the perfect book to curl up with over a dreary weekend. Waters explores familiar tropes here, for those who have read her other novels: lesbians, Victoriana,  betrayal, and sensuality in unlikely places. In this case, she takes us to a perfecly imagined Victorian women's prison in London, where a emotionally distraught 'lady visitor' becomes attached to (and then obsessed with) Selina, a seductive medium who longs to be set free. ( )

Tonight I will sleep fitfully, haunted more by a young spiritualist than by her spirits. Artfully crafted, using imagery that springs to mind so vividly one would think it a memory, Sarah Waters has fashioned yet another masterpiece.

The year is 1874. Selina Dawes, a mysterious and powerful young spirit-medium is imprisoned in a monstrous and daunting women’s gaol, Millbank. Jailed after a botched spirit-communication lead to the death of her patron, Selina is visited by no one but her spirit friends until a local mistress comes to visit the prisoners.

The visitor, Margaret Prior, is a young lady of London, highly educated and brought up as assistant to her late father, an arts professor. Despairing his absence from her life, Margaret travels about in something of haze—looking for something she knows not what. When she encounters Dawes, Margaret is simultaneously scared witless by the girl and entranced by her power. The women’s relationship builds with Margaret learning more about Dawes from newspapers and first hand accounts, than from her fleeting and bewildering encounters with Selina.

Interspersed with short journal entries from Selina’s days as a burgeoning spirit-medium conducting séances, the story follows Margaret’s research as she seeks to uncover the mystery of Selina’s past, her powers, and why she is so affected by her. Although the reader is not privy to Selina’s current thoughts, her journal entries, coupled with her unexplainable powers and knowledge of the spirit realm make her enticing and irresistible. In stark and painful contrast to her exciting prison visits, Margaret’s everyday life unfortunately is constantly rearing its ugly head. Her sister is getting married and the preparations fill her days with a dreary stupor.

Although Affinity could hardly be called frightening, it is nevertheless haunting. Descriptions of landscapes, buildings, rooms, etc. feel so intensely ominous that they end up being far scarier than accounts of the spirit encounters. Affinity’s characters can be trusted to illicit your empathy, pity, sorrow, hatred, wonder, love and lust (and in my cast jealousy). Being at once a tale of impropriety and youthful indiscretion between girls, and a bildungsroman of Margaret’s spiritual and sexual development, one cannot but feel compassion toward its struggling young lovers. ( )

A gently-bred woman with scholarly inclinations becomes involved in a plot to break a medium out of prison.

I'll say this for Sarah Waters: she is damned good at evoking whichever time period she turns her hand to. This book feels exactly like a book set in 1870's London should feel. The characters' attitudes and reactions are spot on. The setting is beautifully realized. The whole thing even smells like the 1870's, with its thick fogs and coal-burning stoves, cold prison walls and richly decorated parlors. And the spiritualism? My goodness, is it ever interesting stuff! Seriously, people, you'll feel like you're there. It's brilliant.

Unfortunately, the rest of it doesn't quite live up to the set dressings. All the blurbs emphasize the tension, the subtlety, the clever twists and turns. And maybe this book is tense, subtle, and cleverly twisted if you don't know the story.... but COME ON, people! This's one of the classics! This story's been told a thousand times! I know it pretty damned well. I'd wager you do, too. I mean, yes, there's a lesbian twist, and that's a nice thing to see, but the bones are the same.

That's not to say that the story can never, ever work. It has been told a thousand times, after all, and some of those tellings are pretty durned compelling. I've thought about it a lot since I finished AFFINITY, and I've decided that it's a matter of trust. The author has to make you trust the story. She has to make you believe in the characters. And, in doing so, she needs to convince you that this is not the same story. This couldn't be the same story, because it if is... well, it's not, so we're not going to go down that road. You have to forget all about that. You have to trust the story.

Did I trust AFFINITY? Not for a bloody moment.

I think I might have, though, if I'd been able to feel for Margaret. There were a couple of times where Waters punched me in the gut, but for the most part I just couldn't connect with her. I wanted to. I tried my hardest. I told myself that I found her scholarly leanings, her repressed sexuality and her romantic failures heartwrenching, but I never really did. And, worst of all, I can't really tell you why that was the case. Characterization is a slippery slope. There is nothing wrong with Waters' portrayal of Margaret--in fact, it's quite remarkable, on a technical level--and yet she did very little for me.

So that's that. I'll leave it there, because I'm sure I've said too much already. This isn't a bad book, but it could have been much, much better. If you're a hardcore Waters fan, you probably want to check this out, regardless of my poor opinion; others, you'd do better to read FINGERSMITH or TIPPING THE VELVET instead. They've got a lot more going for them.

(A slightly different version of this review originally appeared on my blog, Stella Matutina). ( )

Affinity by Sarah Waters combined so many exquisite storytelling elements –colorful characters, a plot that kept you guessing and a Victorian setting that framed the story perfectly. If you love Victorian novels, then Affinity is a novel not to miss.

Margaret Prior was an unmarried lady who was mourning the death of her father and the marriage of her childhood lover, Helen. To find a purpose with her life, she became a “Lady Visitor” at Millbank Prison, specifically to the troubled female prisoners who could benefit from visits by a society woman. During her visits, Margaret found a special attachment to one inmate – Selina Dawes – a medium arrested for allegedly beating a young girl and causing the death of her guardian.

Learning more about Selina’s plight, Margaret became more interested in spiritualism, and Waters masterfully wove Victorians’ obsession with ghosts and mediums into the story, allowing the reader to learn more about this aspect of Victorian culture. Eventually, Margaret’s interest in Selina became more deep and attached – to the point that Margaret agreed to aid Selina’s prison escape.

Margaret and Selina proved to be characters that were sympathetic and unforgettable. Margaret was emotionally fragile, unsure about her sexual orientation in a sexually repressed society – the perfect candidate to assist Selina. The young medium was depicted as someone lost; her innocence slightly suspect, but a character you hoped the best for (she reminded me of Margaret Atwood’s Grace in Alias Grace). Together, their relationship was emotionally charged and great to read.

I selected Affinity to read as my first book of October because of its ghostly elements. I was pleasantly surprised that I got much more than a ghost story. Affinity was a great psychological thriller and historical fiction novel. If you love these genres, then make sure to put this book on your TBR list. ( )

http://aartichapati.blogspot.com/2009... ( )

Superbly researched and written. I love Victorian novels, and this contemporary fiction hits the tone exactly right - like a Bronte novel in mood and repressed passion. I was dreading the ending, fearing it would be false, but instead it was pretty much what I had hoped for and completely true to what would have to have occurred. Beautiful writing and an excellent look at women in a cold, cheerless prison of 1870's England. Dialogue and vocabulary also struck me as very accurate. A tour de force and a perfect pre-Halloween read. ( )

I. Loved. This Book.

Affinity doesn't seem to be as popular as Waters' other novels and I cannot see why. Perhaps it's the subtly of the story.

The subtly is one of the reasons I loved it so much. I don't need things explained in detail about the supposed bond between people. This is how I write my own stories; you just feel it. You can feel the emotions of the characters and their feelings without them having physical contact with another person.

The supernatural aspect is the main reason I loved this. This made me excited to read Affinity and it did not disappoint. It's a brilliantly crafted story with spirituality woven into it.

So far this would have to be my favorite of Waters' novels. The ending will blow you away. ( )

A library book I happened across, with much glee. She's very popular, so it's a rare occasion to actually find one of her books at the library.

Another of Waters' Victorian pastiches, this one is from the diary of a young woman, Margaret Prior, who is recovering from an unspecified illness and takes up the job of being a Lady Visitor to Millbank Prison to show the inmates the error of their ways through her refined lady-like behaviour.

I love the Victorians. So repressed, so much emotional mileage to be had from said repression.

We also get the occasional note from Selina Dawes, a medium who has been sent to the prison after something went wrong. And as the book progresses, Margaret becomes obsessed with Selina and her case.

The historical detail is simply marvelous, as one would expect of Waters' books. For example, I have no idea of whether lady visitors to the female prisoners actually existed, but I truly believe they did now because of this book.

The book slowly and tantalisingly gives us clues as to what happened previously, and builds up the tension until the final pages. I didn't actually see the ending coming, and it wasn't what I was hoping for, but I did love it.

A fabulous story, wonderfully told, highly recommended. ( )

The two stories told in Affinity come together to reveal all at the end. I found this more satisfying than the ‘backwards’ narrative of The Night Watch which seemed to fizzle out at its conclusion. This explodes.

Full review at blog ( )

This was a well written book which had an eerie feel to the tale and left me feeling a little uncomfortable.

It covers difficult themes including women's emancipation, the Victorian prison system, mental health, spirit mediumship ...

Very interesting but not a light hearted read. ( )

I first came across Sarah Waters as a result of Tipping the Velvet being made into a TV series. Janet lent me the book and I enjoyed it, more so than the program. Since then I've bought both Fingersmith and now Affinity, but I figured I'd read this one first, since it was the one she wrote first. I'm not sure quite what I expected it to be. As usual I didn't read the blurb on the back before I started, since I've found in the past they often tend to have spoilers for quite some way into a book. So instead I just dove straight in and found myself in two different Victorian worlds, tied together through the spirtualist Selina Dawes. One is in the journal of Selina telling of her life leading up to a seance which went horribly wrong, and the other two years later in the journal Miss Margaret Prior and her work as a Lady Visitor to the prison in which Selina is now held. It's a fascinating tale, and all the way through you find yourself wondering how much of the magic is real and how much is just smoke and mirrors, but like the best magic tricks if it is a trick you can't see how it's done. It's a bleak tale in places, and a happy one in others. Much darker than I was expecting, but very much enjoyable. ( )

Set in the 1870's, Selina Dawes finds herself imprisoned at Millbank Prison. Selina is a medium who insists that a spirit committed the crimes for which she has been incarcerated. When Margaret Prior becomes a visitor at the prison, in a role which sees her befriend prisoners and try to offer support to them, she finds herself drawn to Selina, to an extent which seems beyond her control. As their bond gets tighter, events start to hurtle out of control...

Sarah Waters is fast becoming one of my favourite authors. The story drew me in slowly, but surely. The main narrator is Miss Prior, and the book is interspersed with short accounts of events leading up to the incident which led to Selina's imprisonment; these parts are narrated by Selina herself. Miss Prior has herself suffered a great loss, and illness and depression are part of her recent past. As much as she helps Selina cope with prison life, Selina helps her to cope with her own life, living with her stifling mother.

The story unfolds beautifully at a pace slow pace, which nevertheless does not fail to hold the reader's attention. The ending was a genuine surprise, and one which I could not have predicted - here I could not help but to feel what Miss Prior felt. It is was a pleasure to be genuinely shocked by a story's conclusion.

As always, Sarah Waters captures the atmosphere and surroundings of 1870s London, and the setting is brought to life through her words. This book doesn't have the Dickensian feel of Fingersmith, nor the bawdy sauciness of Tipping the Velvet (both of which books I thoroughly enjoyed), but is rather more subtle. It works beautifully and is further evidence to show what a talented writer Waters is. I found myself wanting to keep reading, as I was eager to know what would happen next.

I would recommend this book very highly - I don't think you will be disapppinted! ( )

This book took me longer to finish than Fingersmith because I wasn't quite as interested in the characters until the very end, when Waters pulled some of the same "oh-ho, nobody is who you think they are!" tricks she did in Fingersmith, at which point I liked it much better. :D

The book, aside from having a central lesbian love theme (that wasn't as explicitly physical as in FS), dealt with the Spiritualist movement in the 19th century (as well as prison conditions, obviously). There is also some medicinal use of laudanum, which left me confused at the end as to whether the characters (at least Margaret) really believed in the spirits or it was an effect of the opium as several times she said she took some to make the bond between her and Selina stronger or some such. Indeed, there was a question at the end as to whether or not "Peter Quick" ever really existed, or if Selina really did believe he existed... basically, the more I think about it, the more I'm not certain I really know what happened or that I understand the characters' relationships as well as I thought I did. Which I suppose is Waters' trademark, leaving you confused and requiring a reread to better understand it.

Overall, I did enjoy the book, albeit not nearly as much as Fingersmith. ( )

There is no lying that Sarah Waters is an amazing writer. However the story line of this novel was so slow. You never felt like you were going anywhere and when you did get to the point is was disappointing. The authors ability to place in the locations of her novels is nothing but amazing but with a terriable story line to back it up this was a real disappointment. ( )

This book started very slow and it was only at the urging of a good friend that I continued reading it. I'm grateful for the push because by Part Two of this book, I found it impossible to put down. It is the story of Margaret and Selina--a proper, but very sad, lady of wealth and education; and a spiritual medium. Taking place in Victorian England, this book is similar only in location and era to her first book "Tipping the Velvet"--which is a very good thing. There are lesbian undertones to this book, but as much of the action takes place in a women's prison, it is not forced or unexpected, and actually gives the book much of its tension. Margaret, suffering from the physical loss of her father and the emotional loss of her 'friend', begins visiting a local women's prison as a kind of social service--to inspire the lowly criminals to repent. There, she meets Selina Dawes, a notorious medium who was imprisoned after a client of hers died under mysterious conditions. It is Margaret who seems to gain improvement from her visits, and this starts the series of events that make this book both expected and heartbreaking. ( )

Margaret Prior is a spinster grieving for her dead father. She becomes a “Lady Visitor” at Millbank Prison where she meets Selina Dawes. Selina is in Millbank for fraud and assault. She claims to be a spiritual medium who receives gifts from the spirits. She is a lovely young women and Margaret grows overly fond of her. Margaret’s family become concerned about her health; they think she spends too much time at the penitentiary. Her fondness becomes obsession as she begins to believe that her and Selina have a special “affinity” and are bound together forever, but is Selina the sweet lovely creature she appears to be or could it be that the fraud and assault charges are justified?

Most of the story is told through Margaret’s journal entries. Every once in awhile an entry from Selina’s journal is added. Margaret is a very sensitive and intelligent woman. Selina may be in a physical prison, but Margaret is in a figurative one. She is imprisoned by family obligations and societal norms. This is the women’s true “affinity.” ( )

I enjoyed this, though not as much as Fingersmith. This was interesting, doing the whole dark Dickens thing (prisons in 1800's England), though while I was captivated with Fingersmith, this kept me going but I didn't feel quite as drawn to the characters. ( )

L'atmosphère de l'époque victorienne est parfaitement recréée. L'atmosphère oppressante, les relations ambigues entre une héroïne suicidaire de la haute bourgeoisie et la prisonnière intrigante dont elle tombe "amoureuse" sont très bien retranscrites. ( )

Sarah Waters has written a gem of a book, a historical novel set in Victorian England in the 1870s.

Margaret Prior, in an effort to recover from a mental and emotional breakdown resulting in a suicide attempt over the death of her father, has become a Lady Visitor to the women’s ward of Millbank Prison in London. It was fairly typical in those days for upper-class women to engage in “good works” of charity, and one such activity was visiting women in prison to help them “improve” themselves. One of the prisoners is Selina Dawes, a spiritualist medium, who is serving a 4 year sentence over the death of her patroness and the emotional injury to another woman during a spiritualist session. Margaret finds herself drawn to Selina, who fascinates her much like a snake does a bird. Margaret comes to believe that Selina has the power to communicate with spirits who then can carry out her wishes; bizarre events occur in Margaret’s home that she can explain no other way.

Such is the context of this remarkable book. Waters spins out the story of the attraction between the two women to a totally unexpected end that blows the reader right of the water, so to speak. Structured as excerpts from both women’s diaries—Selina’s 2 years earlier than Margret’s entries—it is an excellent method for building the tension in the plot, giving nothing away until the very end. In addition, Waters has the fun of using the Victorian obsession with spiritualism as a focus of the plot.

Utterly integral to the plot as well are the conditions in women’s prisons of the time. Waters has clearly done her research; the effects on the women themselves are told through the story and are very dramatic as a result. What makes it even more horrifying to me is that in some ways, nothing has changed: there are still the sadists in today’s prisons, and those who truly wish to do well, to rehabilitate the women according to whatever moral standards prevail at the time.

Waters has a sure touch with her characters. Margaret’s fragility and vulnerability come through clearly, and Selina is an enigma. All the minor characters in the book whether Selina’s family, the matrons in the prison or the women prisoners themselves all have distinct voices. It is a remarkable tour de force that Waters can keep them all separate—and totally believable, especially Selina.

This is an outstanding read, another winner from Sarah Waters. Highly recommended. ( )

EMPRESTADO OU DADO (?) Á ISABEL MARIA EM 15.11.2008 ( )

As always, Sarah Waters is brilliant at bringing Victorian England to life. Affinity is quite a bit heavier and darker than Fingersmith or Tipping the Velvet. Taking place primarily in a women's prison, you'll spend most of the book feeling damp and cold. ( )

I finished "Affinity" yesterday, having listened to it on audiobook, The reader, Juanita McMahon, did an excellent job with the dual narrative.

Waters' strength is her ability to recreate the style and atmosphere of a mid-19th century London novel. I felt that, perhaps, there were rather too many other prisoners and matrons in the novel's cast list, but Waters is a good enough writer I was willing to overlook this. Also, Margaret's increasingly narrow and claustrophobic world was well handled, I thought.

As a story teller, Waters kept me engaged but I was disappointed by the ending, not so much by what happened, but by how Waters built up to it. Twists are fine, but an astute reader should perhaps have an inkling of what's about to happen - it's part of the fun. To simply wrong foot the reader, as Waters does here, doesn't result in a terribly satisfying conclusion. The book might otherwise have got full marks from me, but I've docked it a star for this reason.

Whilst Dickens might well have approved of this novel, many a crime writer would throw it across the room in frustration at its ignorance of the basic principles of their craft. ( )

This was a delighful mystery of sorts - set in Victorian England - where unmarried wealthy women who might be different, intelligent, independent, depressed were thought to be hysterical or ill and treated with morphine and bedrest. One of those women is our protagonist Margaret Prior who begins to visit a prison as charity work and gets entangled with a mysterious prisoner, a renowned 'spritualist', Selina Dawes.

Waters fills this novel with atmosphere galore - fog, icy cold, dark passageways, dimly lit nights of writing in journals, lonliness, longing. And it is a very clever story - told in alternating passages between Selina's past journal entries and Margaret's current ones -- winding down to the shocking truth of the matter at the very end.

I have to say though, I did figure things out well in advance. This did not really detract from my enjoyment of the novel really, but I prefer when I am totally surprised by 'the big reveal'. My only other criticism is that Margaret was just too overwrought to be taken seriously -- I was entertained by her predicament, but not particularly moved. At times her effusiveness just had me eye-rolling -- I don't know, maybe that was the author's intent.

All in all, entertaining, clever, fabulously Gothic -- I will definately consider reading more of Waters' novels. ( )

Non-spoiling summary: Taking place in the 1870s in London, Affinity tells the story of Margaret Prior and Selina Dawes. Selina is in prison as the result of a seance gone badly wrong. Margaret, whose perspective most of the book is told from, is a "Lady Visitor" to the prison (an acquired hobby to try to help her recover from the grief of losing her father, to whom she was very close). They meet, they talk; they talk some more. As their relationship grows, we learn just what lengths these characters are willing to go for love.

Review: If you enjoy mysteries and Victorian-era literature, then this might be the book for you. However, this is a very slow book; most of the "action" is in the final 30 pages or so (out of about 370 in my version). Yet none of the characters were developed quite as well as I would have liked—though this opinion may change on a second read. The settings, however, are extremely well developed: spirituality in Victorian England, prison life, a certain stiffness of interactions with loved ones. While Affinity certainly has a lesbian slant—it's not giving anything away to say Margaret falls madly head-over-heels in love with Selina—this is by no means the main theme of the book. In particular, Affinity has an appeal well outside a purely lesbian fiction audience, and those who love, say, Tipping the Velvet will not necessarily find any redeeming qualities in Affinity. I recommend this book only for people who are OK with slow reads (i.e., "boring") but enjoy reading books multiple times. ( )

Sarah just "gets it." She understands the feminine heart and has a wonderful way of telling a love story. This is a lesbian story told from a woman's perspective without the skewed perspective of the male gaze. I think that, straight or lesbian, readers will find themselves, like I did, experiencing the sweet-pangs of love themselves along with the character. The obsession, the difficulties that arise, the passion, the deep meaning of each glance and words... all these aspects of that breathless first love is portrayed here.
The story revolves around a woman who visits a woman's penitentary and falls madly in love with a mysterious and dark prisoner there. What follows is a dizzying dance between heaven and ruin on the thin and shakey tightrope of romance: it is dangerous, it is unique from any other experience, it is exhilarating and kind of exhausting... but damn, it feels SO good!