" Well this was really disappointing. It would probably have gotten three stars if I hadn't heard so many good things about it before I started reading, but it let me down so much I can't bear to give it more than two. People keep saying this is like Dickens - but it now seems obvious to me those people say it simply because they haven't read other Victorian novelists, the only things this and Dickens have in common is the setting and the slightly ridiculous plot - although, by and large, Dickens at least makes sense. He also has a kind of linguistic trickery that make his dreary long books a joy to read even when they're very - well, dreary and long. Fingersmith is just dreary and long and the language is - in a way - just all wrong - neither too sparse to make it a really quick read, nor rich enough to enjoy reading it simply for the language. It's just tedious - and it makes this book a very tedious book. If you add to that how little sense the plot makes and how childish the love story is, it really makes you wonder how many people rate this so highly just because of the lesbians. Mind, not that that's the worst possible reason to over-rate / over-hype a book, but still - I feel cheated. "
— Andreea, 2/17/2014