2015 Reading Challenge [Closed] discussion

- This should be coming in from the library in the next week. I've been looking forward to this and and it just so happens to fit week #1!The Paying Guests


It is 1922, and London is tense. Ex-servicemen are disillusioned; the out-of-work and the hungry are demanding change. And in South London, in a genteel Camberwell villa—a large, silent house now bereft of brothers, husband, and even servants—life is about to be transformed as impoverished widow Mrs. Wray and her spinster daughter, Frances, are obliged to take in lodgers.

With the arrival of Lilian and Leonard Barber, a modern young couple of the “clerk class,” the routines of the house will be shaken up in unexpected ways. Little do the Wrays know just how profoundly their new tenants will alter the course of Frances’s life—or, as passions mount and frustration gathers, how far-reaching, and how devastating, the disturbances will be.


Short-listed for the Man Booker Prize three times, Sarah Waters has earned a reputation as one of our greatest writers of historical fiction, and here she has delivered again. A love story, a tension-filled crime story, and a beautifully atmospheric portrait of a fascinating time and place, The Paying Guests is Sarah Waters’s finest achievement yet.

Thank you for including the synopsis! It seems like a very interesting read. :)

Lauran: I will join you in reading this, but I cannot start until the 6th of January, as I will be travelling and don't want to take this one with me. But I will join in the discussion once I've started.

Hi all - I have started this - 3 chapters in, the scene is set and I think intriguing things are about to start happening

I'm back from my trip and will be starting today. Looking forward to this!

@Lauran: have you started yet?

@Cat: I saw from your review that you were disappointed (didn't want to read the whole review in case of spoilers). Sorry for that! I've also liked the previous books by Sarah Waters that I've read, so I guess I will also feel let down if this isn't as good. But I will let you know how I feel about this once I've read a couple of chapters.

I'm in the middle of chapter four and still liking it, although I wish all the secrets would be revealed a little bit quicker. One thing that I don't like about the book are the long chapters, as I don't like taking a break in the middle of a chapter. So I would prefer shorter chapters.
It just occurred to me that one reason I'm liking this book quite a lot is that it describes London, and I just returned from there a couple of days ago. So it's nice seeing some familiar places mentioned, although the south of London - where the house is situated - is not familiar to me.

Finished chapter 12 last night.

(view spoiler)[Can't say I have been much surprised about anything that has happened so far. I think it was clear from the beginning that Frances and Lilian would end up having an affair (it's a Sarah Waters book after all). I also thought that either Len would be killed by the women or that Len would kill Lilian and Frances would want to revenge it in some way. The baby was not much of a surprise, although I hadn't thought Lilian would terminate the pregnancy, and in quite a gory way - but I guess in the 1920's there were no less gory ways available, at least for a woman like her.
I'm intrigued to see what happens: will the police catch the real killler or not? And what is the role of Charlie, why is he lying about the time when he last saw Len? (hide spoiler)]

Not much left anymore, I expect to finish tonight. I have also already started the book for week 2, it's a different type of read, so they don't clash, even when read alternatingly.

I have finished this book, and I do not regret reading it, but it ended up being a book I wanted to date on the regular but not to marry in the end. :-) Since it is a long book, I wrote a review so others could decide if they are up for the undertaking!

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...