Title: The Paying Guests   

Author: Sarah Waters

Genre: Historical Fiction     

Publisher: Emblem Books

Format: Paperback

Pages: 564

Rating:3.5/5 stars

Synopsis (Goodreads):

The “volcanically sexy” (USA Today) bestseller about a widow and her daughter who take a young couple into their home in 1920s London.

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.

Review:

I went into this book not knowing much about it. I knew it took place in 1920s England and that’s about it! What I uncovered beneath the pages was a lot more than I was expecting, and it was quite a refreshing novel. It centres around Frances, who lives with her mother after the war, and ever since the death of her father, they take in a married couple as tenants to rent some rooms to bring in some income! But the events that follow are nothing that Frances could ever dream of!

I really liked Frances as a character, as I thought she was well developed and had a compassionate side to her that I really liked. The other main female protagonist, Lilian, I wasn’t as connected with but I can’t blame the writing or the character development per se, I think it’s just me personally.

The book also brought up important issues and themes, including treatment of soldiers after the First World War. There was also the portrayal of lesbian relationships in this book, which is something that is underrepresented in the fiction that I read, so I was glad to rectify this! The thing that didn’t grab me about this book was the length. I loved the writing, but I feel like the plot got dragged on too much and I would have liked to have been a faster pace! Overall a good read though!

Happy reading!