My second re-read of the year was Fingersmith by Sarah Waters, which I originally read back in 2006. Sarah Waters is one of my favourite writers, and Fingersmith is among my favourite of her books.

I only remembered a vague outline of the book, though. MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD! I knew that not everyone was as they seemed, and that the first time I read it, I was shocked about about halfway through. This time, I tried not to anticipate too much what would happen, and thankfully, I’d forgotten so much about the book, it was almost but not quite, like reading it for the first time. I was still caught up in the story, and enjoyed how Waters spun her web. What I appreciated this time round, was the humanity of everyone involved, even the villains. (Well, mostly everyone — there were some decided exceptions.)

Having reread the book, I then went on to watch the BBC miniseries adaptation, which I had not seen. I was only able to find it on Britbox, so availed myself of their free trial in order to watch. At only 3 1-hour episodes, it was by necessity condensed from the 500+ page book, but I thought it was a good adaptation. I especially enjoyed watching venerable actor Imelda Staunton as Mrs. Sucksby and seeing Elaine Cassidy (who’d I’d last watched as a child in The Others) and Sally Hawkins as young women in the roles of the lead characters, Maud and Susan.