Rating: 
Summary: A pageturner that wins your confidence
Review: "Confidence" is the operative watchword of Sarah Waters's splendid second novel set in the Victorian period: it is told through the confidences told in the diaries of two women, one a wealthy single woman who is visiting prisoners in a London pentitentiary, and the other a medium who has been arrested for fraud. As the novel continues, Margaret Prior slowly comes to gain confidence in the medium, Selina Dawes, especially when she herself is visited by ghostly manifestations. It is almost impossible to put the novel down: it gains your own confiedence as you go along, and you come to care desperately about the characters. But this (like Waters's next novel FINGERSMITH) is the rare pageturner that also builds a complex web of allusion and metaphor as it proceeds.
Rating:
Summary: Compelling read, amazing twists
Review: Sarah Waters is trully gifted. Affinity is written in the form of the heroine's diary. But it's far from what other authors have done in their novels, this one is trully unique. It is unique because because the characteristics of the times are written with realism and attention to detail, and the characters are depicted with well thought-of depth and wit. It is unique because the intensity of the emotions make your heart race like crazy. And finally, it would take one clever writer to come up with such unexpected twists. I finished this novel shocked, disturbed, and kept thinking about it for the rest of the day. It doesn't happen everyday that a story has such a powerful impact. I can't wait to start reading Tipping the Velvet.
Rating:
Summary: Highly recommended
Review: "Affinity" is a wonderfully atmospheric novel, set amongst the dank prisons and fog shrouded streets of Victorian London. It is much more than that, though: it is a feminist tale with lesbian undertones, a thriller, and a supernatural shocker with a twist ending that delightfully turns on its ear endings like "The Sixth Sense" and "The Others". (I read this for a book club, and NO ONE was expecting that ending.) There is a pathos to these characters lives -- it was not easy to be a woman in such a repressive society, especially a spirited one.Highly recommended... there's something for everyone in this one.
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Summary: Victorian Thriller
Review: In all her books, Waters immerses the reader in the gritty, true-to-life world of Victorian England. This book is even better than her acclaimed first effort, "Tipping the Velvet". This book is intense and compelling.
Rating: 
Summary: Not an easy read....thought provoking!
Review: Wow!
What a story!
The writing is excellent. I could feel the dampness of the Victorian prison. I could visualize the dank, thick, stone walls which housed the prisoners.
Here's a story of spirits and psychic mediums.
Margaret takes on the volunteer work of a Lady Visitor of the women's prison. She is quite obsessed with the place and takes her duties seriously.
Margaret meets and is very intrgued by Selena Dawes, a woman in prison for fraud. Margaret has tender feelings in her heart for the unfair, brutal treatment of Selena and the other women imprisoned.
This is a very good book telling a very different type of story.
The ending of this story is a breath taking surprise!
I recommend reading this book, but it is not a light read. It will make you think and it's a terrific book to discuss with others.
This is an eye opener of a story.
Outstanding writing!
Rating: 
Summary: Victorian Cruelty
Review: Reader, have a care. This grim & claustrophobic tale by the author of Tipping the Velvet has none of that novel's raffish humor. Sarah Waters continues to dazzle with her verbal skill & her mastery of plot; the brutal twist at the book's end comes as a true shock. But prison scenes of graphic cruelty and a narrative voice from the point of view of a pitiable, deluded protagonist conspire to drag Affinity down, down, down. Brilliant -- but excruciating.
Rating:
Summary: Unforgettable
Review: I loved "Affinity" more than Ms. Waters' first book. The ending, the gripping feelings and the imagery of this book are just plain unforgettable. I find myself revisiting the story over and over in my head. I can't wait for the next book!
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Summary: The Lady Visitor
Review: In Affinity, Margaret Prior has become a Lady Visitor at Millbank prison. The superintendant thinks that visiting the women and teaching them of manners and the outside world will assist them in their rehabilitation. Margaret is drawn to several of the women, and the portraits of their lives and crimes are brilliantly drawn. She is especially fond, however, of one prisoner: Selina Dawes. Selina is a spirit-medium, and as Margaret comes to know more of her and her story she becomes even more drawn to Selina, to the point of obsession. Margaret comes to realize that the women in the gaol are not the only ones in prison; but that she is imprisoned by her family, her society, and her inability to express her forbidden longings. The book tells brilliantly of Victorian society, and of women's place in the world.
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Summary: Best Read since the Poisonwood Bible!
Review: I absolutey adored this book! If you are into period pieces, journal entry style writing, dark and moody environments, suspence, and supernatural happenings, check out Affinity. I don't know if Sarah Waters intended for the reader to be as entranced as the main character Margaret, but that is what happened to me. This is more than a book, it is an experience. The reader, if suseptible to it, can become as entranced as Margarette is, by Selina and the 'supernatural events' which take place. While reading it you fall under the same 'Spell' as the main character. A spell cast by the Spirtual Medium Selina Dawes. I found myself experiencing the same trust, and finally shock that Margaret feels at the end of the book. I don't want to give anything else away! Just give it a shot. You won't be sorry.
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Summary: 1st Book Much Better but Keep Writing About Women's Lives
Review: Affinity is no Tipping the Velvet (TTV), which is brilliant. Since I read TTV first, perhaps I was expecting the same depth of character development, descriptions of Victorian enviornment & culture. I raced through TTV and was hungry for more. Not that these aspects weren't developed in Affinity, but the scope was much smaller. Perhaps it needed to be to create the macabre feel of a supernatural tale of deception? This choice by the author perhaps dragged the book's pace down. I didn't feel as much for the characters or their plight as I did in TTV. For me Affinity was Margret/Aurora's story. Her fragility (and whining) made me crazy most of the book but what a great/sad character. Selina was hard to know. Perhaps the distance was necessary for a charater who proved to be so deceptive. I didn't care about/know well/interested in many of the lesser characters either (just the opposite in TTV). Often the plot dragged for me and I found myself skimming sections, saying "I guess this is a 'scary' part." Some sections seemed overdone/drawnout; not as engaging as I felt the author was attempting to make them. I kept waiting for something suspenseful and thouroghly engaging. The last two chapters provided that: a good, ending to a good book. It was somewhat worth the trip but the destination was much better than the journey. Affinity is a good read, just not great (like TTV). With all that said, Ms. Waters is still an important writer. She writes about the lives of women from such a place of honesty with a keen perception of herstory and awareness of the Victorian socialization of women. Affinity did attempt to show the pain of the characters' confining social roles (women in prison (imprisoned) as reality and methaphor) & how life beat down their bodies and spirits, in some cases to oblivian. Ms. Water's: please keep writing about lesbian women's lives. I did like the way the women who were lesbian (married and not) where drawn: the author not hiding their sexuality but having it be an aspect of their character like other aspects of their character. Ms. Water's doesn't make anyone's sexuality out to be the end of their experiences or actions. She also doesn't ignore the social & cultural forces that impacted lesbian women and all women for that matter. It's so important to have this reality represented in such a sophisticated & truthful way. Bravo.
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