Night Watch, Sarah Waters

Book: 7
Title: Night Watch
Author: Sarah Waters
Genre: General fiction, historical fiction, gay/lesbian fiction
One-sentence summary: Waters traces the stories of three couples - one gay, one lesbian, one straight - through WWII-era London. Backwards.
Why did you get this book? It's Sarah Waters.
Do you like the cover? I do, although I wish it kept the same design from her previous books.
Did you enjoy the book? Yes, very much.
Was the author new to you and would you read something by this author again? No. Yes.
Are you keeping it or passing it on? Keeping it, definitely. Reread.
Anything else? Just... read this. It's wonderful. The first thing you should know is that instead of being set in the Victorian Era like all her other books, this one is set in World War II. She's as good at WWII-era as she is at Victorian stuff, though I must confess to enjoying Victorian trappings better. But this is really a breakthrough novel for her. It's interesting, she tells the story in three segments, which are presented in backwards chronological order - last section first and so on. And it's a fascinating choice, particularly for an author whose previous books drew so much strength from their intricately woven plotting and propulsive storytelling. At the beginning of this book, you know most of what you need to know about what happens to the characters. There are a few surprises here and there, mostly about how a specific thing comes to be, but mostly, you know where it's going. What you find out as the book progresses is *why* it's going there. You know the characters' stories from the beginning; it's the characters' lives, their selves, that you learn as it goes along. It's beautifully done. Strongly recommended.
Scale of 1 to 10: 9/10
Number of pages: 544
Total pages for the year: 2609