Press Reviews

• Matt Thorne

  Independent on Sunday

  An exquisitely sad, pseudo-ghost story... it is a novel that takes countless risks

• Fiona Pitt-Kethley

  Daily Telegraph

  Affinity is the work of an intense and atmospheric imagination... Sarah Waters is such an interesting writer, a kind of feminist Dickens

• The Times

  Extraordinary... written in a subtly caricatured period style... So well researched is this novel that both diaries seem grotesquely authentic

• Metro

  Beautifully, atmospherically written, this is a tale to thrill your very soul

• Mel Steel

  Independent on Sunday

  Refined, repressed and simmering... a delicious tale of Victorian spiritualism

• Val Hennessy

  Spooky, spellbinding, exquisitely written... I do believe Waters is on the way to becoming a major literary star

• A.N. Wilson

  Daily Mail

  Sarah Waters is such a brilliant writer that her readers would believe anything she told them

• Guardian

  Sexy, spooky, stylish, Affinity is a wonderful book

• San Francisco Chronicle

  Waters displays her incredible talent for the Gothic historical novel in this splendid book about a Victorian women's prison and the affair there between an inmate and a lady visitor

• Seattle Times

  Gothic tale, psychological study, puzzle narrative... superbly suspenseful... This is gripping, astute fiction that feeds the mind and senses

• USA Today

  Unfolds sinuously and ominously... a powerful plot-twister... a truly suspenseful tale of terror; and a piece of elegant, thinly veiled erotica. Like a Ouija board, Affinity offers different messages to different readers, scaring the shrouds off everyone in the process

• Kirkus

  A richly detailed exploration of the mysterious affinity that appears to unite two lonely women... Waters has found a superb metaphor for the love that dares not speak its name, and developed it with remarkable ingenuity and power: another stunning performance