Rating: 
Summary: I want my time back please
Review: I spend hours and hours winding my way through this loooong book hoping I would (a) learn more about the characters, (b) learn more about Victorian London, or (c) be excited about a thrilling ending. Well, expect (d) none of the above. After over 800 pages the book just simply ends. No warning, no thought, nothing. Ding, book over. I screamed out loud. I have never invested that much time in a book to be so disappointed. Please, Mr. Faber, don't torture us with a sequel.
Rating:
Summary: bleeeeeaaaaah!
Review: Worst. Book. Ever. The writing style is overly florid and most of the characters are just, well, jerks. The ending is ridiculous.And yet, I couldn't put it down, because I kept hoping it would get better. So that's why it gets one star, for the author's ability to trick me into thinking that this book was worth a week of my time. I can't believe how many "best of" lists this has been on...probably people who are secretly fond of the great works of Fabio.
Rating: 
Summary: A great read!
Review: I really enjoyed this book. Don't let the length of the book discourage you from reading it. I enjoyed all of the characters and I like the author's narrative voice he creates. I would love to find out what happened to Sugar and Sophie at the end. The author leaves this up to our imagination.
Rating: 
Summary: Crimson Petal and the White
Review: In 1870's London, a group of repressed and damaged people try to deal with life and with each other. For me, this book worked well in some ways but had some frustrating elements. Faber writes well on a sentence level (leaving aside a love for the word "puppyish"), and his moments of directly addressing the reader, even putting the reader in the scene, are great. That's not supposed to work, but in almost every case he carries it off. As far as I could tell the period elements were correct, though I actually had wanted more about the perfume industry, which the author seems to have found boring (considering the way all the characters react to it). The characters are well-drawn, believable, and not especially sympathetic. They make mistakes, change their minds, go crazy, and in general act real. I regretted, though, never really seeing why William changed his mind about Sugar. What exactly prompts that? It comes out of nowhere -- or, at least, out of some missing his wife and insecurity about his manliness, but there's no moment of change or decision shown. Because of that, a reasonably appealing character changes to an idiotic villain in a trice. Despite the book's considerable length and the fact that there isn't much physical danger or action through most of it, I found it a reasonably gripping read. Faber uses physical frailty well as a source of tension. However, at the conclusion, I needed more closure -- just a line or two might have done -- regarding how Sophie would react to what Sugar did.
Rating: 
Summary: SOOO BORING
Review: Where is the story? The plot? The emotional depth? The ending? If you want to know how the street stank in London during this time period, read this book, because Faber describes every little detail of the scenary, fashion, etc. He is obviously quite knowledgeable, but as for a story, I tortured myself for nothing. I kept thinking "but, it has to get better." No such luck.
Rating:
Summary: Not a 'Pretty Woman'
Review: If you're looking for the story of a young, beautiful hooker and her wealthy savior, don't buy this book! As a adolescent prostitute with the reputation of being willing to "do anything", Faber's heroine Sugar has a dark side that perky Julia Robert could never begin to portray. And portly William Rackham is certainly no Richard Gere. So, if you'll put those romantic notions aside, you are in for one delicously troubling tale. 19-year old Sugar is celebrated in a gentleman's guide of whores, but she harbors an intense hatred of her customers and all Victorian society for allowing the exploitation of women through prostitution. When the aging playboy Rackham wants to reserve her services exclusively, Sugar's and Rackham's fortunes turn around. He acquieses to his father's demands that the take over the family business so that he can afford Sugar's upkeep. "Rescued" from her mother/madam's house, Sugar is able to work on her life's passion --a novel about a vengeful prostitute based on her own horrific experiences. All might have gone well for this ill-matched pair, if not for Rackham's insane wife Agnes. Unbalanced by an undiagnosed brain tumor, Agnes' increasingly bizzare behavior endangers the Rackham's social position. Sugar becomes obsessed with both Agnes and her daughter leading to tragic events.
Rating:
Summary: Oh those deliciously naughty Victorians!
Review: This was just the kind of summer reading escape I wanted. Naughty Victorian England is overrun with fallen women and horrid men. There's a bit of everything - mystery, madness, mayhem and the very fickle hand of Fortune. The "crimson petal" is a prostitute named "Miss Sugar," an ambitious callgirl whose secret weapon is her mind. She is an avid reader and can capably express her opinions about everything from Shakespeare to politics to the Daily News. She becomes the exclusive callgirl of Mr. Arthur Rackham, then his mistress and later his daughter's governess. The "white" is Rackham's wife, Agnes, a high strung china doll who is beautiful and crazy. Things I admired about Faber's novel: 1. Interesting use of direct address narrator who escorts the reader into the world of the story.
2. Bits of novel within a novel - Sugar's pornographic revenge novel.
3. Other non-narrative items - Faber uses letters, Agnes' journals, newspaper stories, brothel reviews, etc. commonly to forward the story.
4. Flashbacks. The story doesn't always move in a direct chronological fashion. Further, the reader often experiences the same scene or event from various character perspectives.
5. Rich characters. I disagree with some reviewers who claim that these characters are flat. I felt that the characters (and my feelings for them) grew and evolved over the course of the novel. Arthur Rackham is a whiny, pampered, elitist snob with a cashflow problem. He starts as vaguely pathetic and then becomes almost sympathetic and later he is an overinflated monster.
6. Others complain about the ending. I rather like it the way it is - not that I expect Faber to produce a sequel (I hope he won't). The reader is expected to have some responsibility. Based on the information we've been given, what do we think happens? We must ultimately decide. In a way, Faber lets us have our happy ending if we want to delude ourselves that it could be ever turn out well for Sugar, Agnes, Sophie, and Emmeline. This is well written, well researched and well worth reading! It is definitely not your Dickens' Pickwick Papers and definitely not for prudes or faint of heart.
Rating:
Summary: A Neo-Victorian Crock
Review: The novel begins well, but by page 400 I had gotten sick of waiting for the story to get moving. The author just keeps hitting the reader over the head with the same information. By time I reached page 400, I looked back and realized that any proper Victorian novelist, or actually any proper novelist, would have accomplished in approximately 100 pages what it takes Faber over 400 pages to accomplish. I can't fault Mr. Faber on ambition, just on execution. Read some Dickens or some Trollope instead. They're faster, funnier, and far more interesting, to say nothing of being far less BORING, than Mr. Faber.
Rating:
Summary: A story lacking in logic
Review: Couldn't agree more with some of the other reviews that this book is a tremendous disappointment. The book was a total drag and the final straw is that there is no attempt to even give any sort of an explanation to the reader as to why William Rackham's treatment of Sugar was a complete change after she moved into his house. The book also ended without an ending nor explanation as to what happened to any of the women in the story. The problem is that the book was so bad that even if the author releases a 'sequel', I won't read it. I felt cheated with Matrix 2's lack of ending but at least it was good enough that I wanted to watch Matrix 3 to get the rest of the story. This is my first Michel Faber book and it will be my last.
Rating:
Summary: Everyone believes in one rule of literature
Review: It's not always the same rule, or set of rules, but everyone has at least one.
For me, it's: respect your audience enough to give your story an end. A hint of one would do, or, sure, a selection of possibilities. But this novel just sort of -
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