Rating: 
Summary: The Horror, The Horror
Review: Michel Faber has great potential should he ever find a decent editor. This book could and should be cut in half...too many useless details that do nothing to add value. If one does persist long enough to get into the story, there are worthwhile moments...but don't do it! Not if you have a life. Anyone who tells you differently is a pretentious idiot. I don't think I've ever been so disappointed at the end of a book. Did I say ending? Whatever it was... Very phony intellectual stuff. It's like Faber got bored with his own blathering, had a deadline with the publisher and just said "the end" randomly. Luckily, I somehow had the goodluck to have taken this book out of the library and didn't pay a penny for it.
Rating: 
Summary: Bravo!
Review: This is such a fun book! The opening style and invitation to the reader is refreshingly different and sets the theme for the rest of the story - the reader as invisible witness to the bygone era of Victorian London.
It's as if Faber, as knowledgeable guide, accompanies you in a time machine and you are able to see the world and people around you but not interact with them.
The combination of brash and bawdy London slums and wealthy, high-class neighborhoods is startling and wildly entertaining. The liason between these 2 worlds is Sugar, a 19-year-old, self-educated prostitute determined to escape from the prison of Mrs. Castaway's whorehouse, where Sugar enthralls her customers with her wit and conversation skills and her reputation for engaging in acts that most basic hookers refuse, to a more secure and satisfactory situation. Her goal is to become a novelist, championing the plight of poverty-stricken prostitutes everywhere and taking literary revenge on the men who are constantly in abundance to take advantage of them and the hypocritical rich who sneer at them.
Along her journey, however, Sugar makes a startling discovery. She learns that her bitterness towards the entire upper class is unfounded. All the work and hatred she poured into her novel is therefore misplaced and she realizes that her bitter words will serve no good purpose to anyone.
As for the other handful of characters, they are all enthralling. And even though there is no neat and tidy resolution to all the intertwined stories, I found it to be a fitting ending. If we indeed were transported back in time to this place for a glimpse into a different world, at some point the visit must end and we have to return to our own world.
It gives the reader much to think about but I believe that's a sign of a great book.
Bravo, Michel Faber!
Rating: 
Summary: A lot of buildup to go no where.
Review: I had such high hopes when I bought this novel, with the cover proclaiming it number one on several book lists for the year. However, when I closed the cover for the last time I felt completely ripped off and that I had wasted a large amount of time (the book IS after all nearly 1000 pages).
When at first you start to read you hope the extreme detail (about the most dull of subjects) will eventually become a dazzling backdrop for a wonderful tale that is about to unfold, only to find that that IS the story. A tiresom, endless, stage that nothing ever plays upon. The charecters most idle thoughts are all written down and repeated so often that not only are you tired of them... you start to detest them as well! I kept reading hoping that eventually it would get better or start to move forward with a bit more steam, but to no avail. Characters are introduced only to be discarded after a short time, niether adding or taking away from the story. They might as well have not been in it at all. The ending, leaves the reader unsatisfied and in my own case, completely disappointed.I will say that the amazing backdrop that Faber weaves is intricate and rich. You can picture many of the places in your mind quite vividly as you read. Too bad nothing ever happens in it. All in all I found it a nice insight in English history and about as dynamic as a history book.
Rating: 
Summary: SUPERB
Review: Much more than character study or social commentary.
More than a novel.
This is a totally fascinating, awe inspiring piece of work.
It continues to haunt me long after reading the last page.
Skillfully written, completely absorbing, fascinating. Michel Faber has created characters that live and breathe, characters that I care about, feel compassion for and continue to live on in my mind even now.
I loved "living" with them all, and felt a loss when the book ended.
I highly recommend this extraordinary reading experience.
The end, far from being disappointing, as other reviewers have stated, was, for me, brilliant. Read and enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating!
Review: Faber's The Crimson Petal and the White is a fascinating read into the life in Victorian England. IT is told through the eyes of a minor character and tells the story of Sugar, a prosititute with aspirations to be more than that. She latches on to a perfume factory owner who is spineless and a bit insecure, though money transforms him into a different character. Sugar is his governess, mistress and business confidant. From there, the story unfolds as William changes and leaves Sugar behind. Quite honestly, I wasn't all that excited to sit down and read this book as it is 800+ pages. However, I found the narrative style and pace engrossing. It certainly wasn't one of those books that I couldn't put down, but it grabbed my attention nonetheless. I would reccommend this as a book to read, and intersting look into human characters and motivation.
Rating:
Summary: A waste of precious time
Review: Having read a review on the book stating that the work could be likened to a modern-day Charles Dickens I was intrigued. I was sadly disappointed and should have chucked the book in the middle as there was no plot and no redeeming social value as far as I could see...what was the point?
Rating:
Summary: Could not put it down!
Review: Like a soap opera. Compelling and interesting.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely engrossing right to the end.
Review: I read a lot of books, and often I find myself thinking of things like what the cat's up to when really I should be paying attention to the words that are fleeing past my eyes. With this novel, Michel Faber has made me focus on every word. It is the most beautifully written novel I've read in a very long time, and my significant other can tell you how much of it I felt obliged to read aloud, just to share the beauty of the writing. The story is so deftly told that I felt as if I knew everyone involved, as if I really cared what happened. I was telling a friend about it just today, and it occured to me that the indignation I felt about some of the injustices in this book was just as real as if it had been a true story. I don't recall ever feeling as drawn in to a plot as I was with this superb book.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely stunning and absorbing
Review: I did not really want to read this book because I'm not into Victorian novels at all. But there it was and I started it, just to convince myself that, after a few pages, I would be able to put it down for good. Instead, the author seemed to reach through the pages and grab me, personally, and pull me into the book. Not everybody seemed to like this beginning and the way the author talks directly to the reader, but I was instantly fascinated. I tried to read as fast and often as I could, yet, due to the size of the book it took me about two weeks (also, I am a slow reader). I have never before read a book that had me so utterly in its grip. Even when I was not reading I was constantly thinking about the book and the characters, I would even dream of them, it was like a spell. I seemed to know each character very intimately, yet the book had lots of sudden turns so that you never knew what surprises the next chapter would bring. Yet there was no deus ex machina, and the storyline was absolutely plausible. The sudden and open ending shocked and confused me at first, but the more I thought about it, the better I understood. After all, everything important has been said, and the major storylines have come to an end. And the more I think about it the more I know how the future looks like for the characters, and so many things come together and make sense. Everybody gets what they deserve, things are as they should be and and all is right in the end, although it is not what one would generally consider a happy ending. This review is probably confusing and nonsensical for people who have not yet read this book, but details would involve spoilers: So please go ahead and read it, and then come back and reread all these reviews.
Rating:
Summary: One of the Best Recent Novels I've Read
Review: This is a Victorian novel written with the hindsight and sensibility of the 21st centtury. Like many actual Victorian novels, there is a mixed and complex cast. However, I was never at a loss as to who was who since each character is vividly depicted. While never wondering which characters were intended to be likeable and which were not, each is developed enough to come across as human; the motivations and situations of even the most unlikeable characters are presented well enough to evoke some measure of understanding if not sympathy. That is not to say that there are not some real slimy personalities in the story, or that the sympathetic characters are one-hundred percent so. I do not purposefully seek out historical fiction, so I have no great store of titles to compare this one to in that genre, but I will say that the depiction of Victorian London was extremely fascinating. The centerpiece of the novel is Sugar's rise through the ranks of society and the ironic dissonance between her mental and social states. Secondary characters create important contrasts with Sugar's arc, and the novel would not be complete without them. This is a book to immerse yourself in, but it will only thrill you insofar as you find character development and social commentary thrilling.
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