PositiveThe New York TimesWaters pitches the reader straight into the Victorian stew with a character called Mrs. Sucksby, who makes her living rearing orphans in a sort of thieves' nursery … Sue Trinder herself is Oliver Twist with a twist: female and sexually aware … This is a Victorian novel the Victorians never dreamed of writing. Yet Waters keeps reminding us of what they did write … Metaphors about reading are scattered throughout the novel, suggesting the vicarious life Maud has to suffer while she is tied to her uncle's catalog of dirty books...Literature as enslaver, books as concealers of truth: Waters spins an absorbing tale that withholds as much as it discloses … She writes great Gothic, her descriptive skill augmented by an acute ear for dialogue.
Shirley Barrett
MixedThe New York TimesDespite his promising back story, Beck is a disappointingly two-dimensional character, and the tepid romance between Beck and Mary reads at times like a pastiche of Jane Austen ... It’s in the whaling scenes that Rush Oh! comes to life. These episodes are vigorous and emotionally complex, and Barrett uses the collaboration between men and orcas to explore the moral ambiguities of the hunt, which represents a livelihood for both.
