The Woman in White is my first novel by Wilkie Collins and I found it a very gripping read, it took me less than two weeks to finish this brick of a book. It's quite an intriguing mystery and I think that it stikes a good enough balance between melodrama and moderate plausibility. I enjoyed the big cast of characters but I agree with some other reviews saying that Laura paled compared to her sister Marian in terms of personality and depth (even if poor Marian was depicted in a very unfavourable way).

I have to admit that the chapters set at Blackwater Park were a bit difficult to go through, given all the misery and abuse directed at the female characters, it made for a very bleak reading experience. However, the story was wrapped up neatly and in a satisfying way.

I wasn't expecting the vicious fatphobia that permeates the entire novel so I was quite taken aback and it really dampened my overall enjoyment.  

This book is INCREDIBLY slow. Also count fosco is FAT FAT FATTIE. HIS FAT FACE FATTILY EATS CROISSANTS.

A domestic thriller garnished with Victorian misogyny. My compliments to the multi perspective storytelling through letters and diary entries, etc.

These poor women really were in a hell of societal convention. Not allowed to do anything without a disinterested uncle's consent. Not allowed to talk to each other plainly. Forced to walk on eggshells and hypervigilant to even the merest shadow of an insult. If only they could call everyone's BS and just LEAVE.

Like, at first I thought Marian was being paranoid. But no, Count Fosco and his wife really were sneaky little snakes. (Tho, the stubborn disgust at Fosco's praise was odd to me. Like, kinda a black and white moral superiority complex thing. As if because Fosco did some sketchy stuff, his very gaze could poison her or something.) (Oh, also, Fosco's condemnation of English society and crime was kinda weird. Was the author speaking through him as a form of social critique, or was the author trying to frame that line of thinking as obviously wrong because a villain was voicing it?)

In other news, the mystery threaded throughout, Percival Glyde's big secret, was v interesting.

Funny to me that this novel came out right after A Tale of Two Cities and both of them contain "twin" characters.

Anyway, I liked it. Not a top favorite, but worth the read.