Yawn - Rated 
I loved the crimson and finally bought this book to re immerse myself into Fabers dirty but exciting Victorian London. But chapter after chapter, I am wondering why I am reading this boring collection of words. There are few ideas, the stories are thin and completely uninteresting. They are all superficial and out of any real context. Yawn, yawn, yawn. I realize I keep on reading because Fabers writing style is good, it pulls me in. But chapter after chapter, boredom leads to disappointment and finally, when Faber tries to summarize the entire history of UK, including the suffragette movement, I finish the book and for the first time ever do I want to tear the pages out and burn them.
I was hoping for alot more - Rated 
Crimson was one of my favourite ever reads, and also Under The Skin was truly unforgettable. Michel Faber has said that he isn't going to write a sequal to 'Crimson' (despite there being a loud call for it) but nevertheless I was disappointed that this small collection of short stories was so unrevealing. I suspect it was largely formed from outcuts from the original text that he re-vamped. What on earth was 'The Rat Man' story all about. Too deep for me. Overall I'm sorry that I bought the book as, for me, there was no point to it?
Not quite a follow-up but worth reading - Rated 
Back in 2003, Michel Faber published The Crimson Petal and The White - see pages and pages of rave reviews on amazon. I, along with countless other people hoped that eventually another volume of this fantastic saga would come along. Well, we kept on waiting, and now Michel Faber has provided us with a set of short stories, or maybe episodes would be a better word, about some of the characters in the earlier novel. Those who were thirsting for more will have to make do with this - it is a short book and I actually managed to read it in a day (OK, so I commute to work on the train). But it is definitely up to the same standard as the novel, and provides some revealing glimpses of what happened next (or even what happened before in one or two instances).
The main character Sugar appears, but in an episode before her starring role in the novel. Others who were "undone" are shown to have been truly undone, and never achieved a state of contentment or happiness. I won't describe the stories in any detail - they are short enough, but I think its fair to say, that this is worth reading if you loved the novel, but unfortunately have the effect of making the reader want a more substantial historical novel from Mr Faber. I regret I was not so impressed with his science fiction interlude Under The Skin (although it was good), and feel that Faber's main skill is depicting the life and manners of the Victoria era with all its heights and depths, its passion and its hypocrisy.
Another glimpse of Faber's Victorian world - Rated 
Although a great doorstep of a book (in the best sense of the term), Michael Faber's "The Crimson Petal and the White" leaves you wanting more. "The Apple" supplies a little more. It contains a fascinating sequence of unconnected stories featuring characters from Crimson Petal (or with Petal connections). Some of them, it is clear, got what (we might think) they deserved after Petal closed - others get a backstory that casts light on their actions in the main volume. Most of the mystery is, though, preserved together with the scope for each reader to imagine their own continuation of the main book. (My guess, by the way, was that Sugar used the money William had given her, and her knowledge of his business, to set up her own concern - probably some distance away, in York, perhaps - which grew over time to rival and eventually supplant his. From what I read in The Apple I don't now think this is very likely, though it remains possible).
In summary, anyone who enjoyed Petal will love this - if you didn't read that book, shame on you: but you can redeem yourself now by starting with this, and then getting to know the characters better through Petal.
Mesmerising and revealing - Rated
The Crimson Petal and the White has to be one of my favourite books of all time. I was intrigued from the moment I heard about it at one of our conferences and as soon as I had the opportunity to grab one of the largest proofs ever, I had the mighty tome open and plunged right in. Over the following days, I was fully immersed, only to be drawn painfully away by inconveniences such as work and sleep.
When the book was over, I felt bereft. Not due to the admittedly astonishing open-end to the story, which I loved, but the world in which I had inhabited for those days had been riven away from me and I was reluctantly falling back into reality.
The Crimson Petal and the White is one of those books where the detail of the locations and the people are so precise they leave an indelible stain upon your imagination and they never leave you.
When I was handed The Apple, the world of late nineteenth century London was engulfing me once more. Within the pages lie seven pure gems of storytelling from a true master of the art. Whether you are learning about the mental decline of William Rackham in his later years or of Sugar's history prior to the events of the first book, you are entranced by the depth of character and the realism of their lives.
There are other characters that we learn more about who may have been a minor player in the original story, but here they are fleshed out even further.
I am sure that the questions on many people's lips will be about the aftermath of the original novel. Michel Faber does state categorically in his foreword that there will be no sequel to purely sate the appetites of the curious, but in the final story of this collection, we do have a joyous insight into one particular character's future to allay any fears we, as a reader, may have had for someone we began to care about as dearly as we would a real friend or family member. I shall leave it as a surprise for when you read it yourself.
As far as I am concerned, I would like Michel Faber to continue to write stories from the world of Crimson Petal, for I would be entirely content to return there time and time again.
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