A couple of you recommended this one, and I’m so glad you did! It was a great read — full of books, mysteries and secrets. “All children mythologize their birth. It is a universal trait. You want to know someone? Heart, mind and soul? Ask him to tell you about when he was born. What you get won’t be the truth: it will be a story. And nothing is more telling than a story.” Reclusive author Vida Winter has tapped a young biographer named Margaret […]
A love letter to the lovers of letters
One of the characters in The Thirteenth Tale has a strict rule: start at the beginning. Tell the story in order. Well, all due respect to that awesome character, but I’m going to start at the end. My end, at least. When I had about 60 pages left in the book, I decided to stay in my car after work and finish it there, rather than read the end at home. I knew I would drive myself insane in traffic, knowing this book was just […]
A great way to end the year
4.5 Stars. What a lovely book to end (probably) the year on. The Thirteenth Tale is one of those books that’s been floating around on my TBR forever, but just never made it to the top until now. I’m so glad it did! Setterfield is clearly a very talented writer. The Thirteenth Tale has quite a complex plot, weaving together many stories from different time periods with several narrators (and a few unreliable ones). Yet, for all its complexity, it really works. Consider me a fan. […]
The saddest homage to Jane Eyre ever.
This review is going to get nasty. Just warning you ahead of time. I bought Diane Setterfield’s The Thirteenth Tale years ago when it was THE BOOK of 2006, and haven’t read it yet. I decided it was time to evaluate it and see if it would remain on my shelf or move on down life’s pathway. I went with an audiobook on my travels to and from a conference, which was not the best choice. This book spent a long time being very dull […]
Boring & Boring
I really enjoyed Setterfield’s debut novel, The Thirteenth Tale. It was a book as much about the love of books as it was the dark tale it was telling, and telling it with an unreliable narrator to boot. It left a lasting impression and when I spotted her follow up, a ghost story no less, on the shelf in Foyles, I had to buy it. I bloody love ghost stories. I love being scared when I’m reading or watching something, it’s the best. I haven’t had […]
Ghost story? Metaphors? Say what now?
Oy. First thing: the third star of this rating is entirely for Jack Davenport, the narrator of the audiobook, whose voice is like sex. When he talks, my ovaries try to leap out of my body like that tiny alien in Alien. I try to explain to them this is counterproductive, but it continues to happen. Second, this book was incredibly frustrating and I hope writing this review will help me to sort out why. I read Setterfield’s debut novel, The Thirteenth Tale, several years ago, and […]