Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

5 reviews

buildingtaste's review

dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

The Thirteenth Tale is a satisfying gothic send-up, complete with name drops of all the usual 19th-century suspects. However, by placing all the dark twists in the distant past, Setterfield keeps the book from being too tense; like the narrator, readers are encouraged to approach the story-within-a-story as a puzzle, and the "present" action is mostly sedate. Still, with its laundry list of grim events, this one is not for the faint-hearted. Mind the content warnings!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Gun violence, Terminal illness, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Medical trauma, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Bullying, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Incest, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicide, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Gaslighting, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Vomit

Moderate: Pregnancy, Sexism, and Infidelity

Multiple relationships are codependent, violent, controlling and incestuous/bordering on incestuous.

Major characters are revealed to be the likely product of incest and rape.

Multiple violent and disturbing deaths, self-inflicted and by others. Some characters live in isolation and neglect their home; the decay and unsanitary conditions are described in detail. Terminal illness is a major plot point. The death of siblings and grief is a major plot point. A character is institutionalized. A character is confined for a medical/psychological experiment. Multiple characters are shown self-harming as children and adults.

A character attempts to murder an infant.

monicalaurette's review

dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

“People disappear when they die.”

This book was somewhat of a wild ride, and I don’t know how much I truly enjoyed it. I enjoyed the mystery part of this book, finding out the truth of Vida Winters and her personal backstory, and was pleasantly surprised with the actual reveal of it. I won’t spoil it so

I honestly thought it was that the twin was alive, not that there was a third child - cousin - who is our Vida Winters

.

At first the narrator, Margaret, to mee seemed a little stuffy and full of herself, but she was a different type of person compared to me so perhaps that’s why. However as time went on I grew to at least be neutral about her, and the fact that we’re both twins was fun, as well as the Angelfield twins that were such a large part of the story. I loved how that was a small surprise for me while I was reading.

“The separation of twins is no ordinary separation.”

One thing I wanted to put in this review and not just in the content warnings/spoilers: there’s like possible incest in this book. It’s not specifically stated between the brother & sister character, but to me it was HEAVILY implied that there was some. Also the brother is a rapist so if that’s not something you want I’d suggest steering clear of this book, or at least the big reveal twist reveal because that’s when it’s mentioned. Besides those things, really it was a fine book.

“Do you know the feeling when you start reading a new book before the membrane of the last one has had time to close behind you?”

This book didn’t really have this feeling for me. I finished this and told myself I would sit on it before writing my review, and then promptly forgot all about it until I opened up my reading notes. So while the above quote I 100% agree with and have had that feeling, this book didn’t do it for me. The story only really picked up towards the end (which happens) but I wish it had hooked me deeper sooner.

For this book, because of the items that just didn’t sit nicely with me I mentioned above, along with not feeling like this book really stayed with me long, I am giving it 3.25 stars. I loved the concept and at the end thinking I had the answer and then getting shocked, so glad that I did read it to get that small enjoyment.

I liked the Missus & John-the-Dig’s relationship as like two friends having to come together to raise some kids

HOW DID HESTER NOT KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THE THIRD CHILD WHY DID MISSUS & JOHN SAY NOTHING ABOUT THEM?

I should have realized there was someone else in the story since it was all in the third person while Vida was recounting it to Margaret.

Honestly said that Margaret & Aurelius didn’t like….at least keep in touch or stay together at the end. I liked when they interacted.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Terminal illness, Grief, Violence, Death, Animal death, and Gore

Moderate: Rape, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Pregnancy, Incest, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual assault, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical content, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Mental illness, Confinement, and Kidnapping

paulasnotsosecretdiary's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

The 13th Tale is a gothic novel about family secrets and legacies. The story touches upon the connection between twins, which has a little overall impact on the plot. The narrator, Margaret, is grieving over the loss of her twin and her mother. She works in her father's bookstore and writes biographies of notable scientists and others. Hired to write the biography of beloved author Vida Winters, Margaret untangles Vida's complicated family history, a history Vida has told in half-truths and outright lies in interviews. The truth is more terrible than Vida has let anyone believe, filled with incest, rape, child abuse, hunger, and physical and emotional neglect. Despite the split timeline of the story structure and parallels between Margaret and Vida's lives, by the end of the novel, we know little more about Margaret than we did at the beginning, but everything about Vida. The ending feels over-edited as though the author was strongly advised to conclude the book on a positive note with everything neatly tied up. However, the author's writing and pacing are on point, and a love of writing, words and books is a highlight of the book.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Addiction, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Incest, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, and Suicide

mariebrunelm's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

When I decided to gift this book to a friend, I thought I might as well re-read it before parting with it. Dear me, I had forgotten how dark it was! But it's also a very elegant book, for reasons I can't quite point to.
The story is that of Margaret, a antique book seller who dabbles in biography writing for unknown people of the 19th century. One day she receives a very special invitation in the post: Vida Winter, the most famous writer of her generation, asks her to write her biography after years of misleading journalists about her past. There ensues a story about the stories we tell ourselves, those that shape us and those that we hide. It's an extremely dark character study of two women shaped by trauma and grief for things they can't always identify. But it's also a fabulous hommage to the power of literature.
Rep: lesbian MC.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death of parent, Dementia, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Incest, Mental illness, Rape, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, and Toxic relationship

paolina's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad slow-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Prose a little too purple for me, plot a little too plodding, and drama a bit too messy for me to enjoy. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Grief

Moderate: Blood, Child abuse, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Excrement, Incest, Mental illness, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicide, Vomit, Drug use, and Dementia