Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.14 AVERAGE
3.14 AVERAGE
Not what I was expecting but I enjoyed it. I know why she labeled it a ghost story although it isn't at all what you would think of when you hear the term.
Moments of interesting language among the confusing and superficial relationships.
While Setterfield's beautiful, vivid writing is as engaging and atmospheric as it was in The Thirteenth Tale, the plot of Bellman & Black bogs down as it meanders toward an unsurprising end.
I am a huge fan of Diane Setterfield having devoured her other works in just days. I had high expectations for this book and kept waiting for it to get better. But it didn't. The end was anti-climatic and was lacking the creepiness and genius of her previous books. D. Setterfield has a wonderful gift for prose and poetry within her writing and I still highlighted many passages but they were definitely not enough to save the book.
A strange reading experience for me: On the one hand, this book is beautifully written with some truly lovely passages. On the other hand, while I never lost interest, I also didn't really get the point. Whatever overarching sense of doom or dread that was supposed to be here was lost on me. I was interested while I read it, but don't feel that the book or its characters really had any impact on me.
My full review is up at Bookshelf Fantasies.
Review copy courtesy of Atria Books via NetGalley.
My full review is up at Bookshelf Fantasies.
Review copy courtesy of Atria Books via NetGalley.
Beautifully written. Not quite as satisfying as The Thirteenth Tale.
If it was possible to give this book a lower rating, I would. I skipped over almost half he book, missed nothing, and still got the point of the book. After reading the Thirteenth Tail, I expected so much. I have never been so bored by a book that I skipped ahead. Well first time for everything I suppose.
A little slow, but has a nice Poe/eerie-morality tale feel.
This was an interesting book. Though it was billed as a ghost story, it isn't one in the traditional sense. To keep the spoilers to a minimum, the book revolves around William Bellman, who kills a rook with a slingshot as a child and then as an adult notices a man in black dogging his steps.
I started this book looking for a creepy, ghostly read and did not find it. This book is not about chills and creepiness but rather about mortality. It was not a bad book, and the writing style was well-done and readable, but it wasn't the kind of book I was expecting.
I started this book looking for a creepy, ghostly read and did not find it. This book is not about chills and creepiness but rather about mortality. It was not a bad book, and the writing style was well-done and readable, but it wasn't the kind of book I was expecting.