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3.14 AVERAGE
3.14 AVERAGE
Really wanted to like this book, but when I was done my only feeling was "Huh." felt like there must be something I'm missing.
I’m confused. I read this book because I love the authors writing style and although I finished the book. I found it to be confusing and to be honest not concrete enough.
Not sure how I feel about this book? 3 or 4 stars? It's about the journey not the ending, I think it's one of those. This book is also about feelings and ominous suspense building (waiting for something bad to happen), rather than about plot. I'm glad I read it and it has some beautifully written passages.
BELLMAN & BLACK was requested from Netgalley on a whim based more on instinct than desire. Something about the synopsis told me that this might be a book for me, a book that I would cherish and love forever. Sadly, my instinct is about as correct as predicting the winner of the Super Bowl fifteen years before it happens.
This will be a short review because there isn't much I can say about it. It's a book marketed as a ghost story, but there aren't really any ghosts. It's a book marketed as "heart-thumpingly perfect", which isn't accurate. It's a book about a man who is haunted by his past and by some otherworldly force, but it wasn't a ghost. He's a man who screwed up and is making amends by becoming obsessed to the point of being creepy about it. It's not a good look on anyone.
I haven't read THE THIRTEENTH TALE, but in reading Setterfield's sophomore novel, I did notice her prose. It's gorgeous and haunting, vivid and descriptive. But what is prose when there is no real plot other than a man who watches everyone around him die and decides to capitalize on death after meeting a mysterious man who follows him around to every funeral.
I enjoyed reading this one, don't get me wrong, but it felt pointless. In the end, I didn't feel sorry for William Bellman - I felt sorry for the daughter he forgot, or those around him that he left behind in the pursuit of greatness as if that might heal the pain that I never felt he really had.
VERDICT: All in all, this book was a letdown - albeit a beautiful one.
This will be a short review because there isn't much I can say about it. It's a book marketed as a ghost story, but there aren't really any ghosts. It's a book marketed as "heart-thumpingly perfect", which isn't accurate. It's a book about a man who is haunted by his past and by some otherworldly force, but it wasn't a ghost. He's a man who screwed up and is making amends by becoming obsessed to the point of being creepy about it. It's not a good look on anyone.
I haven't read THE THIRTEENTH TALE, but in reading Setterfield's sophomore novel, I did notice her prose. It's gorgeous and haunting, vivid and descriptive. But what is prose when there is no real plot other than a man who watches everyone around him die and decides to capitalize on death after meeting a mysterious man who follows him around to every funeral.
I enjoyed reading this one, don't get me wrong, but it felt pointless. In the end, I didn't feel sorry for William Bellman - I felt sorry for the daughter he forgot, or those around him that he left behind in the pursuit of greatness as if that might heal the pain that I never felt he really had.
VERDICT: All in all, this book was a letdown - albeit a beautiful one.
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
medium-paced
Setterfield is an amazing writer, truly. I had such high hopes for this book. But when I had hit near the 50% mark and there was STILL no Bellman & Black...This book was just too slow and I did not have faith the ending would be satisfying enough to keep slogging. It was a 'do not finish' for me after around the 70% mark, despite the wonderful writing style and realistic feel for the time period, etc.
This book is so wonderfully written. The first part feels like a whistle stop biography of a young man in the countryside but it's never dull. Setterfield's writing is dreamy but very evocative. It's so easy to picticture what she is describing. Then things started happening and it became more plot driven but I was still just happy to be carried along. The moments when William seems to be descending into a kind of madness are so wonderfully done and the described mania seemed to drag me down as well. I loved how the book was so at one with its setting I never needed to be told when it was, I just knew. And all the gorgeous little details of Victorian mourning culture were such a treat! I now know a lot more about the history of cremation, which can only be a good thing.
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Very disappointed. Lived thirteenth tale but this one was slow. Very little happens and it certainly isn't a ghost story.