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3.14 AVERAGE
3.14 AVERAGE
What a strange book! I love Setterfield's writing - there is no interruption between reader and writer - her descriptions are so immediate and compelling that you are drawn in instantly. The rook breaks between chapters are fantastic, and the way she ends that sequence is worth reading the story to the end.
I do feel like I missed something though, or that something was missing. The story read like background and build-up to a story that was about to begin … but then never did. The man himself, William Bellman, was not as interesting a character as his daughter, and the whole idea that his life is ruled by one incident in childhood that he doesn't even remember as an adult seems unfair.
Hmm, yeah, I'm still thinking about what that was all about.
I do feel like I missed something though, or that something was missing. The story read like background and build-up to a story that was about to begin … but then never did. The man himself, William Bellman, was not as interesting a character as his daughter, and the whole idea that his life is ruled by one incident in childhood that he doesn't even remember as an adult seems unfair.
Hmm, yeah, I'm still thinking about what that was all about.
Hmm.
I want to be one of the few people who come away with a deep understanding of this book and what Setterfield is trying to portray. But, try as I might, I just can't quite grasp the purpose of the novel. A commentary on grief and guilt and life and death, the writing is lovely, the story is unique, and William Bellman is a beautiful and original character. Complete understanding just till eludes me.
I want to be one of the few people who come away with a deep understanding of this book and what Setterfield is trying to portray. But, try as I might, I just can't quite grasp the purpose of the novel. A commentary on grief and guilt and life and death, the writing is lovely, the story is unique, and William Bellman is a beautiful and original character. Complete understanding just till eludes me.
I confess to being terribly disappointed by this book. I was completely drawn in by the gorgeous cover and the promise of a ghost story, but it took me two weeks to drag myself through the entire book and finally finish it.
I feel that calling it a ghost story is rather misleading. Shortly into the story I began to think that it would be a nice, gothic ghost story, but I really don't believe it ever got to that point. Most good gothic ghost stories that I have read had this slow build-up of tension and terror. Bellman & Black never did. It just sort of meandered all the way through with nothing of any interest ever happening. Bellman's descent into insanity was too little too late for it to be interesting at all.
Diane Setterfield is a really good writer. A lot of detail was clearly put into this story, but I don't feel as though the plot held up to the great details. From the blurb on the back of the book, I expected a large part of the novel to be taken up with Bellman making the deal to work with 'Black' and any creepiness associated with this dodgy deal made in a cemetery. It took over 200 pages before that part of the story even began. Before that it was just page after page of mill descriptions that I did not care about. Once the Bellman & Black plot came into play I thought things would pick up, but it became page after page of funeral wares shop descriptions that I did not care about. There was nothing remotely scary or even mildly unsettling to me about this novel, which is a necessary factor for a good ghost story.
I believe that the author is talented and at some point I will try to read her other novel, but this one fell incredibly short for me.
I feel that calling it a ghost story is rather misleading. Shortly into the story I began to think that it would be a nice, gothic ghost story, but I really don't believe it ever got to that point. Most good gothic ghost stories that I have read had this slow build-up of tension and terror. Bellman & Black never did. It just sort of meandered all the way through with nothing of any interest ever happening. Bellman's descent into insanity was too little too late for it to be interesting at all.
Diane Setterfield is a really good writer. A lot of detail was clearly put into this story, but I don't feel as though the plot held up to the great details. From the blurb on the back of the book, I expected a large part of the novel to be taken up with Bellman making the deal to work with 'Black' and any creepiness associated with this dodgy deal made in a cemetery. It took over 200 pages before that part of the story even began. Before that it was just page after page of mill descriptions that I did not care about. Once the Bellman & Black plot came into play I thought things would pick up, but it became page after page of funeral wares shop descriptions that I did not care about. There was nothing remotely scary or even mildly unsettling to me about this novel
Spoiler
(I believe the random rook interludes were meant to be unsettling, but it just didn't work for me at all.)I believe that the author is talented and at some point I will try to read her other novel, but this one fell incredibly short for me.
Összességében azért csalódás volt a regény, mert míg az alapötlet kiváló lett volna, az írónő stílusa pedig továbbra is nagyon hozza a korszakot, addig a megvalósításban valahol valami félrecsúszott. Annyira misztikus lett, hogy képtelen voltam kitalálni a ködből és nem szeretek elveszett olvasó lenni. Márpedig ez a történet valahogy elveszett maradt számomra.
Részletek: http://olvasonaplo.net/olvasonaplo/2013/12/05/diane-setterfield-bellman-black/
Részletek: http://olvasonaplo.net/olvasonaplo/2013/12/05/diane-setterfield-bellman-black/
After having read The Thirteenth Tale, I picked up this book with some trepidation as well as hope that this Author would have developed her writing style and character development into something a little more enjoyable. However, for those readers picking up this book and expecting the ghost story mentioned in the title, they will be disappointed. It does have ghostly elements to it, but not enough to make it the ghost story some may be expecting when they open its covers.
In deciding to read this book, one of my main hopes was that the Author would have invested more time and energy into the development of her characters; unfortunately this was not the case. The main character was as flat and emotionless as the paper upon which he was written, and I found no redeeming traits that would lift my opinion of him as I progressed through the book. Because of his lack of personality I almost missed a major event in this characters story that was an integral part of the plot and, to be quite honest I really couldn’t care less about his decline by the time this incident took place. With some of the other characters it appeared as if the Author had invested more time in developing them, but even this could not save this book and turn it around. The dialogue was pretentious to the point of not reflecting the time period accurately, and every time someone spoke it was more an irritating buzz in my mind rather than something that would propel the storyline to its conclusion.
If you are interested in the intricate details of the day to day running of a mill, then this is the book for you as page after page is filled with descriptions of how to run and manage a successful business in this area. In fact the novel goes into so much detail that I felt as if I could manage the task of running one of these mills myself, but overall it just became boring and monotonous to the point where I actually started to skip these paragraphs.
After having now read two of this Authors works, I doubt very much if I will read anymore; because of this and the disappointment I felt at the underdevelopment of what could have been a gripping ghost story in the true sense of the word, I am reluctant to recommend this book to anyone.
Originally reviewed on: http://catesbooknuthut.com/2014/02/06/review-bellman-black-a-ghost-story-diane-setterfield/
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
In deciding to read this book, one of my main hopes was that the Author would have invested more time and energy into the development of her characters; unfortunately this was not the case. The main character was as flat and emotionless as the paper upon which he was written, and I found no redeeming traits that would lift my opinion of him as I progressed through the book. Because of his lack of personality I almost missed a major event in this characters story that was an integral part of the plot and, to be quite honest I really couldn’t care less about his decline by the time this incident took place. With some of the other characters it appeared as if the Author had invested more time in developing them, but even this could not save this book and turn it around. The dialogue was pretentious to the point of not reflecting the time period accurately, and every time someone spoke it was more an irritating buzz in my mind rather than something that would propel the storyline to its conclusion.
If you are interested in the intricate details of the day to day running of a mill, then this is the book for you as page after page is filled with descriptions of how to run and manage a successful business in this area. In fact the novel goes into so much detail that I felt as if I could manage the task of running one of these mills myself, but overall it just became boring and monotonous to the point where I actually started to skip these paragraphs.
After having now read two of this Authors works, I doubt very much if I will read anymore; because of this and the disappointment I felt at the underdevelopment of what could have been a gripping ghost story in the true sense of the word, I am reluctant to recommend this book to anyone.
Originally reviewed on: http://catesbooknuthut.com/2014/02/06/review-bellman-black-a-ghost-story-diane-setterfield/
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
This book is a bit different. I liked how it was written. The topic brings many interesting points for discussion and contemplate.
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
2 STARS
(I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review).
"Bellman & Black is a heart-thumpingly perfect ghost story, beautifully and irresistibly written, its ratcheting tension exquisitely calibrated line by line. Its hero is William Bellman, who, as a boy of 11, killed a shiny black rook with a catapult, and who grew up to be someone, his neighbours think, who "could go to the good or the bad." And indeed, although William Bellman's life at first seems blessed—he has a happy marriage to a beautiful woman, becomes father to a brood of bright, strong children, and thrives in business—one by one, people around him die. And at each funeral, he is startled to see a strange man in black, smiling at him. At first, the dead are distant relatives, but eventually his own children die, and then his wife, leaving behind only one child, his favourite, Dora. Unhinged by grief, William gets drunk and stumbles to his wife's fresh grave—and who should be there waiting, but the smiling stranger in black. The stranger has a proposition for William—a mysterious business called "Bellman & Black" (From Amazon)
The synopsis of this book and the rave reviews for her novel, The Thirteenth Tale, was my motivation on adding this book to my TBR list. Then finding the audiobook at my eLibrary with Jack Davenport as the narrator I added it to my monthly plan. I gave 1 star for the narration that fit the gothic style of the novel...and another star for Setterfield's writing. As I listened I could not come to care for the characters or what was happening next. I did finish it but I've already begun to forget the story. I still want to read her previous novel.
(I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review).
"Bellman & Black is a heart-thumpingly perfect ghost story, beautifully and irresistibly written, its ratcheting tension exquisitely calibrated line by line. Its hero is William Bellman, who, as a boy of 11, killed a shiny black rook with a catapult, and who grew up to be someone, his neighbours think, who "could go to the good or the bad." And indeed, although William Bellman's life at first seems blessed—he has a happy marriage to a beautiful woman, becomes father to a brood of bright, strong children, and thrives in business—one by one, people around him die. And at each funeral, he is startled to see a strange man in black, smiling at him. At first, the dead are distant relatives, but eventually his own children die, and then his wife, leaving behind only one child, his favourite, Dora. Unhinged by grief, William gets drunk and stumbles to his wife's fresh grave—and who should be there waiting, but the smiling stranger in black. The stranger has a proposition for William—a mysterious business called "Bellman & Black" (From Amazon)
The synopsis of this book and the rave reviews for her novel, The Thirteenth Tale, was my motivation on adding this book to my TBR list. Then finding the audiobook at my eLibrary with Jack Davenport as the narrator I added it to my monthly plan. I gave 1 star for the narration that fit the gothic style of the novel...and another star for Setterfield's writing. As I listened I could not come to care for the characters or what was happening next. I did finish it but I've already begun to forget the story. I still want to read her previous novel.
Almost Dickensian in its tone and detail. The atmosphere is so much a part of the story that any plot synopsis will miss the true appeal -- which likely explains the disappointment of readers who are expecting The Thirteenth Tale redux. I understand how some may grow impatient with the misleading lack of movement in the story, but the author provides strategic glimmers beneath the surface, not unlike the way coins may flash under sunlight in a wishing pool.
audiobook note: Actor Jack Davenport (late of Smash) reads in a dreamy, mood-enhancing style. His narration reminds me of Neil Gaiman's dexterity, and that's not an easy compliment to merit. I don't offer the comparison only because of the similar accent; the performance is both precise and enchanting.
audiobook note: Actor Jack Davenport (late of Smash) reads in a dreamy, mood-enhancing style. His narration reminds me of Neil Gaiman's dexterity, and that's not an easy compliment to merit. I don't offer the comparison only because of the similar accent; the performance is both precise and enchanting.