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3.14 AVERAGE
3.14 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
“The rook is a skilled survivor. He is ancient and has inhabited the planet longer than humans. This you can tell from his singing voice: his cry is harsh and grating, made for a more ancient world that existed before the innovation of the pipe, the lute, and the viol. Before music was invented he was taught to sing by the planet itself. He mimicked the great rumble of the sea, the fearsome eruption of volcanoes, the creaking of glaciers, and the geological groaning as the world split apart in its agony and remade itself.”
I expected more out of this book. I listened to Once Upon a River over the pandemic and LOVED it. It was on my top read books of the year. But though I wanted to, I didn't love The Thirteenth Tale, nor did I love Bellman & Black.
Advertised as a ghost story (usually a topic I love), I just did feel the "ghostly" elements very much. I struggled to connect to the main character, who was a workaholic and amazing at his job but terrible at love and life. It just felt like an owner's manual for how to be a [Victorian] entrepreneur.
It was very artistic, and well-written. Setterfield can certainly write, and she can paint even mundane scenes (a textile mill, a funerary emporium) in a poetic and whimsical beauty. Sometimes I wonder if maybe just too much of the book went over my head. Slow-paced and taking place over decades, we watch William Blackman from child to adult to old man, alone and lonely, haunted by rooks and men in black and lost love and the ghostly memories of his dead family. It is the portrait of man who throws himself into work and loses himself.
If only I found that interesting...
Sigh.
I expected more out of this book. I listened to Once Upon a River over the pandemic and LOVED it. It was on my top read books of the year. But though I wanted to, I didn't love The Thirteenth Tale, nor did I love Bellman & Black.
Advertised as a ghost story (usually a topic I love), I just did feel the "ghostly" elements very much. I struggled to connect to the main character, who was a workaholic and amazing at his job but terrible at love and life. It just felt like an owner's manual for how to be a [Victorian] entrepreneur.
It was very artistic, and well-written. Setterfield can certainly write, and she can paint even mundane scenes (a textile mill, a funerary emporium) in a poetic and whimsical beauty. Sometimes I wonder if maybe just too much of the book went over my head. Slow-paced and taking place over decades, we watch William Blackman from child to adult to old man, alone and lonely, haunted by rooks and men in black and lost love and the ghostly memories of his dead family. It is the portrait of man who throws himself into work and loses himself.
If only I found that interesting...
Sigh.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Child death
Minor: Suicide
dark
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
informative
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
This was just so boring and I couldn’t care less what happened in this book. The first 20 pages were promising and opened up interesting questions about how killing a rook would affect the rest of Williams life. But in general there were just too many unanswered questions. Who was black, how did William die, was it blacks fault, what was the supposed deal that was made and rejected, was the bellman and black business failing because of the dead rook? More questions than answers and not at all satisfying.
I absolutely adored The Thirteenth Tale, so I had high hopes for this one, but I just can't take it anymore. I'm done. It's not that it's a bad book, per se, it's just kind of boring. I made it about a little more than half-way through the book and I just really didn't care about it. Maybe it gets a lot more interesting in the second half? But I have a To-Read List over 1000 strong and no time to waste with a book that can't hold my interest.
This has been much described as 'genre defying' so let's not try to pigeon hole it.There's a lot about Victorian funeral practices, a driven central character, a hint of ghostly unreality and some very beautiful prose regarding the lives and habits of rooks.Almost a book of 2 halves in the way the story unfolds; it is both moving and absorbing. I've seen the televised story of it's predecessor the Thirteenth Tale, but now I'll have to read that too.
medium-paced
I feel betrayed, what the blurb promised me I did not find it inside these pages. It's not a victorian ghost story nor is a gripping chilling story either.
I've read "The thirteen tale" -my favourite of Setterfield- and "Once upon a river" and this one feels like it was written by a complete different person. I did not find those complex and lovable characters here, I couldn't care less about what happened to them. Plus I was bored throughout the book, it's just the main character attending his business in the mill or his funerary shop. We have detailed paragraphs with cloth being dyed or concerning funerals that I did not care much about.
The last few pages were super rushed, Black makes his last appearance but nothing clears up. I'm left with more doubts than certainties. It was the rim gripper trying to give him a lesson? What actually happened with his remaining daughter? The two friends who were present when Bellman killed the young rook were also punished by Black that's why they died before William?
If there's a message here it went over my head 🤷🏻♀️.
I've read "The thirteen tale" -my favourite of Setterfield- and "Once upon a river" and this one feels like it was written by a complete different person. I did not find those complex and lovable characters here, I couldn't care less about what happened to them. Plus I was bored throughout the book, it's just the main character attending his business in the mill or his funerary shop. We have detailed paragraphs with cloth being dyed or concerning funerals that I did not care much about.
The last few pages were super rushed, Black makes his last appearance but nothing clears up. I'm left with more doubts than certainties. It was the rim gripper trying to give him a lesson? What actually happened with his remaining daughter? The two friends who were present when Bellman killed the young rook were also punished by Black that's why they died before William?
If there's a message here it went over my head 🤷🏻♀️.
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes