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A review by shannenlc
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
3.0
My overwhelming thought upon finishing The Thirteenth Tale is "meh". I understand and appreciate what Setterfield was trying to achieve but it fell completely flat for me. The story, the setting, the writing style, the mystery...it all had potential but it didn't fulfil any of it. There were aspects that were intruiging and where I did want to learn more, but for the most part I was reading through it to get to the end. When the Big Secret was revealed, it was underwhelming and a tad too far-fetched for my liking. I also wasn't attached to the characters or particularly concerned with discovering the mystery of Vida Winter's life, which is the central plot of the entire story.
The main character, Margaret, was completely a one-dimensional self-insert. And she's not just a self-insert for the author but for almost every single person that reads this book. She's an introverted book lover who works in her father's book-store and writes occasionally. That is the extent of what we learn about her character beyond some other family history. One could argue her characterisation and development doesn't matter since Vida Winter was the key figure, but likewise, Vida was a rather boring and undeveloped character. Setterfield tried to make her intruiging and mysterious, but it didn't really work. If Vida had been a more compelling character, perhaps this story could've been totally different, but that wasn't the case.
The most glaring issue with The Thirteenth Tale is that it draws too heavily on the greatest gothic classics of all time such as Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre. It's clear that Setterfield has a passion for these books and that she has directly drawn inspiration for them, which is understanable and common; all literature is in some form an imitation or reimagining of what has come before it. However, the similarities were so obvious that I couldn't help but make direct comparisons to other novels, which inevitably resulted in The Thirteenth Tale falling short in every possible way. If you're going to place your novel in the same space as Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre, it needs to be something pretty damn amazing.
Overall, The Thirteenth Tale is what I'd describe as a solid three-star rating. It was easy enough to get through, had a lot of promise and some redeeming features, but was generally underwhelming and forgettable due to the fact that it felt too much like a poor modern imitation of a gothic classic. It didn't resonate with me on any level and as a result, the characters and story will most likely fade from my memory within the next few weeks.
The main character, Margaret, was completely a one-dimensional self-insert. And she's not just a self-insert for the author but for almost every single person that reads this book. She's an introverted book lover who works in her father's book-store and writes occasionally. That is the extent of what we learn about her character beyond some other family history. One could argue her characterisation and development doesn't matter since Vida Winter was the key figure, but likewise, Vida was a rather boring and undeveloped character. Setterfield tried to make her intruiging and mysterious, but it didn't really work. If Vida had been a more compelling character, perhaps this story could've been totally different, but that wasn't the case.
The most glaring issue with The Thirteenth Tale is that it draws too heavily on the greatest gothic classics of all time such as Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre. It's clear that Setterfield has a passion for these books and that she has directly drawn inspiration for them, which is understanable and common; all literature is in some form an imitation or reimagining of what has come before it. However, the similarities were so obvious that I couldn't help but make direct comparisons to other novels, which inevitably resulted in The Thirteenth Tale falling short in every possible way. If you're going to place your novel in the same space as Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre, it needs to be something pretty damn amazing.
Overall, The Thirteenth Tale is what I'd describe as a solid three-star rating. It was easy enough to get through, had a lot of promise and some redeeming features, but was generally underwhelming and forgettable due to the fact that it felt too much like a poor modern imitation of a gothic classic. It didn't resonate with me on any level and as a result, the characters and story will most likely fade from my memory within the next few weeks.