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A review by mynameisvesper
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
“I have always been a reader; I have read at every stage of my life, and there has never been a time when reading was not my greatest joy. And yet I cannot pretend that the reading I have done in my adult years matches in its impact on my soul the reading I did as a child. I still believe in stories. I still forget myself when I am in the middle of a good book. Yet it is not the same. Books are, for me, it must be said, the most important thing; what I cannot forget is that there was a time when they were at once more banal and more essential than that. When I was a child, books were everything. And so there is in me, always, a nostalgic yearning for the lost pleasure of books. It is not a yearning that one ever expects to be fulfilled.”
I too, as Margaret, tend to prefer books to people. Probably it is because of this childhood bond. I definitely got caught up in this book. I didn’t like the narrator, actually, I’m not sure if I liked any of the characters. But they were so well written that you could understand them, or at least attempt to see what made them a certain way. I know that in part this story worked for me because of the gothic-English manor-Brontë vibe. Was the ending a big surprise? Not really, and I’m glad that it didn’t go into horror paranormal direction. It felt like a book written by someone who loves stories and who loves books. It really worked for me, brought back a lot of nostalgia. Perhaps on another time, I would focus more on the shortcomings, but right now it just felt right. 4.5⭐️
“We all have our sorrows, and although the exact delineaments, weight and dimensions of grief are different for everyone, the color of grief is common to us all.”
I too, as Margaret, tend to prefer books to people. Probably it is because of this childhood bond. I definitely got caught up in this book. I didn’t like the narrator, actually, I’m not sure if I liked any of the characters. But they were so well written that you could understand them, or at least attempt to see what made them a certain way. I know that in part this story worked for me because of the gothic-English manor-Brontë vibe.
“We all have our sorrows, and although the exact delineaments, weight and dimensions of grief are different for everyone, the color of grief is common to us all.”
Content Warnings
Moderate: Abandonment, Child abuse, and Fire/Fire injury