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A review by squirrelsohno
Bellman & Black by Diane Setterfield
3.0
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.