The Thirteenth Tale
by Diane Setterfield
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Book Reviews of The Thirteenth Tale
Book Review: solid debut
Summary: 4 Stars
The real life of the famous writer Vida Winter has always been a mystery. The journalists, who asked about her personal life, heard nineteen different stories... Then at last, Vida decides to tell the truth. Why now? Why did she choose as a confidant absolutely unknown daughter of the book store owner, the girl who is more at home in 19th century novels, than in our world?
Since "The Thirteenth tale" is a mystery book, I would not reveal more of a plot. I enjoyed the book, mainly because of its atmosphere - it's so absolutely 19th century, somewhere between sisters Bronte and "Woman in White". The fans of gothic novels would find all the necessary attributes - old mansions, ghosts, family mysteries... even asylum (Who uses this word nowadays, anyway?)... and all this is happening today (or not? Author switches between novels and centuries with the same grace and ease).
I would not give five stars to the book for a couple of reasons.
First, the beginning was very slow. This would be a necessary attribute of any 19th century novel, but I seriously thought about dropping the book before finishing first thirty pages.
Second, all the parallels with Bronte sisters (especially "Jane Eure") somewhere in the second half of the book became too obvious, so some of the plot twists - that were supposed to be shocking news - somehow weren't that surprising to me. On the other hand, this technique allowed to the author to skip characterization of some of the characters - it's so much easier to use literary associations and let the readers do the work themselves!
Nevertheless, it is an enjoyable read, and I would wait for the second book by Diane Setterfield.
Book Review: A Brilliant Debut
Summary: 5 Stars
When a first novel is immediately (and enthusiastically) compared to the works of such literary luminaries as the Bronte sisters, Jane Austen and Charles Dickens, a large dose of skepticism is in order. I read this book with a jaundiced eye, expecting to eventually uncover at least one unconvincing character, a plot twist that failed to surprise, or a passage less than vivid, unworthy of the masters.
I did not.
Diane Setterfield's The Thirteenth Tale carries the reader along like a turbulent river, with unexpected eddies and undertows you can't escape. The characters are absolutely true to the worlds of Dickens and Austen, but they're originals, not derivatives. They grieve and you do, they rejoice and you do, they die and you do- almost. The whole atmosphere of the book is powerful and sweeping, in the manner of Henry James or even Joseph Conrad. (Well, minus all those ships, of course.) If I had to pick one story that gave the same overall effect, I'd pick The Turn of the Screw, since the ghost element in Setterfield's book is equally shocking and unique, although James's classic novella lacks the grand span and scope of The Thirteenth Tale. Then again, Setterfield's characters could just as easily find a home in Dickens' dangerous London squalor or in the halls of a Bronte mansion, the air thick with secrets and heavy with troubled specters anxious to make themselves known.
Intriguing, daring and even downright heart-pounding at times, The Thirteenth Tale might well give you nightmares at the end, but they'll be the best- and most original- nightmares you've ever had.
-Mark Wakely, author of An Audience for Einstein
Book Review: "Tell me the truth..."
Summary: 4 Stars
Setterfield's novel The Thirteenth Tale is a captivating debut -- brimming with complex twists, secrets, confused identities, squeaky staircases and gothic-like intrigue -- conjuring up loose comparisons to Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White and Brönte's Jane Eyre.
At the heart of the story is Margaret Lea, a plain bookish girl who works in her father's antiquarian bookstore in London. Constantly surrounded and preoccupied with books, she has also written a minority of amateur biographies of relatively unknown historical figures.
The intrigue commences when a mysterious letter arrives for Margaret, from Vida Winters - an eccentric famous author who insists on confounding her aficionados and biographers with fictional adaptations of her life story with an oath of their authenticity. Aside from countless best sellers, Winters has also written a book entitled "The Thirteen Tales of Change and Desperation" which, curiously enough, only contains 12 stories. The letter summons Margaret to Winter's home where she is asked by the terminally ill author to embark on a biography of her life at the tragic Anglefield Estate. It is a story of twins, shadows, scandal, and deception.
As work on the biography begins, both Winters and Margaret struggle to deal with the truth of their painful pasts. Not before the dreadful realities are skillfully revealed by the author, the secret behind the strangely absent "thirteenth tale" is finally uncovered.
The Thirteenth Tale succeeds in being equally heart-pounding and heart-wrenching, and most definitely worth a read. One can only look forward to Diane Setterfield's next novel.
Book Review: What a story... I'll write a review, but those three words are really all that needs saying.
Summary: 5 Stars
No spoilers
Wow. What a story this is. First of all, I'll right off the bat admit that I do not have much experience in reading books like this. My favorite book genres have always been psychological thrillers and historical fiction, and that is, for the most part, what I read. Because my last eight or so books have been the installments in a psychological thriller series, I decided I wanted a break from that and sought out a book that relied more on the substance of the story and the characters instead of on surprises and edge of the seat plots. I found The Thirteenth Tale, and I couldn't have been happier.
Although I was nervous to pick up this book, not wanting a sappy, boring, querulous novel, after the first several pages, I was drawn into the story and the lives of these characters and I could not stop thinking about them and reading on. Although this is a debut, I can honestly say that this is superb character development, and if you don't feel for at least one of these characters, slide your hand over your wrist and check you pulse. From the very beginning I felt invested in these characters and and what happened to them, and it has been quite a while since I've felt as connected to characters as I did with those in The Thirteenth Tale.
Take it from me, a 19 year-old male who favors psychological thrillers and historical fiction, this is a GREAT novel whose style is executed perfectly (a story being told within a story, being told within another story, yet perfectly coherent) and whose characters a very real. I highly recommend this book, and am (already) unpatiently awaiting Setterfield's sophomore effort.
Book Review: A Feast for the Omnivorous Reader
Summary: 5 Stars
In this marvelous novel, Setterfield evokes the flavor of 19th century literature with a twisting tale of mystery and secrets written in a style reminiscent of Dickens or Henry. The narrator is Margaret Lea, the spinster daughter of a London bookseller who devotes her time and energy to the books that she loves so much. Margaret who writes biographies is summoned to the side of the great and popular Vida Winter. The charismatic and mysterious author has spent a lifetime evading personal revelations by offering up dubious tales of her childhood and her history. But now that Ms. Winter is dying she is finally ready to reveal her true origins and she has selected Margaret to assume the task of writing Vida's biography. For Vida's birth and childhood are tales of mental instability, unnatural family relations and despair involving the once prominent family of a rural village. As Vida slowly unfurls her story, Margaret is fascinated by the parallels to the secret of her own birth which involved a conjoined twin who died when she was separated from Margaret's side. "The Thirteenth Tale" is more than a novel, it is a valentine to reading. To Margaret, books are more important than people. "As one tends the graves of the dead, so I tend the books. I clean them, do minor repairs, keep them in good order. " Although the story is supposedly set in contemporary times, there are no cell phones, no computers. Margaret's research into the truth of Vida's stories is done in dusty libraries with census books and other enduring records. It is a spell-binding story, filled with fascinating and tragic characters.