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A review by luluwoohoo
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
☀️☀️☀️⛅
This gothic suspense novel employed every trope imaginable to keep the mystery going, wringing out every last drop of tension.
The premise of this book was strong and very promising - a reclusive author, many possible lives lived, with the weight of her real story placed on the shoulders of a would-be biographer. I was drawn into the world early on and was eager to get into the details, but I found the second act a bit too drawn out, lagging at times when I should have been more engaged with the unfolding mystery. I think perhaps there were a few too many red herrings thrown about, and the timeline a bit long, for my tastes. In particular, the addition of a minor character's diary was totally superfluous, given that its contents were almost entirely known to us already and didn't aid Margaret in her quest enough to warrant the additional pages. The major mystery had a satisfying solution within the third act, as did the storyline for Aurelius, though I must admit I found the summary and postscript a bit too neat in their conclusions - my favourite part of this entire book is the single question that got left unanswered, so more of that would actually have been appreciated.
And now to contradict myself: the emphasis on mythical and ghostly presences was a powerful metaphor and definitely appropriate for this tale, but I felt that certain scenes leaned too far into the possibility of supernatural intervention without confirming anything. Those moments of illness/hysteria/?? did let me down as far as red herrings go, because it opened up a can of proverbial worms that proved not to be within the scope of the story itself.
Margaret as a character is weakly drawn in comparison to Miss Winter who was, understandably, the drawcard of this story. Margaret's preoccupation with her deceased sibling was necessary but too heavy handed and repetitive; I felt the same of the obvious literary comparisons Setterfield drew with Jane Eyre and the Bronte sisters.
Overall I would say I enjoyed the unfolding story, but its execution lacked subtlety and lagged at points so that I wasn't always totally engrossed.
☀️☀️☀️⛅
This gothic suspense novel employed every trope imaginable to keep the mystery going, wringing out every last drop of tension.
The premise of this book was strong and very promising - a reclusive author, many possible lives lived, with the weight of her real story placed on the shoulders of a would-be biographer. I was drawn into the world early on and was eager to get into the details, but I found the second act a bit too drawn out, lagging at times when I should have been more engaged with the unfolding mystery. I think perhaps there were a few too many red herrings thrown about, and the timeline a bit long, for my tastes. In particular, the addition of a minor character's diary was totally superfluous, given that its contents were almost entirely known to us already and didn't aid Margaret in her quest enough to warrant the additional pages. The major mystery had a satisfying solution within the third act, as did the storyline for Aurelius, though I must admit I found the summary and postscript a bit too neat in their conclusions - my favourite part of this entire book is the single question that got left unanswered, so more of that would actually have been appreciated.
And now to contradict myself: the emphasis on mythical and ghostly presences was a powerful metaphor and definitely appropriate for this tale, but I felt that certain scenes leaned too far into the possibility of supernatural intervention without confirming anything. Those moments of illness/hysteria/?? did let me down as far as red herrings go, because it opened up a can of proverbial worms that proved not to be within the scope of the story itself.
Margaret as a character is weakly drawn in comparison to Miss Winter who was, understandably, the drawcard of this story. Margaret's preoccupation with her deceased sibling was necessary but too heavy handed and repetitive; I felt the same of the obvious literary comparisons Setterfield drew with Jane Eyre and the Bronte sisters.
Overall I would say I enjoyed the unfolding story, but its execution lacked subtlety and lagged at points so that I wasn't always totally engrossed.
'My gripe is not with lovers of the truth but with truth herself. What succour, what consolation is there in truth, compared to a story?[...] When fear and cold make a statue of you in your bed, don't expect hard-boned and fleshless truth to come running to your aid. What you need are the plump comforts of a story. The soothing, rocking safety of a lie.'
'"I know," he said, "I know."
He didn't know, of course. Not really. And yet that was what he said and I was soothed to hear it. For I knew what he meant. We all have our sorrows, and although the exact delineaments, the weight and the dimension of grief are different for everyone, the colour of grief is common to us all. "I know," he said, because he was human, and therefore, in a way, he did.'