[And as a side note, I've really learned a lot about myself during this book-a-week challenge I've bestowed upon myself. I've always had a hard time committing to things, especially books (surprisingly). If I had picked this book up last year, I would have put it right back down by page 30. I contemplated doing it this time around as well, but I told myself that because I had started this book and was willing to read my 52 books in 2013 and report on my blog, I was more than capable of plugging through a book that was more difficult to get through than some others. Having finished this book in three days, I've proven to myself 1) that this is a challenge that I can take on, and 2) there will be nothing but rewards for me at the end of the year (and, really, after each book that I finish.)]
Back to the novel - I will review the book in a moment, but as I said, I finished it late last night and wasn't expecting the feelings that were soon going to surface within me. I finished the book, held it in my hand to reflect for a quick moment on all that I has just read (as I do with all books I finish), and gave a quick thanks to the author for giving me something so special. Within an hour after finishing, something very dark began lurking in the corners of my mind. I tried to do something productive - work on my blog, begin a new book, go to sleep, even - but I couldn't. And not only was I thinking about the story but also about the things that make me sad in my own life. I remember walking past our bed to go into the kitchen and I saw that Jay was awake. He couldn't sleep either. When he asked me what was wrong, I broke down crying, telling him how this sort of sadness had come out of nowhere. Being Jay, he told me lie down with him and try to get to sleep, but I could not. I lied in the dark for over an hour just thinking, wondering where my excitement had gone in the short time since I finished reading the novel. I didn't even want to turn the light off, afraid of what was waiting for me in the dark (both in the dark of my house and in the dark of my mind). I drifted off to sleep sometime after three a.m., only to awake from a restless night of terrible dreams.
I in no way regret reading this novel. In fact, this morning I am still thinking about it, wondering if the characters are doing alright. This just goes to show my readers how books can and do affect us in real life.
Book 21: The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
"Eerie and fascinating." - USA Today
"Readers will feel the magnetic pull of this paean to words, books, and the magical power of story." - People
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| The Thirteenth Tale (click here to purchase) |
Description: Biographer Margaret Lea returns one night to her apartment above her father’s antiquarian bookshop. On her steps she finds a letter. It is a hand-written request from one of Britain’s most prolific and well-loved novelists. Vida Winter, gravely ill, wants to recount her life story before it is too late, and she wants Margaret to be the one to capture her history. The request takes Margaret by surprise — she doesn’t know the author, nor has she read any of Miss Winter’s dozens of novels.
Late one night while pondering whether to accept the task of recording Miss Winter’s personal story, Margaret begins to read her father’s rare copy of Miss Winter’s Thirteen Tales of Change and Desperation. She is spellbound by the stories and confused when she realizes the book only contains twelve stories. Where is the thirteenth tale? Intrigued, Margaret agrees to meet Miss Winter and act as her biographer.
As Vida Winter unfolds her story, she shares with Margaret the dark family secrets that she has long kept hidden as she remembers her days at Angelfield, the now burnt-out estate that was her childhood home. Margaret carefully records Miss Winter’s account and finds herself more and more deeply immersed in the strange and troubling story. Both women will have to confront their pasts and the weight of family secrets... and the ghosts that haunt them still. [GoodReads]
It's actually interesting how I came to find this novel. I was at Barnes and Noble looking for a book with the word Thirteen in the title. It had something to do with a woman returning to her hometown to care for her ailing mother. But a coven of twelve witches in the town are trying to find/retrieve/discover their thirteenth something. I thought this book sounded interesting a few weeks ago when I saw it on one of the tables, but this past Sunday, it wasn't there and I couldn't remember the exact title or author. I asked one of the booksellers if it sounded familiar and she mentioned that it could have been The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. It had nothing to do with an ailing mother or a coven or anything remotely similar, aside from the number thirteen. The bookseller promised me that it was a great book, and without a second thought, I purchased it.
I knew this book would be a challenge for me, yet when I arrived home and finished Heather Webber's The Root of All Trouble, I jumped right in. Many of the words on the back cover of the novel grabbed my attention: reclusive author, enchanting, storytelling, Gothic, twins, ghosts, etc.
A woman named Margaret is contacted by the very famous author Vida Winter who wants her to write the author's biography. Vida is dying and doesn't have much time. But there's a catch: well over twenty previous biographers took down Vida's story, yet none of them were true. She claimed to be an orphan, an aristocratic child, and a Persian princess, among other things. Vida believed that truth means nothing while storytelling is what reaches people. Obviously, Margaret (who had never even read any of Vida's work) is skeptical that she too will be duped into playing along with another of Vida's stories, but after much thought and proof of Vida's history, she reluctantly decides to take on the task.
I am not going to attempt to summarize this story - that's the beauty of this novel that you will unravel on your own. But I do want to discuss what I really admired about this book.
Vida is an interesting woman. She supports the art of storytelling so much that she has made her own life to be one large story. After Vida and Margaret are properly introduced and settled in with one another, Vida begins to relaying the genealogical history of her family who spent their lives in the Angelfield house. She begins by describing her grandparents, the unusual relationship her mother, Isabelle, has with her uncle, and finally settles in describing her and her twin's childhood at the house.
Vida explains that her real name is Adeline March - her mother had gone away for some time, married an aristocratic man, and gave birth to twins (Adeline and Emmeline) within a very short amount of time since the wedding. Soon after, her new husband passes away and his family disowns Isabelle and the twins, whereupon she returns to her home at Angelfield. Abandoning her twins with the housekeepers, the girls grow into unruly and very different children.
Upon the arrival of a governess who intends to raise the girls properly, she comes up with a reasonable hypothesis: Normally when twins are born, they are split equally down the middle. In the case of Adeline and Emmeline, the girls' traits are split among them. On the one hand, Emmeline is quiet, reserved, and believed to be "retarded." On the other hand, Adeline is dirty, unruly, sneaky, conniving, and cruel. As the girls age, they come into their own individual selves, but with time, the story grows dark, deadly, and extremely psychotic (like most of the characters).
I cannot say any more about the story because I do not want to ruin any of the mystery that Setterfield so beautifully creates.
I think that Margaret and Vida connect so well because Margaret is also a twin, though her sibling died during her birth. I think the relationships in the novel are so important. I learned that no relationship is perfect - people simply move through life doing the best that they can.
Expect one ginormous twist to take place in this story, and brace yourself for an adventure unlike anything you've ever experienced.
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| Diane Setterfield |
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