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The Thirteenth Tale: A Novel
by Diane Setterfield

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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40440.The_Thirteenth_Tale_A_Novel?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="The Thirteenth Tale: A Novel" border="0" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/photo.goodreads.com/books/1169434878m/40440.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40440.The_Thirteenth_Tale_A_Novel?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">The Thirteenth Tale: A Novel</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/22665.Diane_Setterfield">Diane Setterfield</a> 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/14572017?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
 rating: 5 of 5 stars EDIT: 2/6/2007:
 I finished The Thirteenth Tale last night. A fantastic ending that is complete. There are several wonderful lines from this book, but the on that sticks out to me this morning is a line about how when a reader finishes a book she often thinks of the other characters and what happened to them. We usually find out what happens to the main characters but the side characters, the secondaries - what happens to them? And the author does not fail to fill in all the gaps.
 
 Throughout the book the two lead characters - Margaret Lea and Miss Winters - remind us that books need beginnings, middles and ends, that at least that is how they like their stories and that Miss Winter's biography should be no different. The Thirteenth Tale does deliver the story in the same manner - a definite beginning, a definite middle, and a fantastic definite end. 
 
 The book is filled with twists and turns and dead ends that weren't really dead ends just lanes leading to a concealed door. It's a full bodied story with thick characters and plots and subplots and inuendo and mystery. One mystery remains...but I won't give too much else away.
 
 A definite read!
 
 I haven't finished reading this yet, but I can barely put this book down. It's mystery, it's gothic (and not silly emo/goth, but true literary gothic), it's just a fantastic read. It's a real story. The characters are so well defined and thick, like you could really reach out and touch them. At the same time the ideas behind the characters and their story is so far fetched that you sort of want to roll your eyes at the absurdity, at the similarity between these characters and the ones from romance novels - and yet, you just keep turning to the page because you just have to find out more. 
 
 From Publisher's Weekly: From Publishers Weekly
 Setterfield's debut novel translates into a great audio book that loses none of the suspense, surprise and satisfaction that come with a wonderful tale. The voices of two of the best dramatic talents working today turn Setterfield's story into a glorious treat for listeners. Henshall, who reads as Margaret Lea, and Redgrave, who plays recluse writer Vida Winter, create mood and tension with their voices, which settles listeners into the narrative with ease. Margaret, a young bookseller and amateur biographer, is chosen by Miss Winter as the recipient of the secret of her tragic past. She reveals, layer by layer, the mesmerizing tale of the Angelfield family that includes murder, insanity, feral twins, a ghost and a fire. Margaret's own past in some ways parallels Miss Winter's, leading them both through the blaze of memory into the truth.
 
 Murder! Insanity! Feral Twins! Who wouldn't love a story like this?! I didn't want to read anymore on Amazon.com lest I somehow give myself the ending.
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/844658?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Wendi's review
rating:
recommended for: Danielle, Tina, Sarah, Beth

EDIT: 2/6/2007:
I finished The Thirteenth Tale last night. A fantastic ending that is complete. There are several wonderful lines from this book, but the on that sticks out to me this morning is a line about how when a reader finishes a book she often thinks of the other characters and what happened to them. We usually find out what happens to the main characters but the side characters, the secondaries - what happens to them? And the author does not fail to fill in all the gaps.

Throughout the book the two lead characters - Margaret Lea and Miss Winters - remind us that books need beginnings, middles and ends, that at least that is how they like their stories and that Miss Winter's biography should be no different. The Thirteenth Tale does deliver the story in the same manner - a definite beginning, a definite middle, and a fantastic definite end.

The book is filled with twists and turns and dead ends that weren't really dead ends just lanes leading to a concealed door. It'...more

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