From the Bookshelf of Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge…

The Thirteenth Tale

Diane Setterfield

Start date: January 28, 2015

Finish date: February 3, 2015

Why we're reading this: I sort of cheated,this book was not recommended to me personally but it did come highly recommended on tw…more
[close] I sort of cheated,this book was not recommended to me personally but it did come highly recommended on two pod-cast's I follow. The Book Riot podcast and Books on the Night Stand podcast. I was on a long waiting list for this book so when it came available I had to read it. This is the only challenge I could work it into. Anyway, great story!

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What Members Thought

Jan 25, 2017 LT rated it liked it

Haunting and daunting. This was an interesting read, but it seemed about 100 pages too long. There were deep, rich characters, sadness, longing and even a bit of humor. Just not my cup of tea.

However, I do agree with other reviewers that this is a very quotable book. My favorite quote from the book about being born is "We live like latecomers at the theatre; we must catch up as best we can, divining the beginning from the shape of later events."

Damn, Diane! You give good quote. ...more

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Apr 24, 2014 Melle rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, family-dynamics, sisters, brother-sister, british, jane-eyre, literary, storytelling, twins, bibliophiles

Like much of literary fiction, this is a book for people who are in love with books and stories and words. There are references to books and tales, stories within stories, and heavily featured are the places of a bookstore and a personal library and the characters of a bookseller and a writer. However, this is maybe not a book for every reader -- there are violence, incest, rape, and arson. The narrator Margaret's story seemed tacked on, but the secondary character are rich and interesting. Ther ...more

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