The Thirteenth Tale in Around the World

Jul 19, 2011 Pragya rated it it was amazing

Shelves: books-i-own, 4-stars, 2020, 2011, favorites

I read this book for the first time in 2011 and fell in love with it. It was marked as one of my all-time favorites and awarded 5 stars. And then I remember picking it up in a book fair because favorites need to be bought and re-read, right? Even gifted to friends. So after doing all that, this paperback kept staring at me from my bookshelf waiting to be picked up. I almost did, several times but nope.

Fast forward 9 years later and 2 weeks of home quarantine helped me get my reading goals in lin I read this book for the first time in 2011 and fell in love with it. It was marked as one of my all-time favorites and awarded 5 stars. And then I remember picking it up in a book fair because favorites need to be bought and re-read, right? Even gifted to friends. So after doing all that, this paperback kept staring at me from my bookshelf waiting to be picked up. I almost did, several times but nope.

Fast forward 9 years later and 2 weeks of home quarantine helped me get my reading goals in line (the only ones that made the cut, haha) and here I was pouring over this book. Scared as hell of whether or not it will keep up to my old expectations (one of the reasons I hate re-reading favorites. Poor Anna Karenina bit the dust not too long ago) but went with it nevertheless.

This line from the synopsis, "The Thirteenth Tale is a love letter to reading, a book for the feral reader in all of us, a return to that rich vein of storytelling" sums it well. The book had me drooling over all the book references, the gigantic libraries, the first editions, and the love of reading in the main characters. Oh my, oh my. My imagination was running overtime, hiding in the lanes and alleys between ceiling-high bookshelves, propping into a corner, resting my back on a shelf and turning the pages, lost in the story until the light streaming through the high, wide windows dissipates and it's time for dinner.

Setterfield takes you on a journey through the two protagonists' lives, weaving in and out, drawing similarities. You can't help but feel for them. Wanting to know the truth, to scratch the surface and delve deep into when it all began.

The characters are painfully sketched, each one embedded in your memory as a long lost friend that's come back from oblivion. And you hold them close wanting to hear their life stories.

The only thing that disappointed me was the mystery. Something that appealed to me 9 years ago didn't do so to my more mature brain which felt, "not this, anything but this". But there it was staring me in the face and I wrapped up the book with a sigh. Hated putting the book off my favorite shelf. Still good but didn't make the cut. It always surprises me how what we loved once, we don't years down the line. We might appreciate it but the love's lost somewhere in the years that went by.

Would I recommend this book? Why not? Go read this one, for the love of reading, if nothing else. It's a tad bit long and a bit dry towards the end.

I didn't know there was a movie! Got to watch that now. ...more

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Mar 19, 2012 Preethi rated it it was amazing

Shelves: for-the-feminist-in-me, bookloversparadise-aboutbooks, love-the-author, ebook, a-zillion-and-a-one-th, memorable-women-or-about-women, awesom-otic, pleasant-surprises, mind-bending-chilling-blowing

Am wondering if I should give this book a 4.5 or 5 star rating. Well, its a very well written book , gripping, has an elaborate well thought out plot and is something you'll always think of when you think of pain, siblings, abandonment and loss. So there... It is a complete 5 star worthy book.
The author has a way with words, genuinely loves books and has a rich imagination. The characters are complete and all the loose ends are tied up by the time the book ends. But what will forever remain with ...more

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May 19, 2011 Priya rated it really liked it

Shelves: drama

What. A. Book.

Diane Setterfield has a way with words, a freshness that lingers on long after one has read the last page and closed it. I finished the book 2-3 hours ago and I still haven't really come out of it. It's almost as if I have watched a movie - so vivid was the narrative and the flow! I could feel the cold from the snow and the misty forever-twilight of a little Yorkshire town. I could sense the desperation and pain as if it were my own.

The Thirteenth Tale is a story of 2 writers - on ...more

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Oct 12, 2021 Emma rated it it was amazing

Shelves: listened-to, read-in-2021

This was the book that had been the longest time on my TBR. I don't remember if it's the first one I added ever, but during my TBR purges, I always kept it, and so a mere 10 years later, I FINALLY read it, actually listened to it.
No idea why it took me so long.

If you love The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton, if you love books about books and authors, if you love books about siblings, if you love some Gothic ambiance and themes, do not hesitate a second.
Plus the audiobook (watch pout, there's an ...more

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Jul 01, 2012 Kristen rated it it was amazing

Shelves: contemporary-fiction, women-s-book-club-of-the-south

First, I have to say that The Thirteenth Tale is a book for book lovers. Second, this is the best piece of contemporary fiction I've read yet. ...more

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Mar 08, 2013 Vaishnavi Tea rated it it was amazing

Shelves: mystery

An excellent story. I really enjoyed it... could not stop reading once I started. Recommend it highly!

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Aug 14, 2012 Shriya rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: tome-travelling, books-i-own

Engaging? Haunting? Terrifying? How do I even begin to describe this book? It was like reading The Shadow of the Wind all over again and yet it brought back memories of much loved classics like Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre.If truth be told there was a little too much of Jane Eyre which became sightly annoying after a while. The elements of madness running in the family, the fire that kills and the Charlie and Isabelle affair shows that the author was deeply influenced by the Brontë sister Engaging? Haunting? Terrifying? How do I even begin to describe this book? It was like reading The Shadow of the Wind all over again and yet it brought back memories of much loved classics like Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre.If truth be told there was a little too much of Jane Eyre which became sightly annoying after a while. The elements of madness running in the family, the fire that kills and the Charlie and Isabelle affair shows that the author was deeply influenced by the Brontë sisters, which made it rather enjoyable.

One of the best things about the story is how wonderfully paced it is! You're reading a 450 paged novel and it hardly takes you any time at all to finish it even if you're in the middle of exams like I am. The story does however start to become slow in the middle but just when I started to think, 'There couldn't be more to this!' WHAM! Another twist!

What left me a little dissatisfied was the character of Margaret. She starts off wonderfully and you sympathise with her grief and loss but somewhere in the middle, she starts pitying herself way too much,becoming so repetitive that you're on the border of irritation. Also there were places where I had ABSOLUTELY NO INTEREST in what she dreamt about, how she was summoned by Vida Winter that morning or what her past was like! Seriously! I am in the middle of something spine-chilling and suddenly, you decide it's time to talk about what happened when your father took you to a duck pond when you were twelve? A good attempt to prolong interest which may have worked for a lot of readers but made me impatient enough to the extent of skipping the chapter(not that I did it!).

Other than that, do I recommend it? Absolutely! I think everyone who enjoys reading would like this book. Moreover if you are a fan of gothic fiction like Catherine Morland, or have enjoyed Jane Eyre, The Woman in White, Wuthering Heights, Lady Audley's Secret, you will enjoy this book doubly because it is not only slightly inspired by them, but also contains references to the stories. DO NOT read it if you haven't read the classics, however. It may act as a spoiler for some of them as a lot of references, allusions and comparisons have been made in the story to them. ...more

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