Book Report

I have always loved reading. I learned to read at a very young age. In fact, I don't remember learning to read. In my memory, it is something I have always been able to do. I read many of the Nancy Drew mysteries and all the Babysitters Club and Ramona books when I was young.

I'm drifting from my point... I just finished reading The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. It was a captivating book. I'm not sure I liked it. Definitely, it was well written. The story is so complex, engaging and strange that the reader must turn the page to find out what happens next. However, the ends were tied up a little too neatly and a little too quickly in the end. My brief little book report will give away none of the plot.

Here are some things I loved about The Thirteenth Tale:

• I loved the shifting points of view. The voice was completely different for Miss Winter than for Margaret.
• I get lost in the stories that I read, just as Margaret is consumed by Miss Winter's story.
• I loved the references to great pieces of literature like Jane Eyre. Not just for the references themselves but for the way that the plot was tied together by them.
• I love the description. It is easy to picture the topiary gardens because the picture was painted for me to see. What a well written novel!

I wasn't crazy about:

• The graphic nature of a few scenes.
• The ending: too quickly concluded. It felt rushed, and maybe that was intentional.

I don't typically re-read anything. I've reread only a handful of books in my life, so I'm sure that I won't read this book again. It was definitely worth a little time away from housework. :)

Here's a quote from the book that I liked:

"Do you know the feeling when you start reading a new book before the membrane of the last one has had time to close behind you? You leave the previous book with ideas and themes -- characters even -- caught in the fibers of your clothes, and when you open the new book, they are still with you."

Anyway. Read it. And let me know how you like it. :)