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The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield #BookOfTheMonth

I'm a lucky, lucky girl.

I have been fortunate enough to read some really, really good books this year. Changeling with its gobstopper ending, The True Story of Hansel and Gretel one of the best re-tellings of a fairy tale I have come across and now, The Thirteenth Tale.

"Angelfield House stands abandoned and forgotten. It was once home to the March family - fascinating, manipulative Isabelle, brutal, dangerous Charlie, and the wild, untamed twins, Emmeline and Adeline. But Angelfield House hides a chilling secret which strikes at the very heart of each of them, tearing their lives apart...

Now Margaret Lea is investigating Angelfield's past - and the mystery of the March family starts to unravel. What has Angelfield been hiding? What is its connection with the enigmatic writer Vida Winter? And what is the secret that strikes at the heart of Margaret's own, troubled life?"

I loved the opening chapters introducing Margaret who lives and works in a book shop (the lucky girl). The prose was just beautiful and read like a love letter to all things book. Time and time again Setterfield summed up what it was that can be truly magical about books

"People disappear when they die. Their voice, their laughter, the warmth of their breath. Their flesh. Eventually their bones. All living memory of them ceases. This is both dreadful and natural. Yet for some there is an exception to this annihilation. For in the books they write they continue to exist. We can rediscover them. Their humour, their tone of voice, their moods. Through the written word they can anger you or make you happy. They can comfort you...They can alter you. All this even though they are dead.......It is a kind of magic."

Was it a ghost story? I loved how Setterfield gave us just enough for the reader to keep thinking it could be. It was certainly a twisty turny mystery and I was glued to Vida's storytelling. PS I loved the names in this book Vida, Adeline, Emmeline, what a pity there are no more girls to be added to my family! 

For all the group loved The Thirteenth Tale it was one of those books where we had found we had very little to say other than 'I loved it'. We did talk about how timeless the setting of both stories was (deliberate?) with one of the group stating Margaret was definitely late 1990s. Do you agree? We decided Margaret removed the curtains from her bedroom at Vida's house so that she could see her reflection and therefore that of her sister. We also spoke about the closing chapters and how nice it was to have a definite ending (so much so that there was even a full illustrated page dedicated to it!) 



Overall we just loved the writing, it's all things lovers of reading love, and understand and appreciate:

"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 fibres of your clothes, and when you open the new book they are still with you."

That's just so true!

In case you didn't guess I loved it. Thank you Beverley for suggesting it as a Book Of The Month as I would never have come across it otherwise. I love it when Book Club throws up such brilliant reads.

Setterfield's new book Once Upon A River is out now and is meant to be better - Where do I get my copy?!!! Oh, and I now want to read The Turning of The Screw, and Sherlock Holmes!


Our next book is Educated by Tara Westover on 28th February.

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