The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

It's going to be interesting reviewing this book and not giving away anything important. I hate spoilers and try not to put them in my reviews but this book...? This book is a whole shelf of parfait's worth of layers. 

In The Thirteenth Tale, we are introduced to Margaret Lea, a somewhat reclusive bookworm who lives above the antique bookstore her father runs. Margaret spends most of her time reading old books and diaries, rebuilding the past of their former owners. She even states that she loves books and dead people who wrote them and doesn't have much time or interest in more contemporary fiction. That's until she gets a mysterious letter at the bookstore. Turns out that the letter is from the equally reclusive and elusive Vida Winter, one of the world's most popular author. After years of dodging reporters and interviews, Vida has decided to tell her true life's story and decided to tell it to Margaret.

After the initial shock of being saddled with such a wild task wears off, Margaret agrees to stay at Vida's estate to begin the interview to end all interviews. What unfolds is an amazing story of a once proud family that steady descends into ill-repute and scandal, then straight out madness. As the layers of Vida's story unfold, Margaret is pulled deeper into her dizzying tale that reveals a family past that would be too much for Maury or Springer, but yet one that is still wrapped in layers of secrets. Vida is still holding back and Margaret is set on discovering the truth. Margaret and the reader steady follows Vida down a twisted and creepy rabbit hole where clues to the truth are left in libraries, shadows, and in the yellowed pages of old first editions of Jane Eyre.

Much like Jane Eyre and other Gothic, 19th century novels, Setterfield builds a world of isolated landscapes, haunted English manors, and a hinting of perhaps a supernatural element. Is there really a ghost at the core of Vida's tale? Or something that's more earthbound and more horrible? And as Margaret sinks deeper into Vida's secrets, she comes face to face with her own family's secrets. Margaret and Vida's world is very atmospheric and envelopes the reader with every page, with every new secret and scandal, with each strange parallel that links the two women's lives. I must admit, that the first 3-5 chapters were almost this book's undoing for me. Either it was Setterfield establishing Margaret's uber immersion into her world of books, or it was the author's background in literature, but it felt that someone was trying too hard describing the antique books and their histories with heavy-handed words. Thankfully, once Margaret left the bookstore the heavy prose shifted and it was much easier to read. Setterfield also masterfully built the suspense and tension within the story with a deft execution of the art of misdirection and subtly, writing devices not seen delivered to this level in some contemporary fiction. 

On my scale of 1 (literary hari kari) to 10 (literary orgasmic bliss), I give this book a 6.5-7. It's a solid story, full of creepy mystery and suspense, but almost too much subtly at times that left this reader pondering about somewhat crucial pieces of information at the end. If you like your stories moody and atmospheric, that make you think, and have surprising scandals, you'll enjoy this book.