Lady Danielle

The ghosts that send chills down our backs aren’t ghosts visiting us in spirit form, speaking to us and making its appearance when it has unfinished business, no. The ghosts that send chills down our backs and make our heart race impossibly fast are stories. Stories so vivid it haunts you and makes you afraid to walk about the house at night. Stories that will make it seem as though there’s someone present sitting next to you, listening as the story is being told. Stories that will linger in your mind for a couple of hours and make you dream about it. Those, my friends, are the true ghosts. 

“There is something about words. In expert hands, manipulated deftly, they take you prisoner. Wind themselves around your limbs like spider silk, and when you are so enthralled you cannot move, they pierce your skin, enter your blood, numb your thoughts. Inside you they work their magic.”

Where the story’s protagonist, Margaret Lea, could easily relate to the readers, Vida Winter holds a certain regal air. I’ve never came across a character such as herself. So blunt, so true, so…. poignant. Vida Winter is a woman of many words; a woman who has the tongue of a liar storyteller. She’s told 19 different stories of her life to journalists in two years (from what Margaret’s read; for all we know she could’ve told more).

“My gripe is not with lovers of the truth but with truth herself. What sucor, what consolation is there in truth, compared to a story? What good is truth, at midnight, in the dark, when the wind is roaring like a bear in the chimney? When the lightning strikes shadows on the bedroom wall and the rain taps at the window with its long fingernails? No. When fear and cold make a statue of you in your bed, don’t expect hard-boned and fleshless truth to come running to your aid. What you need are the plump comforts of a story. The soothing, rocking safety of a lie.” 

“Politeness. Now there’s a poor man’s virtue if ever there was one. What’s so admirable about inoffensiveness, I should like to know. After all, it’s easily achieved. One needs no particular talent to be polite. On the contrary, being nice is what’s left when you’ve failed at everything else. People with ambition don’t give a damn what other people think about them.” 

This book is exactly what I’ve been craving to read. It seems as though I’ve grown tired of reading some fast-paced plot and genre in YA literature. The Thirteenth Taleimmediately swept me off my feet and took me to an entirely new world. This book is for patient readers. Diane Setterfield doesn’t hold back on being immensely descriptive. She takes her time crafting a chilling gothic novel with a 19th century feel located between two hills. Setterfield masters in writing a novel that will steal your breath away; a novel that will leave you staying awake in the dead of night, slowly turning the pages to read what happens next. This is a book to savour and take your time with.

I loved how there wasn’t any romance in the novel. The protagonist is an independent book lover who doesn’t get out much. She was practically born and raised in her father’s bookshop where she learned to read and write. She stays in the bookshop writing biographies of long dead authors. She’s neither into contemporary novels nor authors, but she receives a letter from Vida Winter, asking Margaret to write her biography. And this time, Winter will tell the truth. 

The Thirteenth Tale is a tale that will linger for quite some time with its quotable passages and spooky atmosphere. Diane Setterfield will tell many tales of a sadistic child, queer twins, a friendly giant, a cunning governess, and many other mysteries. Grab some cakes and tea/coffee and start gobbling this delicious novel. I am definitely looking forward to her new novel, Bellman and Black.