1,289
people found this helpful, as of 2023
ranked #6,519 most helpful
out of 571,544,897 reviews
★★★★☆
A Very Enjoyable Read
I almost never review books on Amazon, but I just finished reading "The Thirteenth Tale" and logged onto Amazon to see if Diane Setterfield had written any other books and in the process browsed the existing reviews. I found that I could agree with neither the positive nor the negative reviews. A majority of the positive reviews simply fawn over the book without explaining why it is so good. Many of the reviews are filled with overworked hyperbole. Many of the negative reviews struck me as so vitriolic that I wonder if the reviewer had forgotten their meds before starting the review. And so, I decided to write a review. I'm not going to tell you whether it is a good or a bad book, I'm going to tell you if I liked it or not and why.
I enjoyed the book for the following reasons:
1. The plot interested me (see book description if you don't already know the plot).
2. The writing is excellent. Richly descriptive without being so wordy that I felt like skimming paragraphs.
3. I found the characters interesting, believable and well-developed.
4. The pacing of the story was just how I like it in a book of this genre. Slightly meandering with a steady rise and fall of tempo. This gives me plenty of exciting reading, but also allows me places to stop reading when I need to go to bed or do something else.
Is this book great literature? Hell, I don't know and don't care. I enjoyed reading it and that's what reading is all about for me.
