The Thirteenth Tale

The Thirteenth Taleby Diane SetterfieldIt took me longer than I thought to finish this book (darned, Fall TV season start!) but I stayed up way too late on Monday finishing this story and it gave me major nightmares that night. Which I suppose is fitting for the third book on my RIP III  challenge list. I really liked The Thirteenth Tale and found it delightfully haunting (nightmares aside, those are also due to weather changes and stress in my life).Margaret Lea is a young woman who works in her father's antique books shop. She is also a writer of sorts. One day she gets a letter commissioning her to come to the home of Ms. Vida Winter, a reclusive and well-known writer. Ms. Winter wants Margaret to write her biography. No one knows much about Vida Winter. Fiction was her thing. Never did she reveal a true word about her or her life in any interview. She fears the truth and hides from it with the stories in her head. But this one time. for this one young lady, Vida Winter will tell the truth. She will tell Margaret Lea what she has never told anyone before - the truth.This book is supurbley written. It haunted me as much as the story Vida Winter told Margaret Lea within its pages. I was capitvated by the people and actions she spoke about and like Margaret, wanted to know more and felt the ghosts of the past hovering close to the present.Many people told me they loved this book, my sister included. I have to admit that made me slightly skeptical of how I would react to the book. I have a very strong history of never liking what many people have liked. Not because I feel like being ornery but it just happens that way. (I had some very interesting discussions in my Film Studies classes in college because it became a running joke that I didn't like any "classic" film. I could never see WHY they were so great and my professor would make a joke before each movie "So today we're going to watch a movie that Cath will not like, but the rest of you will." Heh.)I am happy to see this book is in paperback, because I feel that it is certainly one that I need to add to my bookshelves.