May 14, 2013

The Thirteenth Tale

Genres/Themes: Fantasy, Mystery
Rating: ★★★★☆

(finished May 4th)
At the beginning, I had a hard time getting into the book. It has a bit of a slow start, but as the story started twisting around, and as it presented more and more questions, I found it hard to put down.

When I started reading this book, I hadn't read anything about it yet. I just knew that a lot of people were reading it (and my book club chose it). I was expecting something like a fairy tale. At the end, Vida Winter relates the story to Cinderella. In that case, it is the most twisted Cinderella story I've ever read. (And I thought Cinder was different!)

I found it interesting that both stories told in the book were stories of twins. Twins aren't usually a common topic for books. Vida Winter's twin tale was strange, shocking and sad. Margaret's was strange and sad in another way. I found the camera/mirror scene kind of weird.

The ending for me was a surprise. Some people I have talked to said they guessed at it, but it wasn't until just before it was revealed that I figured it out. A wonderful twist of an ending, though I felt sad for Emmaline.

I'm rather surprised by all the high ratings this book has received on GoodReads. It seems to me that this is the type of book that would have more of an even spread over like, neutral, and dislike. If you find yourself not liking the book, try to make it to when the twins are born. I thought it got better after that.

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