The Thirteenth Tale: Diane Setterfield

Holy buckets. What a fantastic read! This was one I definitely need to read again, now that everything (mostly) makes sense.

I am quite proud to say that I guessed the "twist" mere seconds (or should I say "words") before it was revealed. I wouldn't call it obvious, but there was only one plausible solution, only one way in which the story made sense.

I did have a very difficult time understanding Margaret as a character. Her suffering was not clear, and Setterfield began to truly lean on her pain towards the end of the novel. I preferred the Margaret at the beginning of the novel, who was fascinated with words and the many lives created by words. But I've never been in her position so relating to her would be difficult.

I definitely would recommend this book. Keep at it when you want to give up; I had a few of those moments myself. It's completely worth it.

Little Fires Everywhere: Celeste Ng

 This was a hard read for me. It was selected for a book club I just joined, and I didn't research too much into the description. However, had I known some of the large themes included infertility, miscarriages, abortions, and other pregnancy things, I would have chosen the other book. Especially considering the relaxed attitude the author portrayed with these subjects, it was very difficult to read those.

However, the book was intriguing. It brought up several difficult points: teenage sex, single-parenting, biological vs. adoptive parentage. 

The characters were well-written. It was easy to hate the "villain" throughout the whole book. It was rather disappointing that Mrs. Richardson never had her comeuppance. One could argue, I suppose that Izzy was her comeuppance, but I disagree. The author wants us to have sympathy for her at the end, but I find that impossible. She just isn't driving enough to convince me that she was a victim. Sorry, but she brought it all upon herself. 

I also am a huge fan of happy endings, so this ending was fairly unsatisfying. There needs to be so much more content so that I can get some resolution. This, however, is more of a personal preference complaint, so it isn't fair for me to take away from the rating because of that. I think that's just how this type of story ends, so I shouldn't have expected otherwise.