The Thirteenth Tale

  Happy Holidays, readers! I hope you are enjoying the holidays with friends and family. In these last few days of December, I'm trying to wrap up some of my remaining reading challenges. I'm almost half way done! The Thirteenth Tale wraps up my Alex Award reading challenge this year.

Description: Margaret Lea works in her father's antiquarian bookshop where her fascination for the biographies of the long-dead has led her to write them herself. She gets a letter from one of the most famous authors of the day, the mysterious Vida Winter, whose popularity as a writer has been in no way diminished by her reclusiveness. Until now, Vida has toyed with journalists who interview her, creating outlandish life histories for herself - all of them invention. Now she is old and ailing, and at last she wants to tell the truth about her extraordinary life. Her letter to Margaret is a summons.Somewhat anxiously, the equally reclusive Margaret travels to Yorkshire to meet her subject - and Vida starts to tell her tale. It is one of Gothic strangeness featuring the March family; her mother, the beautiful and willful Isabelle, who had a powerful hold on her father and brother, and the feral twins Adeline and Emmeline.Margaret, herself a twin, is doubly intrigued. But as a biographer she deals in fact not fiction, and she doesn't entirely trust Vida's account. She goes to check up on the family, visit their old home and piece together the story in her own way. What she discovers on her journey to the truth is for Margaret a chilling experience that will transform her life.

Review:  The Thirteenth Tale pays homage to the great Gothic writers, particularly Charlotte Bronte and Daphne Du Maurier, while weaving a wholly original story of its own. The story at first seems very familiar as a plain girl gets wrapped up in a dark, haunted ruin of a house, which guards family secrets that are not hers and that she must discover at her peril. Along this bleak journey, she also learns secrets about her own family.
  Margaret Lea is a London bookseller's daughter and a bibliophile. An introvert, she has lived vicariously through the written world. Her world revolves around what knows through her books. Books are her solace, friends, and adventures she can safely go on without any dangers. She enjoys books where the truth is written out in black and white terms and where the unjust are punished in the end. She also has an interest in siblings and has written an obscure biography that suggests deep understanding of siblings.
  It is Margaret's fascination with siblings that attracts the attention of the famous and now aging author Vida Winter, who finally wishes to tell her own, long-hidden, life story. Facing imminent death and feeling an unexplainable connection to Margaret, Miss Winter begins to spin a haunting, suspenseful tale of an old English estate, a devastating fire, twin girls, a governess, and a ghost. As Margaret carefully records Vida's tale, she ponders her own family secrets.
   The Thirteenth Tale immediately grabbed my attention right away. I felt a kinship with Margaret's love of books and I was swept away with the story that Ms. Winter spun. All throughout the story with a story, I wondered which bits were true. I  had no problems distinguishing between the two narrators as their voices were so different, but the transition from one to the other felt smooth. I loved the connections with some of my favorite books, but I was delightfully surprised that the connections were not a complete retelling of the story but showed how books can touch our lives in so many different ways. The book's pace was steady and there were plenty of twists and cliffhangers that kept me turning the pages. I was sad when the story concluded, but I think it could be enjoyed even more the second time you read it. The Thirteenth Tale is truly a book lover's book that celebrates reading and storytelling.

Rating: 5 stars

Words of Caution:  There are hints of sex and incest in the book, but nothing graphic or explicit. Recommended for teens and adults only.

If you like this book try: The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton, The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt, Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier, and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Three Girls and Their Brother

 How many people can you name that have had 15 minutes of fame and then disappeared into obscurity? Or rather how many celebs can you think of that are popular only because someone on their family tree is well known? Can you name a celeb who's world was turned topsy turvy after they gaining fame? Theresa Rebeck's Three Girls and Their Brother gives the reader a backstage pass to the seedy world of the entertainment business where sharks and prey are abundantly available.

Description: Now that it’s all over, everybody is saying it was the picture–that stupid picture was behind every disaster. . . .They may be the granddaughters of a famous literary critic, but what really starts it all is Daria, Polly, and Amelia Heller’s stunning red hair. Out of the blue one day, The New Yorker calls and says that they want to feature the girls in a glamorous spread shot by a world-famous photographer, and before long these three beautiful nobodies from Brooklyn have been proclaimed the new “It” girls.
   But with no parental guidance–Mom’s a former beauty queen living vicariously through her daughters, and Dad is nowhere to be found–the three girls find themselves easy prey for the sharks and piranhas of show business. Posing in every hot fashion magazine, tangling with snarling fashonistas and soulless agents, skipping school and hitting A-list parties, the sisters are caught up in a whirlwind rise to fame that quickly spirals out of control.
   When Amelia, the youngest of the three–who never really wanted to be a model in the first place–appears in an Off-Broadway play, the balance of power shifts, all the pent-up resentment and pressure comes to a head, and the girls’ quiet, neglected brother reaches a critical point of virtual breakdown. And against the odds, even as the struggle for fame threatens to tear the family apart, the Hellers begin to see that despite the jealousy, greed, and uncertainty that have come to define their relationships, in the celebrity world of viciousness and betrayal, all they really have is one another.

Review: I was looking through the Alex Award book lists trying to figure out what book to read next for this reading challenge and I stumbled up Three Girls and Their Brother. I had never heard of the book and author before, but the synopsis caught my eye and I thought I would try it.
  Straddling the line of dark comedy and satire, Three Girls and Their Brother takes us backstage to the caprious entertainment industry where fame and luck sometimes intertwine and not always in the best interest of the person involved. The New Yorker does a piece on the Hellers, grandchildren of a late literary critic who are riding the coat tails of his popular and just so happen to be ravishingly beautiful. After a single photo shoot, the three teenaged sisters, ranging from 14 to 18 years old, modeling party girl careers are off to a careening start. 
 The book is told through each of the sibling's point of view, which allows us to get a closer look into this dysfunctional family and to help dicepher was is true and fantasy when fickle fame appears. The siblings are practically the only family unit as the looney mom and distant father appear on the outter fringes of the siblings' lives.
  Out of all the point of views, I really enjoyed reading from Philip, the brother who is 15 and seen as the 'plain one'. He narrates the first part, dubiously chronicling how their former Miss America mother blithely yanks the girls out of school and throws them to the jackals of publicity. It is through Philip's point of view that we remain grounded and witness how fast and easily fame takes a toll on a family that is already distant. Ironically, out all of the siblings Philip is the most sensible one but he gets shipped out to live with his distant father and stepmother for being unruly.
  My next favorite point of view was from the youngest sibling, Amelia, explains how one photoshoot became a juicy scandal for tabloids and celebrity magazines and how acting instead of modeling may be her true calling. Like Philip, Amelia's point of view points out the cut-throat aspect of the entertainment industry whether it's Hollywood or Broadway, the danger is the same- someone is always trying to steal your thunder and use you to their benefits.
  I would definitely recommend this book to fans of the Showtime TV show Entourage as it covers similar themes.  Funny and searing, Three Girls and Their Brother is an enjoyable read where you are glad that you are not a celebrity and may make you think twice about ever wanting fame.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Words of Caution: Strong language, underage drinking, and sexual situations. Recommended for mature teens and adults only.

If you like this book try: The Year of Living Famously by Laura Caldwell, Celebrities in Disgrace by Elizabeth Searle

Night Circus

  The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern has been a popular book at my public library for quite some time. I had planned on reading it when it was listed on the ALA's Alex Award, a resource that I often use when I'm stumped to read for adult fiction. I was excited and curious to read the book after hearing such enthusiastic responses to it. Unfortunately, this book wasn't for me.

Description (from the publisher): The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Cirque des Reves and it is only open at night. But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway - a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love - a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands. True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus performers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead.

Review: I have no idea who wrote the above description for The Night Circus, but the book I read had none of the epic selling points. No huge duel, no sweep off your feet romance, and while there were a myriad of characters I wasn't able to tell if they were extraordinary or not because they went in and out of the story at arbitrary times.
  I read The Night Circus for a book club that I recently joined. It was met with plenty of positive reviews except from me. I didn't love it or hate it but was rather confused as to why everyone seemed to get something out of the story which I did not. I couldn't get comfortable with the story nor the characters. It was as if I was looking through a misty window that failed to clear up no matter how much I try to wipe it down while trying to see what was outside.
  After much thought, I think I understand why this book didn't work for me. I really do think your enjoyment of the book depends on what type of learner you are. Why does it matter? Well, The Night Circus is written entirely in third person omnipresent with an occasional interludes of a second person narrative. The book heavily relies on visuals. The book is almost entirely composed of description. While I thought the description is very cinematic and beautifully done, as a reader I felt immediately alienated. You already begin the book knowing that you're an outsider, a spectator of the events that unfold in front of you. You can only watch from a distance but not touch or come any closer. After a few lovely passages, the narrative became contrite, dull, and indulgent. I don't mind great imagery, but I'd rather have imagery to support the novel instead of becoming the novel. The writing style severely impaired my reading ability and I really had to push myself to finish it. I had already spent a few hours reading it, what more could a couple of more do to actually finish it?
   As someone as a visual and auditory learner, none of the characters became three dimensional people to me. I never got a chance to hear their own voices. I knew about them without really getting to know them per se. Sure, I could tell you who they are superficially, but they didn't mean anything to me as a reader. I can also tell you want the games were about, but I thought the whole point of it was long winded and frankly, boring. With the exception of timer periods noted at each chapter which I really didn't understand their significance because we are told virtually nothing about what is happening outside of the circus, there weren't many context clues, to give me much sense of the character's personalities. I felt the book could really have been written at any time period.
  People who I've talked to who didn't like the book often say it's because they don't care for the fantasy genre, but for me it's not the genre that bothers me. Perhaps if I listened to the story instead of reading it, I might have liked it a bit more. I know that the book rights have been bought by Summit Entertainment but there's probably going to be a lot of tweaking with the plot and pacing for the story to have action. In the case of The Night Circus, maybe just maybe the movie might be better for me than the book.

Rating: 2 stars

Words of Caution: There is some language, a small non-explicit sex scene, and disturbing images. Recommended for teens and adults only.

If you like this book try: The Art of Disappearing by Ivy Pochoda, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanne Clarke, Vaclav & Lena by Haley Tanner