“Readers will feel the magnetic pull of this paean to words, books and the magical power of story.” – People
“The story of Margaret Lea, the prim and proper antiquarian book dealer, is eerie and fascinating and should delight lovers of books old and new.” – USA Today
“A first-rate mystery, suffused with the murk of the English moors…. Setterfield’s spooky, gloom-infused work lovingly invokes both Jane Eyre and Rebecca, but the mystery is very much her own.” – Entertainment Weekly, B+
“The Thirteenth Tale is a book that you wake in the middle of the night craving to get back to…. Once, only once, I finished a contemporary novel and started it over right away. That book was Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things. The Thirteenth Tale is a book to savor dozens of times. Like a childhood favorite, it is timeless, charming, pure pleasure to read. It weaves reality and fantasy into a cozy colorful world where characters are both real and archetypal and the good life belongs to people who read. The Thirteenth Tale is a comfort book. A book to restore the spirit.”
– San Diego Union-Tribune
“Readers will be mesmerized by this story-within-a-story tinged with the eeriness of Rebecca and the willfulness of Jane Eyre. The author skillfully keeps the plot moving by unfurling a new twist in each chapter and leaves no strand untucked at the surprising and satisfying conclusion. A wholly original work told in the vein of all the best gothic classics. Lovers of books about book lovers will be enthralled.” – Booklist
“Those who buy and read this complex, compelling and, in the end, deeply moving novel are unlikely to feel they’ve been shortchanged.” – Philadelphia Inquirer
“Every once in a while, you happen across a book that reminds you of why you came to love reading in the first place. The pure thrill of words on paper, the headlong rush of story, the powerful feelings strong narratives can evoke — every now and then, you find a book that brings back the freshness of all these, and also does that wholly magic thing: it makes time stop. Those books find us as children. They seem, for many reasons, to become rarer birds as we grow older. But here is one of them.” –The Buffalo News
“This is a compelling and emotional mystery about family secrets and the magic of books and storytelling, and it captures you right from the very first page. Written in the style of Daphne du Maurier’sRebecca, Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre and Henry James’ Turn of the Screw, this is a page turner in every sense of the word.” –The Financial Times
“Setterfield proves a mistress of the craft of storytelling and her musings about the pleasures of reading are most beguiling.” – The Guardian
“Setterfield’s debut is enchanting Goth for the 21st century.” – Kirkus Reviews
“Here’s a novel brimming with atmosphere and labyrinthine plotting that recalls the gothic-like chillers by Daphne du Maurier and Joyce Carol Oates, spiced with flavors reminiscent of Jane Eyre andWuthering Heights by the Bronte sisters. The language is rich, the elements intriguing — a secluded mansion populated by brooding characters, musty family secrets that must be unearthed and ghostly presences that appear to vanish.” – The Sacramento Bee
“The Thirteenth Tale is a book that you wake in the middle of the night craving to get back to. Like a childhood favorite, it is timeless, charming, pure pleasure to read. It weaves reality and fantasy into a cozy colorful world where characters are both real and archetypal and the good life belongs to people who read. The Thirteenth Tale is a comfort book. A book to restore the spirit.” – Reader’s Digest
“Setterfield is remarkably gifted, and the book is a page turner. Readers should heed one warning: Prepare to be so captivated by the story that you cannot put it down. Not even for a cuppa tea.”
– The Roanoke Times
“The shared literary landscape that The Thirteenth Tale re-creates with lush precision takes us back to a time when reading could seem more compelling than life.” –The Columbus Dispatch