Amy (it was you, right?) and Jesse, I just finished The Thirteenth Tale. I would love to hear what you think as I had a hard transition from Julia Glass who has spare prose to the book and I think it may have colored how I felt about the story.

Too ... purple for you, Kat? I didn't really think so, but it did take me a few pages to get into the sort of more formal, old-fashioned style.

What irked about the story?

I just saw that Charlie Brown of Locus died [link] I feel old.

It felt overly ornate, Amy. Purple is a great description. It didn't irk me, but it did leave me as sort of meh.

Also, the big surprise of a third child didn't surprise so much. I'm not sure what tipped me off. The story was definitely page turning even if I kinda could see what was coming, though. And how much did I love the doctor? The one who prescribes Arthur Conan Doyle as an antidote to Jane Eyre? Total Love.

Now I'm reading Housekeeping which has sat on my shelf for two years and it's another adjustment all together.

Oh, wow, that *would* be a switch, Kat. I only started that a while back, but the style is a total 180.

The twist you mentioned totally surprised me. I mean, I had been wondering about some things, how they were achieved, but that never occurred to me.

And I LOVED the doctor. I liked that hint of what Margaret was heading toward at the end. I think my only real quibble was how melodramatically she played Margaret's obsession with her own lost twin, because that seemed ... well melodramatic and too transparently designed as a mirror.

It was a fun read for me, though.

Well, the whole thing with Margaret was just @@. I'm not really sure I buy into the whole wondertwin super power or maybe I don't want to because my own twins have shown none of that kinship. Is it because they are boy & girl and not girl girl? Or is the whole concept hokey? I think a real twist would have been to have Margaret obsessed with twins, only to find out that she was wrong or that what she thought was true was not. That there was no special twinness missing from her life, no twin after all. That her void has to do with her own longing for specialness.

I think both Adeline and Emmeline were so enmeshed not because they were twins, but because of the criminal neglect of them. They relied on each other because they only had each other. And I guess I think the implication that their not-rightness had to do with the incestuous relationship of the parents also sort of meh or at the very least an easy out. Again, I guess I'm more of a nurture person than a nature person.

Maybe I don't read "twin" stories well because of my own?

The cover of "Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters".

See, I feel I should actually read 'Sense and Sensibility' before that. P&P&Z I'm working on now. It's definitely livening up Austen for me.

P&P&Z I'm working on now. It's definitely livening up Austen for me.

I think you got irony all over me...

Oh, dear. SH, I think that's gonna leave a stain.