"As a boy, William Bellman commits one small cruel act that appears to have unforeseen and terrible consequences. The killing of a rook with his catapult is soon forgotten amidst the riot of boyhood games. And by the time he is grown, with a wife and children of his own, he seems indeed, to be a man blessed by fortune. Until tragedy strikes, and the stranger in black comes, and William Bellman starts to wonder if all his happiness is about to be eclipsed. Desperate to save the one precious thing he has left, he enters into a bargain. A rather strange bargain, with an even stranger partner, to found a decidedly macabre business. And Bellman & Black is born."
Rating
Review
Well, that was a really slow read. And I am feeling quite apathetic after reading those almost four hundred pages, to be honest. There's only three words I can think about when trying to put an order what I've just been reading for the past month, and these words are: rooks, death and black.
Maybe it's me, maybe I'm not used to the drama but jeez that went beyond drama.
I'll try to be as positive as I can, although it's not what this book has inspired me at all.
The story of William Bellman's life, a peculiar man that grows up in full Victorian era doomed by an unfair mistake he made as a child. In general, the plot is somehow a very simple story with one single detail that makes it just... Weird. I liked the idea of it all, but I didn't like the way it was put into words or the way the author developed it. I felt like Setterfield was a little bit like Mr. Bellman: they both have got so many good ideas, they work so hard on them and in the end, it didn't work out the way they planned it.
Of course, that's just my humble opinion. But I know it could have been so much better because the raw idea was so good, but again, there was something missing or rather there was too much of something. And that is detail.
Too much description, too much unnecessary detail. For the majority of the time I spent reading this book I was just thinking: "Well, I could have skipped the next twenty pages and I wouldn't have learned anything new about the main story or the main character, would I?".
At the beginning, I kept on reading because I thought I would get there, I would get to the point when the "real" stuff was going to happen and I would feel like I wasn't wasting my time anymore.
When I reached the first hundred pages, that positivity changed into something like "Okay, if I reach the middle of the book and nothing interesting has happened, then I quit".
Somehow I got to keep my faith and yes, finally something happened. A new character appeared —actually, Black appeared—, and things were starting to get interesting at last.
Kept on reading. Finished the book. My immediate reaction: What on Earth have I been reading all this time?
Not only the end itself but the chapters near it. I had only around ten pages left to read and I felt like I was still at the beginning which actually made me think that something really unexpected and sudden was going to happen and it would just be worth it reading the entire book because of the end. But it wasn't like that. In fact, it wasn't like that at all. The end was just as plain and weird and dark as the rest of the book.
About the characters there's only one you should care about and that is William Bellman. He's the main character and he's very well drawn —more psychologically than physically— and although I couldn't stick to him and understand him the whole time (it was more of a frustrating "why are you doing this?" kind of character to me), it is a very good character for a dark novel as this one.
But yeah, no more complaining. At the end of the day, I rate Bellman & Black with 2/5 for a reason. And that is the writing style.
I have to give some credit to Diane Setterfield and her writing —I have to say— is exquisite. Delicate, well-polished, perfectly adjusted to the situation and the times, dark but very therapeutic at the same time.
So to end it with positive words —as I like to do, I'll say that the Bellman & Black is just a deliciously written Halloween tale.
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