Review: Bellman & Black by: Diane Setterfield

Bellman & Black by: Diane Setterfield (Nov. 5, 2013)

328 pages

Genre: Fiction/Gothic

Publisher: Atria/Emily Bestler Books

Source: I received a free ARC of the book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Purchase: Barnes and Noble | Amazon

Goodreads Summary: Bellman & Black is a heart-thumpingly perfect ghost story, beautifully and
irresistibly written, its ratcheting tension exquisitely calibrated line by line. Its hero is William Bellman, who, as a boy of 11, killed a shiny black rook with a catapult, and who grew up to be someone, his neighbours think, who "could go to the good or the bad." And indeed, although William Bellman's life at first seems blessed—he has a happy marriage to a beautiful woman, becomes father to a brood of bright, strong children, and thrives in business—one by one, people around him die. And at each funeral, he is startled to see a strange man in black, smiling at him. At first, the dead are distant relatives, but eventually his own children die, and then his wife, leaving behind only one child, his favourite, Dora. Unhinged by grief, William gets drunk and stumbles to his wife's fresh grave—and who should be there waiting, but the smiling stranger in black. The stranger has a proposition for William—a mysterious business called "Bellman & Black" . . .

My Review

Bellman & Black is essentially a story about life and death. William Bellman lives an amazing life, has a job he loves and is good at it, has a beautiful family, and a lot of money. That is until a sickness takes over many in his town and his wife and two of his children succumb to death. Then everything changes when he finally meets the man in black, the one that he has seen at countless funerals over the years.

There is one thing I can say with certainty about Bellman & Black, Setterfield knows how to tell a story. She writes beautifully and has the ability to write descriptions of images that will take a while to leave your mind. It's a beautiful yet very dark story and at times very creepy, but one worth reading.

William Bellman is a man I love and a man I hate. To put it simply, he is a great character. He is obsessed with work and numbers. If you don't like a lot of business talk then this book could perhaps get a little boring or frustrating for you. It didn't bother me at all because I found it all so interesting. His daughter Dora is also a great character, from a fun loving child to a darker personality and yet always kind. There are a lot of characters that you will get to meet if you read Bellman & Black and all are significant no matter how small of a role they play, and each will make you feel some sort of emotion.

So after all of this praise why did I only give Bellman & Black 3.5 stars? It's complicated. I think part of the reason is because it wasn't as good as her other book, The Thirteenth Tale, (I know this shouldn't be a factor but whatever) the other part just has to do with a feeling I had when reading, that something was missing. Overall, the big meeting between Black and Bellman just didn't live up to my expectations and that is the main reason for its star rating.

If you are willing to read something a little dark, at times creepy, but full of vivid descriptions and wonderful writing, then Bellman & Black shouldn't be passed up. 

MY RATING: 3.5/5 stars