I really like Diane Setterfield's writing. Her darkly haunting stories are packed with descriptive words and twists that the reader cannot always see coming. This is an evocative story of a mistake that follows young William into his future, coloring every twist and turn. I did not enjoy this as much as The Thirteenth Tale, but it was still thought provoking just the same.

It's interesting, although I like Diane Setterfield's stories, I am not always a fan of her characters. In this story I did not form an attachment to William, and really did not feel a vested interest in his outcome.

I love the cover it was probably one of the things that drew me to the book in the first place!!

I tried really hard to get into Bellman and Black. I really didn't like it, to me it didn't flow well and I just found myself getting frustrated.

I love Diane Setterfield's books--and this was no exception. This well-told tale will send chills down your spine.

I have to agree with the other reviewers...this book was just ok. Although The Thirteenth Tale did set the bar very high, I don't think that that was why I was so disappointed. The storyline had so much to offer but fell short. I spent so much of this book waiting for the ah ha moment to happen, that in the end I didn't care. What could have been another "Tell Tale Heart" only ended up being so so.

Absolutely loved this book! It contained twists and turns that surprised me - which is rare. Highly recommend.

I received a free copy from NetGalley. The story starts when Bellman is 10 and you follow him very slowly through his life. He sort of blames everything that happens on what happened that day and the mysterious Mr. Black who shows up later in his life once he connects bad things to that day. Very slow novel, without a great character to enjoy.

I did not have a chance to read this book, but it is effecting my feedback rating. I am giving books 5 stars that I haven't read to improve my feedback rating. I am not recommending the book for my classroom or students since I have not read the book. There needs to be a better system of leaving feedback for books not read.

If there is a moral here it is "Take time to smell the roses." Being busy may help you cope in the short term, but there's so much more to life than a successful business as this story points out.

The Thirteenth Tale was one of my favorite books in a long time when I read it but I can't say this one lived up to the expected hype after that. The story dragged a bit and I wasn't compelled.

<em>Bellman &amp; Black</em> is one of the older books in my ARC queue and I remember being quite interested in this because of the publicity calling this a 'perfect' ghost story. But this is not a ghost story. Not really. This is a moody, atmospheric tale of a consumed living man.

As a boy, William Bellman killed a crow. Although the bird was his target, he never expected to actually hit it. And so begins a life of doing things that he never really expected to do. And slowly (ohhhh, very slowly) he sees the people around him die. At each funeral he spies a man in black just smiling at him. It is strange, but he doesn't think too much on this until the death of his wife. Bellman loses control and in a drunken stopper, visits his wife's newly filled grave. And of course the man in black is there and makes Bellman an offer that he can't refuse. He must open a particular business to be called Bellman &amp; Black.

But as the success of the business grows and the strange Mr. Black remains absent, Bellman worries that he might be doing something wrong. He carefully sets aside the money Mr. Black is owed for his part in the business, but is it enough? What does Mr. Black really want? When will he show up?

Who cares?

It's been a long time since I read a book that had received a lot of hype and generally good reviews when it came out and was actually this dull.

There is nothing ... <em>nothing</em> ... here to make this worth reading. The story is ... well, there is no story. It seems to be more a character study. Which is fine, except that the character is dull. Imagine if Flaubert had written a book about Dr. Bovary and he hadn't been married to Emma ... no one would have cared a whit about him, and that's how it is with Bellman. And the rest of the characters in the book? They are names on paper only. There is nothing to any of them to make us think that we have any reason to care about them.

The opening chapter - Bellman killing the crow - was interesting enough to have me want to read more, but ti didn't take long for me to want something to happen. Half way through I wanted something to happen. Two thirds of the way through, I wanted something to happen. Three quarters in - I wanted something to happen or a reason to keep reading. From then on, I just wanted it to be over.

Looking for a good book? You won't find it with <em>Bellman &amp; Black</em> by Diane Setterfield.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

I read this book 5 years ago, and for some reason didn't make a review post at the time. Most of the time 5 years later I would have completely forgotten the plot and storyline of a book. This isn't the case for Bellman & Black. I still remember it fondly. I initially picked it up thinking it would be a ghost story in the traditional sense, somewhere being haunted, the ghost of a person influencing and/or scaring another character, etc. but that wasn't the case with this story. The ghosts involved were more the personal demons of the main character, and how he fought them to build his business, and become a gentleman. I didn't, and still don't, know too much about the era illustrated in this book to know how much was historically accurate but I enjoyed reading about how the materials were dyed and further prepared, and how the funeral business from the point of view of the fashion world was thought out and established.

I did not enjoy this book at all. It just went on and on about nothing. Nothing happening with business. It was just not good to me. I was so disappointed because I had looked forward to reading it and then forgot about it until I saw it on my kindle and decided it was time to read it. Sorry it took so long and sorry I even bothered. I really did not like this book at all.
I received a copy via NetGalley for my honest review. #NetGalley

I had received an egalley of this via Netgalley when it was first releasing. Sadly, I was so new to Netgalley that I had accepted WAY TOO MANY review books that I ended up not getting to many of them in a timely manner. This year I am tackling my pile of shame and this is the first review book I decided to check off my list. I decided to listen to the audiobook version to help me tackle this issue.


I really enjoyed the audiobook - the story has details about rooks interspersed throughout the story. And since the story begins with young William using his catapult to kill a rook, it seemed only fitting. Also, the rook seems to be the omen of death in this story so the extra details about the birds was welcome and fitting.


This story follows William from a young age and shows what a smart man he is. From getting out of trouble to gaining impressive employment with the family business, he is a go getter. Sadly, as the ones he loves start dying around him, he throws himself into his work more and more. His grief takes over and he nearly loses his mind. He goes from running the mill to embarking an in interesting endeavour of creating Bellman &amp; Black - the store for mourning ware. It's a great name for the store as it illicits the feeling of death and mourning since they can deliver on any detail small or large in regards to funerals and mourning.


The creepy thing about the story is the illusive Mr. Black who he makes a deal with when coming up with the idea of the new company. He's only there in times of mourning and never when you think he should be. You start to wonder if he's real, imaginary or death incarnate. You'll have to read the book yourself to figure out what the deal is with Mr. Black and who he really is.


The part I found so frustrating was Mr. Bellman's relationship with his family. He wishes for life, but works so damn much that he never sees them anyway. If they are so important, why didn't he make time for them? He was addicted to working - a true workaholic. It's sad that someone's life could be so dedicated to their career/work that they'd let themselves miss out on so much life around them. Perhaps that is part of the point to the story? Maybe someone else will have some wise words to say about it.


I'm thinking the story itself is about how we deal with loss in different ways - whether it's with living through memories or suppressing the unpleasant.


Have you read Bellman &amp; Black? What did you think of it?

*Book source ~ NetGalley

William Bellman is likeable, endlessly curious, and driven. When it looks like his life couldn’t get any happier, tragedy strikes and a thoughtless moment from his boyhood comes back to haunt him.

First I have to say that I don’t know why this is called a ghost story. There’s no ghost unless you count the moment in Bellman’s past that haunts him his whole life. Well, it doesn’t actively haunt him, but there are moments when it migrates from his subconscious to his conscious mind and it’s in those moments he feels as if he’s going a little crazy. Anyway, no actual ghost is in this story.

Now, this is a different kind of tale. Set in England, it never says what year, but it feels like it’s the 1800s. It’s like a memoir of Bellman’s life. It starts when he and three other boys are ten years old and Bellman kills a rook with his catapult (slingshot). In his defense, he never thought his rock would travel the distance and he did hesitate, but at the last moment he let it fly and wham. Dead bird. This is the moment that comes back to haunt him again and again through the book.

While there doesn’t appear to be an obvious point to this story (to me anyway), I still found it fascinating. William Bellman is an interesting man and I enjoyed learning about the fabric mill and later the attention to detail when he opens Bellman & Black, a store that caters to the dead. In other words, if someone dies, Bellman & Black has everything a family needs for the funeral and mourning periods. I don’t expect this story will appeal to everyone, but I enjoyed it.

NOT SURE WHY THIS REVIEW FROM SEP 2013 DOESN'T SHOW AS SUBMITTED?

I don't even really know where to begin with this review. I have never once felt like I completely wasted my time with a book as I did with this one. I kept waiting for action, for the "ghost" to have some real impact on the story, for something to happen other than talking repeatedly over and over and over about Bellman's business acumen, investments, ideas for more profit, etc.

But it never happened. It just kept going on and on and on and on, and nothing happened, other than we watched a man grow up and grow old and do business. NOTHING ELSE HAPPENED.

I was really looking forward to the paranormal aspects that the blurb implied... the consequences for him killing the rook with the stone. It never came. Even the story line with Mr. Black didn't *really* seem to connect ENOUGH to the rook killing hook.

I get a strong feeling, especially based off of the final notes at the end of the book, that she had some deep, meaningful thought behind the story... that it was her note about death or wasted life or some deep idea that SHE got from the story, or through writing it reached some revelation or catharsis, but didn't do a good job of passing it on to the reader.

This was the first of hers I've read, and I had planned on picking up The Thirteenth Tale at some point, but I don't think I'll ever get to it now.

Oh, I did give it a second star, strictly because I think she did a good job writing believable characters and writing within the setting that she had chosen for her story.

I appreciate Netgalley's provision of this copy for me to read. I wish I had enjoyed it more.

My apologies - if I requested this, it looks like I never had the chance to download it prior to the expiration of the time limit. Thanks for the opportunity.

Did not enjoy this book, which is a pity as I was looking forward to it.