The 13th Tale by Diane Sutterfield

OH where do I start with this book. It was bad.
I have to admit though, I could not put it down because I had to find out what happened. The mystery needed to be solved or my nightmares would not stop. Or so I thought. I still have nightmares about this book!
I read it for a book group. I guess they picked it because it is the month of Halloween and a good ghost story would go well with the season. It is a New York Times bestseller and was just released on paperback last week. I got the first copy out of the box in our little Barnes and Noble store.
As I read I wondered what made it a best seller? It was very clever. It had suspense, wit, intelligence....why was it bad?
The story even starts with some down right bad things, to name a few without giving anything away, incest, rape, torture, abandonment, psycho/crazy people and without this there wouldn't be a story woven with lies and deceit. In fact it would just be a story about a girl and her sisters. I did like the Jane Eyre foreshadowing through out the book, that was clever. It was far from the Bronte sister type story though.
I should have stopped while I could but after the first chapter you can't wait to find out whats next. Evil. I was sucked in.

Anyway I started pondering why I can read a book like this and others with horrible topics that people used to never talk about or write about. Are we so desensitized that it takes topics like this to make it a bestseller? What happened to the classics? OR maybe I am just living in a Jane Austin world type bubble. They don't even hold hands in most of her books. This was so past that. At least the book didn't go into play by play gory detail, just insinuated most sin and left it to your imagination, which sadly turns out to be right in the end.

I am going to call it what it is and confess I have read not a Broken Book but a BENT book. I hope to pass on a book like this next time before I get past the 1st chapter. BUT then the next book I read was Kite Runner? What makes this one okay and the 13th tale not okay? hmmmm