Laura Purcell

I've been so looking forward to reading The Shape of Darkness and not only did I love it but I thought it was actually spectacular.

This is the story of two women: Agnes Darken (what a name!), a silhouette artist in Bath; and Pearl Meers, an 11 year old girl who is using her gift as a medium to contact spirits and pay her way with her half-sister, Myrtle, and to help her father who is gravely ill. Agnes has cause to consult Pearl when the people who are sitting for their silhouettes are being show more murdered. Is somebody targeting Agnes and if so, why?

This is ostensibly the story but there is so much else going on. I was totally and utterly bewitched by it from start to finish, being at turns enthralled by Agnes' cutting skills and Pearl's great powers. The juxtaposition between Agnes, who is probably beyond middle-aged for Victorian times, and the young Pearl is marked, each stepping forward and taking centre stage in their own environment and providing such contrast.

I feel it's quite hard to do justice to this wonderful book in a review. It's so complex and intricate, so beautifully and compellingly plotted. I thought I had an idea of where it was going only to be surprised over and over (there was even a hand over the mouth moment). The characters and settings leap off the page and it wasn't hard to imagine the grimy streets, the dark and dingy rooms lit only by candlelight, the manifestations, and even the smells. Laura Purcell really has created something so completely three-dimensional and full of atmosphere.

With a sinister feel underlying even the most everyday scenes, The Shape of Darkness is a book I didn't want to put down. With every page I was drawn deeper and deeper into the murky world of séances, mesmerism and murders. I thought it was an authentic and fantastic gothic read, with a plot that kept on astonishing me and characters that I will not forget. show less

“Madness, as we call it, manifests itself in many ways. People do not always wail and shriek as you say your mother did. But it does seem to run in families, I have observed, particularly through the female line. Hysteria – womb to womb. Diseased blood will out. There is no hiding from it, I am afraid.”

Laura Purcell draws on all the gothic tropes -- a haunted country estate with locked rooms and secrets, all the ancestral secrets, resentful villagers, the insane asylum where everyone show more discounts the inmate because of her sex -- and runs with them.

We first meet Elise Bainbridge in the asylum, where she's scarred and apparently mute, accused of murder and arson. If she's proven sane, she'll stand trial for her crimes, but the truth is so strange, it might just convince the doctor she's insane.

From there, we jump back to when Elise first arrived at The Bridge, her husband's crumbling family estate, with his cousin Sarah who previously worked as an elderly woman's companion. The pregnant widow and the spinster are meant to hide themselves from polite society while they mourn. Elise's husband's death while preparing The Bridge for inhabitance was sudden and mysterious. Maybe it was heart failure, but why are there splinters in his face?

On her first night, Elise hears strange hissing noises coming from the locked garret. When she finally gains access, she and Sarah discover realistic wooden cut-outs known as "companions" and the diary from the 1630s, written by of one of Sarah's ancestors, a woman who dabbled in herbal remedies. As the companions increase in number and seemingly move on their own, accidents start to happen.

Deliciously creepy, this one checked all the boxes for me.

Spooktober 2022: Book #2 show less

I'm finding myself more and more drawn to Victorian Gothic fiction these days and The Corset immediately caught my eye because of the title and the cover. I'm pleased to say that the words inside utterly captivated me.

Dorothea and Ruth tell this story in their own chapters, but Ruth is the more dominant character. She's in prison, having been found guilty of murder at just sixteen years of age. She's surprisingly well-educated, many of her contemporaries being unable to read and write as she show more can. Ruth tells the story of her life and her occupation as a seamstress, and also her belief that she can inflict death on others using just her needle and thread.

Dorothea is fascinated by Ruth. She visits various offenders in prison but Ruth becomes her focus. Dorothea has a strong interest in phrenology - the idea that the shape and size of your head can show, and possibly affect, your personality and character. She uses the vulnerable people in prison as subjects to test her theories and to aid her understanding.

I found that I rather liked Ruth and felt so sorry for the way that her life turned out. Listening to the atrocities that she had to suffer in her short life was quite shocking. Dorothea is of a completely different class and has expectations placed upon her, and she has the air of a the privileged about her. I found her quite selfish and self-absorbed at times but I still liked her for her determination to throw off as many of the conventions of the time as she could.

The massive strength of this novel is never knowing if Ruth is guilty of the crimes she is accused of. Dorothea doesn't know and neither does the reader, but I know what I wanted to believe. The two stories are weaved together perfectly and there was even more to it than I could imagine. The ending was inspired, clever and totally unexpected.

The harsh Victorian times, the smells, the atmosphere, the marked contrast between the upper and lower classes are portrayed skilfully and they make for a hard-hitting, quite graphic novel. I don't know the author managed to think up such a darkly fabulous story but she did and it's quite something. This is one talented author.

The Corset is just so intriguing from start to finish as we follow these two women down the paths that life has thrown them down. I found it utterly compelling. show less

‘’This is my destiny,’she declared. ‘Just you watch, Kitty. I’ll set that stage on fire.’’

We know that the world of Theatre is fascinating, mystical, terrifying. We know that actors are mercurial, chaotic, obsessed with their calling. Yes, Jenny knows but she has no choice. Her family needs her and, after all, costumes are HER obsession. Not to mention that her ‘protector’, Mrs Dye, is such a nice woman!

Oh, Jenny, Jenny…What have you got yourself into?

Prepare to have your show more mind, free time, and life taken over by a book. Laura Purcell’s ABSOLUTE MASTERPIECE!

Yes, all capital letters because I CAN!

Where to begin? The setting, the imagery, the plot, the characters? We’re talking pure perfection here. A rainy summer welcomes you once you open this astonishing book and transports you to a vibrant, dirty, lusty London. Follow the lead of two brilliant women and become part of the haunting world of Theatre. Jenny and Lilith, named after the controversial figure of the Hebrew culture. The disobedient, the profane, the one driven by her own principles. Jenny is responsible for her costumes, creating a persona, forming a facade right from the start. Stereotypes are strong here, after all. Actresses are women of ‘loose morals’. Even marrying into the business will have you marred in the eyes of society. Lady Macbeth, Cleopatra, Margaret. Women who defied the rules and became symbols of ‘Evil’. Cautionary tales.

But what salvation is there when you willingly make a pact with the Devil? When all you have left is quoting plays? That’s all your obsession drives you at and Hell is murky…

The writing is glorious, sumptuous, terrifying. From the very start, we are given shocking, dark moments and some are quite hard to stomach. BUT! Laura Purcell turns even the goriest of scenes into sheer, frightening poetry. I adored the way Mythology was inserted in the narrative. The Muses and the Sirens, Mercury, Eurydice, the connections with the Underworld. Mythology is a dark place and Theatre rises up to the challenge. The heart of the book lies in the story of Macbeth, the Cursed Play (which never fails to remind me of the hilarious circumstances taking place in an extraordinarily funny Blackadder episode…)

‘’I must pay my pound of flesh…and there is no Portia to save me.’’

There is guilt, and death, and obsession. We can be Lady Macbeth and Lady Macduff at the same time. We can sacrifice everything for one touch of glory, for a career. You become ‘unwomanly’, ‘unsexed’ and there is a heavy price to pay. Along with the extraordinary plot, Laura Purcell doesn’t refrain from touching difficult themes, from the ‘kept’ and ‘fallen’ woman to abortion. However, your heart will be captivated by the setting with a playhouse, an otherworldly land of darkness, superstitions, and raw emotions. Some believe that Theatre is all about lying and pretending. Far from it. Theatre changes you and lures you into revealing aspects of a self you didn’t know you were hiding inside. Theatre hovers between this tangible world and a land created by poets and Muses and spirit. I loved the reference to the tradition of the Ghost Light, the notion that a light must always remain within an otherwise dark theatre for the spirits of the actors who have passed away. My dad was an actor and can verify that this custom was more than alive even in our time.

A plot, no matter how ingenious it may be, cannot work independently of its characters. And my God, what characters we have here! Lilith is FASCINATING! I loved her, I want an entire novel about her. Jenny was a refreshing character. Obnoxious and a bit irritating at first, she is no naive young girl (the kind we have often met in Gothic Fiction.) She knows what she wants, she sees right and wrong, and tells it like it is. Mrs Dyer starts as a character you wonder about and slowly becomes the utter fiend she is. Oscar is a charming young man without being superficial. The cast is beyond perfect, the dialogue is brilliant!

My review is all over the place but this novel absolutely floored me. I fell in love with it, I am its slave for eternity. Laura Purcell is one of my absolute favourite writers, I would read her shopping list and consider it poetry, I have read every single novel of hers and adored it but The Whispering Muse is a supernatural, otherworldly experience.

As if that wasn’t enough, the Acknowledgments section had me wailing in tears. Laura Purcell, why are you so perfect?

‘’Do you think you could tell the difference between the Muse and the Siren Song? One a divine voice calling you to create and the other a lure, pulling you down to destruction? What if…what if they sound precisely the same?’’

My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com/ show less