I can honestly say that this is the best book yet I have read from Purcell. The gothic nature of the story feeds perfectly into the setting and atmosphere. So good!

My favorite Purcell title so far. With the strangeness ramped up to 100, this atmospheric book kept me intrigued through the last page. I usually don't go for dual narratives, preferring to stay with one protagonist, but in this case it worked to create the secretive, gothic atmosphere I was looking for. I will recommend this to patrons looking for a spooky, non-horror read along the lines of The Thirteenth Tale.

I’ve been wanting to read a Laura Purcell book for a while.Her books are labeled with my buzz words. Victorian, gothic, creepy and atmospheric. This was an enjoyable read. Not what I was expecting but I will pick up more of her books.

Thank you to the Publisher and Netgalley for the advanced reader copy. All opinions expressed are my own.

Laura Purcell is back at it with another spooky Gothic horror. The House of Whispers (also published as Bone China, which is a better and adequately creepier title, in my opinion) follows a young maid on the run from her messy past as a lady's maid. Going by the name of Hester Why, she responds to a request for a new maid at a rural cliffside Cornish estate full of unsettling inhabitants. One room houses a woman who behaves like a little girl, another is always locked and yet has somehow been entered, and another one is filled to the brim with a an ominous collection of blue-and-white china guarded by a mostly-silent old woman, And below the house are gaping caves which once held convicts inflicted with consumption forty years prior...

This story didn't grab me like Purcell's other novels have. The balance between reality and fantasy was less seamless than I anticipated, and I was left a bit underwhelmed with the role that fairies and the supernatural played in the plot. There was an element of the metaphorical with the themes of sickness, death, autonomy, secrecy, isolation, etc, but I wanted a more fleshed-out motivation for the supposed supernatural elements plaguing both timelines. It was still well-written and super creepy, but the dual timelines felt more like two detached stories than one cohesive one.

[3.5/5: Creepy Georgian horror story with a unique setting and a cast of flawed characters. For readers of magical realism, fantasy, horror, historical fiction, and the Gothic.]

Many thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

An enjoyable, if not exactly exceptional, Gothic mystery. It was diverting enough to pass the vacation hours, which I suppose is all one can ask for.

I really enjoyed reading Laura Purcell’s book, “The Silent Companions,” therefore, I was quite excited to get my hands on a copy of this book.

This is a Victorian gothic tale that is complex and dark. It explores fairy legends and folk tales of Cornwall in a lot of detail and we also learn some historical facts about how consumption (Tuberculosis) was treated in those times.

The book opens with Hester Why on her way to Morvoren House, In Cornwall, where she has acquired the position of a nurse, for Miss Louise Pinecroft.

We learn later that Hester Why is not actually her real name and that she is running away from London, trying to hide, due to something that happened in the past. We also learn that she’s addicted to Alcohol.

Hester soon realizes that the task at hand is not as simple as she thought. Miss Pinecroft, hardly moves or speaks and spends her time sitting in a room surrounded by china cups and plates. Miss Pinecroft’s ward is Rosewyn, a strange young woman. There is also a highly superstitious maid called Creeda who believes in fairy folklore, and keeps insisting that Rosewyn needs to be protected from fairies who are trying to whisk her away and leave a changeling in her place.

A very interesting thing about this book is that it has three different timelines. The first is with Hester at Morvoren House. The second is of an earlier time in Hester’s life, when she was known as Esther Stevens. Here, we learn why, and what exactly she’s running away from. The third is from the youth of Louise Pinecroft, when she came to Morvoren House with her father, after the rest of her family had passed away due to consumption.

With Louise’s help, Dr Pinecroft does experiments and tries to test his theories of treating consumption. He takes a group of prisoners, who are suffering from the illness, and places them in a cave beneath the cliffs, where he says the salty sea air will be good for their health. The details of Dr. Pinecroft’s research are based on real life cases from the Victorian era.

Creeda, who is an unnerving young woman at the time is just as obsessed with fairy legends and folk tales in the past, as she is in the present and tells Louise all sorts of stories about fairies and changelings.

The unsettling ambience of the book keeps you on the edge of your seat, as it’s quite chilling. You’re never too sure of some of the characters’ intentions, and whether the fairy legends and folktales are true after all.

The characters are well drawn out and detailed. The story is full of deep and vivid imagery. It is quite reminiscent of Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca, with the same gothic undertones.

I would recommend this book for people who like reading gothic novels, or historical and supernatural mysteries.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with the ARC of this book, for an honest review.

Laura Purcell is an auto buy author for me. I fell in love with The Silent Companions and after that she secured herself ‘auto buy’ status from me! I love how deliciously gothic and creepy her books are and this one was on my radar months ago!

I love the Gothic troupe of an old crumbling house and a crazy lady in the attic, and this book totally sounded like it would meet all of my expectations. Purcell has a wonderful way of sending chills up readers spines without even trying! To say that I was excited for this one is an understatement!

In the UK this one is also called Bone China and I was kind of sad to see that the US publisher changed the name to The House of Whispers, but in the end I think either title worked well for this book. At any rate, I couldn’t wait to start this one!

Summary
A new gothic Victorian tale from Laura Purcell, set on the atmospheric Cornish coast in a rambling house by the sea in which a maid cares for a mute old woman with a mysterious past, alongside her superstitious staff.

Consumption has ravaged Louise Pinecroft’s family, leaving her and her father alone and heartbroken. But Dr. Pinecroft has plans for a revolutionary experiment: convinced that sea air will prove to be the cure his wife and children needed, he arranges to house a group of prisoners suffering from the disease in the caves beneath his new Cornish home. While he devotes himself to his controversial medical trials, Louise finds herself increasingly discomfited by the strange tales her new maid tells of the fairies that hunt the land, searching for those they can steal away to their realm.

Forty years later, Hester arrives at Morvoren House to take up a position as nurse to the now partially paralyzed and mute Miss Pinecroft. Hester has fled to Cornwall to try to escape her past, but surrounded by superstitious staff enacting bizarre rituals, she soon discovers her new home may be just as dangerous as her last. (summary from Goodreads)

Review
This book literally had me at Victorian Gothic house in Cornwall. It could have been about anything and the setting alone would have caught me eye. Some of the reviews I had read said this wasn’t her best book but I disagree. I mean, The Silent Companions is still my favorite but I thought this book was equally as interesting and compelling. It was moody with all the atmosphere I have come to expect with her writing. I was hooked immediately and couldn’t put it down. I also downloaded the Audible performance to listen to while I was running errands (that’s how much I loved this one) and the audio performance was fan-f-ing-tastic.

So one thing that I did notice with this one was that there were a few plots going on but I thought that made it all the more unsettling and creepy. I wasn’t sure how things were going to connect and the dark plots converging together heightened the sense of growing unease in the book. Because of that growing unease from the different plots, as a reader it really made me uncomfortable, but in a good way—in the way that well done Gothic fiction is meant to and it worked for me in this book.

This book was complex, disturbing and dark. I loved how the Cornish folklore played into the overall narrative as well. The setting was perfect and I read it at the coast too so that really added to my enjoyment. As with every Purcell book that I’ve read, this book is well written, well researched with so much amazing Gothic goodness and not to mention, Purcell is a very talented writer. I have loved all of her books thus far and am eager to see what she comes out with next. If you love Gothic fiction and want something creepy to keep you reading into the night, this is the book for you dark hearts!

Book Info and Rating
Paperback, 336 pages
Published June 9th 2020 by Penguin Books (first published September 19th 2019)
Original Title
Bone China
ISBN 0143135538 (ISBN13: 9780143135531)
Free review copy provided by publisher, Penguin Books, in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own and in no way influenced.
Rating: 5 stars
Genre: historical fiction, gothic fiction

***Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review***

Though not necessarily for me, I'm sure my library will purchase this and I will recommend to people who enjoy this genre.

The only other book I’ve read from Purcell was the Silent Companion and it made me a long time fan. This book was no accept ion and the words were lush and filled with everything that kept me up at night and made me spread read through this book.

Purcell's books always have quite a following in our collection, so we will most likely purchase this despite the fact that it wasn't my favorite. Not a big fan of this time period.

"My love is a grasping thing. A vine I cannot extricate myself from, pulling me down, down. It is dragging me all the way to Cornwall". "Anger has ever been a failing of mine. When it surges, it sings in my veins like a dram of gin. Any action seems possible, reasonable. It is only afterwards, when the fire fades, that I see the dark soot-stain of what I have done".

Esther Stevens had been forced to flee to Cornwall, "a place teetering on the edge of the map...". "Everything I treasure can be contained within my battered trunk". Thank goodness my porcelain is not broken! " Esther appeared respectably dressed in Lady Rose's discarded clothes when she took the mail coach to Exeter where she was then picked up by pony cart and driven to Cornwall. Gin filled her hip flask...memories must be blurred and suppressed.

19th Century Cornwall. "Morvoren House stands sentinel on the crest of the cliff...". "Heavy tasseled curtains conceal the view from the window, but they cannot muffle the sound of the sea". Hester Why, the assumed name of Esther Stevens, had imagined "a blue serene ocean, not a dark, frightening 'cauldron of demons'." She was hired as maid and nurse for the 60 year old mistress of the house, Miss Louise Pinecroft, "a frail figure of a woman...palsy had marked her with a lopsided look". Miss Pinecroft sat in a wing back chair, no carpet or fire to warm the frigid room, speechlessly staring at her china collection. She warned Hester to keep the china nice. Miss Pinecroft uttered, "...must...keep watch...Bad things...happen...when I sleep." Off balance and hazy from her addiction to gin and laudanum, Hester must navigate the eerie house where candles flicker out, floorboards creak, and low bewitching humming resonates. Why does Miss Pinecroft have to be locked in her bedchamber at night? Why does her ward, Rosewyn wear her garments inside out and carry a doll at all times?

"The House of Whispers" by Laura Purcell is an atmospheric, historical Gothic novel incorporating Cornish folklore as well as exploring the underground caves thought to possess healing powers though fresh air, sea bathing and exercise. The lives and secrets of two women, Hester Why (Esther Stevens) and Miss Louise Pinecroft unfold. Author Purcell maintains the spook factor throughout this novel of 19th Century superstition, fairy hauntings and "strange things on the moors". Highly recommended.

Thank you Penguin Books and Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Spooky and Eerie!

While I wish I had read this book in October, I'm always up for a bone-chilling read. While I don't normally read "gothic novels", I was swept away by this one. Set amid the Cornish sea, a maid notices some weird goings on in the sprawling mansion. The staff are acting funny and the woman she cares for is definitely holding something back. What is really happening? What past could this woman have had? And why is everyone acting so weird?

I love a book where there is so many questions and hidden secrets. I like playing detective although I can safely say that I wasn't able to detect anything that was going on. Very unpredictable and highly recommended!

Hester has arrived at Morovoren House to act as nursemaid to paralyzed and mute Miss Louise Pinecroft. Years ago, Louise’s father, a doctor, believed he could cure his wife and children of consumption with sea air. At the same time, the good doctor is keeping a group of consumptive prisoners in the caves beneath his home, where he experiments on the them in search of a cure. Now forty years later, Hester, a woman with some very dark and unpleasant truths herself is confronted with a house full of rumor, gossip, ghost stories…. and more. Reading Laura Purcell is like curling up with a book by one of the Bronte sisters.