I was immediately drawn into a hauntingly beautiful narrative that explores themes of memory and identity. Collins' lyrical writing style creates a vivid atmosphere, immersing readers in a world where silence speaks volumes. The characters are well-crafted and evoke a deep sense of empathy, making their struggles and triumphs resonate.
However, there were moments when the pacing felt uneven, with certain sections dragging on while others rushed through crucial developments. I found the underlying premise intriguing but somewhat convoluted, which occasionally pulled me out of the story.
Despite these minor setbacks, the emotional depth and rich imagery kept me engaged, making it a rewarding read that lingers in the mind long after the final page.

set in 19th century England,a magical fabric will take away the pain of a mundain life. Though, nothing is quite so simple. with the power of this magical fabric worn over the head, comes great consequnces. This was such a wonder unique read. I loved it!

While I was immediately drawn in by the Gothic elements, this did not deliver a truly captivating or unique reading experience. I did enjoy Henry’s character, although he gets drawn into the world of a charming businessman and quickly loses himself. The reveals at the end made me angry and sympathetic.

I just couldn’t get it out of my head that this was similar in a lot of ways to The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton. Once I made that connection I couldn’t help but measure it against that story, and this one came up lacking.

My favorite part by far were the journal entries from the wife of the man who originally brought these special silk spiders back to England. Her story was touching and did feel magical.

I'm giving this 3 stars just because I liked the writing style and unique premise, but the rest didn't work for me.
I didn't like or connect with any of the characters. They had no depth at all. I think my favorite parts were the diary entries. They explained how the stuff going on in the other time-line came to be and that was interesting.
If you're looking for a creepy book with Gothic vibes, give this a go. It just wasn't for me.

3.5 stars
I enjoyed this unique historical fiction story. I knew about silk worms but didn’t know about silk spiders! I found the topic very interesting. That said, I didn’t always like the back and forth POVs. The silk tied the stories but it took a while for everything to come together for me.

I loved the Binding and the Betrayals by Bridget Collins and I was so very excited for The Silence Factory, however I do feel a little let down.
I enjoyed the gothic and historical feel to the story and the two timelines were both equally as interesting to me, but the character relationships lacked the build up to make them believable. Which in my opinion took away from the characters themselves. So I was only really left with characters to dislike or be indifferent towards. Just when I thought Henry’s character was going to make better choices he continues to long for the bad ones even knowing that they’re wrong/harmful.
Then the open ended mess that I have found that I enjoy in her books also seemed too open in this story so that the reader feels like there is no closure as everything is up in the air with possibilities.

I don't always reach for historical fiction but the cover of this book really intrigued me and the story lived up to that. This historical mystery which follows two timelines kept me engaged throughout and I enjoyed seeing the story unfold.

A few years ago, I read Bridget Collins’ The Binding and, while I found the beginning a bit difficult to get into, by the time the first big twist hit, I was hooked. Though her other novel, The Betrayals has been sitting in my TBR pile for a few months, when a chance to read her newest novel The Silence Factory arose, I leapt at the chance (and put The Betrayals on the back burner for a little longer). In The Silence Factory, Collins explores themes of grief as well as a variety of abusive and exploitative relationships and dynamics in society from colonialism to sexism to treatment of the working poor. Sympathetic characters help to demonstrate how easily some of those lines can blur when someone we admire or love proves to be selfish and manipulative. The understanding of human psychology that Collins wields through her characters is thoroughly engaging throughout, weaving a mesmerizing tale that doesn’t necessarily give the reader (or her characters) what they think they want but provides a resolution that might actually be more satisfying.

It’s been a few months since Henry Latimer’s beloved wife, Madeleine died in childbirth and he continues to muddle through work as an aurist in his father-in-law’s shop in London, fashioning hearing-assistance devices. When Sir Edward Ashmore-Percy appears in the shop for a meeting, the two seem to share a certain melancholy and Sir Edward leaves Henry with a sample of incredible silk woven in his factory in Telverton – woven from special spiders, one side absorbs sound entirely while the other seems to emit eerie echoes, distortions of the noise around it. Mesmerized, when the opportunity arises to travel to Telverton to see if anything can be done for Sir Edward’s deaf daughter, Henry jumps at the chance to learn more. While stumbling through the impossible task, Henry inadvertently impresses Sir Edward on a different front and is hired to help him market the incredibly expensive silk. Though Henry’s imagination runs wild with possible applications for the product, the more time he spends in Telverton, the deeper he falls under Sir Edward’s spell, even as he learns about the drawbacks and horrifying potential of the silk and those who might to wield it.

Interwoven through Henry’s story are excerpts from the diary of Sir Edward’s aunt who was instrumental in finding the spiders whose webs are used to create the silk in his present. Her diary is used to show one of the many manipulative relationships in the novel as well as the racist colonialism of the era. One thing Collins does brilliantly in her novels is to weave her fantasy elements into the fabric of recognizable periods of history – in this case, the industrialism and colonialism of the 19th Century. The spiders and their silk are used to highlight the power imbalances of that period. Those who can afford to buy the silk would reap the benefits of the silence it provides on their side of the fabric while the other side of the silk echoes, distorts, torments those exposed to it – in effect, the rich and powerful are even more deaf to the miseries suffered by those on the wrong side of it while simultaneously making their problems worse.

The way that Collins manages to capture sensory experiences on the page is incredible. The impact of her fantastical spiders and their webs impact more than just the sense of hearing as their webs distort and play tricks visually too, gaslighting those who encounter them in a way that parallels the gaslighting and manipulation of the more abusive characters in the tale. In many ways, it makes those on the receiving end even more susceptible to the manipulation because they know better than to trust what their senses tell them.

Having finished The Silence Factory, I’m even more eager to finally pick up The Betrayals… but once I’ve read that novel, I’ll be stuck waiting for the announcement and publishing of Collins’ next new work so I’ll probably try to hold out a little longer first (although, I can always re-read The Binding to help get me through the wait for another new novel).

God, what a cover.
I was going to say that I didn't totally dislike this book, but that would be a lie because I did--I did completely dislike this book. The writing was very purple, very flowery and verbose, and I just couldn't sink my teeth into it. I tend to stay away from books with flowery writing for a reason. I was also just sort of confused the whole time? I felt like my copy had started right in the middle because while I love being thrown into the story, I don't like being thrown in like that. The book, because of the writing and the pacing, was just a true slog to get through. I really skimmed past the like 55% mark, I'm not going to lie. This just really, really wasn't for me. I didn't even hear about the author being a TERF until after I had already attempted to slog through this, so while my feelings of this book don't reflect that awful revelation, I still didn't like this book. I can see where people who are super into history, or people who really like that flowery writing style, will enjoy this. It just really was not my cup of tea. At least the cover will look pretty on displays in my library.

I received this ARC on the books release date. I’ll read the finalized copy as opposed to the ARC for this reason.

Happy pub day to this eerie, gothic historical fiction!

This is my first but definitely not last read from Bridget Collins.

This is told through two perspectives and two generations: the "founders" of the silk factory -- James and Sophia -- who found the famous spiders on a Greek island and stole them for financial gain. James has grand visions of using their powerful silk to create an empire of fames and riches, despite his wife's attachment to the women of the island and her gut feeling that taking the spiders from their natural habitat is wrong.

Decades later, their nephew Sir Edward is squandering their legacy. The factory is in severe debt and troubling stories about worker injuries continue to surface. Young audiologist Henry is invited to the family estate to try and help his young daughter, Philomel, regain her hearing but is instead instantly seduced by the call of a higher purpose and the potential to have a real role in this company. Having recently lost his wife and daughter, he is naturally drawn to the idea of a fresh start. He pointedly ignores warnings that things are not right here to spin beautiful stories about the potential usages for the silk. But Sir Edward is mercurial and fickle with his affections, always leaving Henry afraid of being dismissed.

Well written and creepy! I only wish we had gotten more of Sophia's POV because her voice resonated more with me and felt like her storyline was left unresolved. But such is always the way with women's
accounts in history!

I’d like to thank my mother for having passed down curiosity as a genetic trait because the amount of books I finished only because I was curious about their ending… immeasurable.

Unfortunately, this one was not one to hold your breath for.
This doesn't mean it was bad, don't get me wrong, but the premises are simply too good for a story that, in reality, is not that astonishing.

Two greedy, evil men kidnap sacred spiders for their interests, but end up broke and with their reputation ruined because karma is a bitch.
There's no curse, no ghosts, not a enough good reason to overlook child labour nor sexism, and the shocking truths are not that shocking when you remember who these characters are - again, they are all bad and I'm so glad two out of three died.

Thanks to William Morrow and NetGalley, who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest opinion.

The Silence Factory by Bridget Collins is a spellbinding story of gothic suspense about a powerful family, the magical and dangerous silk their fortune is built upon, and the exploitative history they are desperately trying to hide.
What an incredible concept and a compulsively readable story-line!
A well written, compelling tale that takes the reader on a journey that is filled with danger, magic, characters that are vivid and a wonderfully authentic adventure.

Thank You NetGalley and William Morrow for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

When my request for Bridget Collins’ new novel The Silence Factory was approved I was positively thrilled. I had never read any of her previous novels, but the synopsis the book sounded fantastic - a gothic thriller/horror told in two timelines featuring magical spiders.

The first is told through the diary entries of Sophia Ashmore-Percy who is on a journey with her husband as he frantically searches for a rare, mysterious species of spider on a secluded Greek island in the 1820s.

The other is set a number of decades later and told from the viewpoint of aurist Henry Latimer as he attempts to help Sir Edward Ashmore-Percy's (Sophia's great nephew) hearing-impaired daughter. Along the way he gets swept up into Edward's burgeoning silk business, the supernatural qualities it possesses, and obsessed with Edward himself.

It sounds great, right? I couldn't wait to start reading.

Until I did. My first thought upon seeing pages and pages filled with flowery, wordy, overly verbose writing, was oh hell no. You know the kind I mean - like the author wanted the book to sound as if it was written in a different era.

On top of that, the beginning was utterly confusing. The prologue reads more like an action scene in the middle of a book - you're just dropped right in.

The rest of the book (or what I read of it, yes I happily DNFed this one at 45%) was slow...slow...slow. It was a slog to read. It felt like I was being punished every time I read it.

Reviews for this book seem to be all over the place. Some love it, others hate it. And I know there is a lot of talk gong on about the author being a TERF (Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist) and some have given low ratings based solely on this.

While unfortunate, the author's beliefs didn't influence my opinion of this book.

Overall, fantastic idea, great theme (the price we're willing to pay for things), weak, weak excution.

Still, it should appeal to gothic and historical fiction fans, but it did not live up to its promise for me.

Thank you to William Morrow, Bridget Collins, and Netgalley for an advance digital copy. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own and given voluntarily.

One and ½ Stars rounded up to Two Stars

For Readers of:
Gothic Fiction and Historical Fiction

Ahoy there me mateys!  The spiders, magical silk, and historical setting made me excited to read this novel.  Unfortunately, the annoying characters, bizarre plot, and real lack of use of both the magical spiders and silk led this book to walk the plank!  The premise was very interesting but the author failed to use the existing elements satisfactorily.  I also expected a fantasy book and this barely fit the bill.

The book has two timelines.  The first is set in 1820 where a scientist and his wife are on a remote Greek island to look for rare spiders.  The second takes place several decades later.  A silk is made from the rare spiders and it has unusual properties.  An audiologist is introduced to the silk and gets involved with the factory owner to make the silk world renown.

The majority of the plot focuses on the second timeline.  Henry, the audiologist, is the the main point of view.  He was extremely frustrating.  A lot of his plot involved queer longing for his employer which got tedious.  He is incredibly self-absorbed and willfully ignorant.  He makes excuses for the factory owner's evilness over and over again.  The other viewpoint deals with the scientist's wife in the form of her diary.  She is a more sympathetic character but also excuses her abuser husband repeatedly.  There are annoying viewpoints on how the husband is always right, non-white people are superior, and self-absorption in her obsession for a child.  There is also an uncomfortable lesbian relationship due to its build up and resolution.

Besides the awful characters, there are too many unnecessary or odd plot elements.  ***Here be slight spoilers.***  Henry's audiologist background is used to get him to the factory town and never really touched on again.  The factory owner's deaf daughter and governess appear periodically but to no real purpose.  The town is also filled with deaf factory workers as a plot device for attempted murder.  There is a factory manager with a secret laboratory that is used as a side plot towards the end of the book with the real use of the silk i.e. total mind control and/or torture.  But how the mind control worked was nonsensical.  There is a flood subplot to remove the evil factory.  There is a dead character who turns up magically alive at the end. Ugh.

Then comes the spiders.  The silk mind control subplot was awful enough.  However the silk was supposed to cause psychosis or deafness or pain when facing one side and complete silence when facing the other.  It may also cause birth defects.  But the author failed to explore the uses of the silk on any practical level.  Basically the main use was curtains.  The bad effects never seemed consistent and seemed used only to shock the reader i.e. torture. Some people get headaches and can take a medicinal pill.  Some lose their minds.  The majority go deaf.  Henry never seems overly concerned with these elements of the silk.  Why was he so mesmerized by the silk other than as a plot device?  Also if the spiders were gods on the Greek island with seemingly magical properties, why did that disappear in England with them just regular spiders?  These spiders and their silk had such possibility and sat in the background.

Ultimately, I do not recommend this book for anyone.  The major ideas that could be explored i.e. capitalism, classism, industrial conditions, treatment of children, white-savior complex, use of sign language etc. are not discussed or used in any compelling or engaging way.  This walks the plank and good riddance.  Arrr!

Thank you to Bridget Collins and William Morrow via NetGalley for the eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I was excited to read this book as I’d thoroughly enjoyed Collins’ previous two adult novels. However, I found this one very had to get into and less compelling than her previous works. My main issue was how horrible everyone is! There are only a few characters who aren’t awful, but their storylines are still depressing to follow. I found the plot interesting. The idea of spiders that produce silk that provides absolute silence is compelling, but ended up being a struggle to actually read through.

There were some parts I did enjoy. Mainly I like the secondary timeline that followed a woman, Sophia, in Greece with her husband who was searching for the spiders. I loved those parts, but they were still extremely depressing!

I would recommend this book to people who are looking for some Dickensian bleakness mixed with magical realism.

Thank you Netgalley & William Morrow for an eARC ♥️


I haven't read Bridget Collins' previous books (yes, I know, I'm late to the party!), but this book has definitely made me a fan.😍

I have to admit, the cover of this book immediately caught my eye - it's stunning! 🔥The design, the colors, the eerie vibe... it all came together to create a visual masterpiece that drew me in like a moth to a flame. I was hooked from the very start, and I just knew I had to read it. And boy, am I glad I did!

The story is expertly woven, jumping between Sophia's journey in 1820s Greece and Henry's obsession with the Ashmore-Percy family's magical silk. It's like getting two stories in one, each with its own unique voice and atmosphere. I loved how Collins seamlessly blended historical fiction, mystery, and magical realism to create a narrative that's both captivating and unsettling.

The writing is gorgeous, with a lyrical quality that immerses you in the world of the story. Collins has a way of making you feel like you're right there with the characters, experiencing their joys and fears, their triumphs and failures. The atmosphere is creepy and immersive, perfect for a gothic suspense novel that'll keep you up late at night, turning pages with a mix of fascination and trepidation.

My only gripe is that some of the supporting characters felt a bit one-dimensional at times. But honestly, that's a minor quibble in an otherwise fantastic book. The main characters are well-developed and complex, with motivations that drive the plot forward in unexpected ways.👍🏽

Unsettling. I didn't like that it wasn't predictable and frankly going into it was anxiety producing. But I have to say, to provoke that kind of feeling, it is indubitably well-written. Very long. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a digital arc. This is my own words and thoughts.

3/5 Stars

TL;DR - Evocative, atmospheric prose and a tale of the ills of capitalism, of grief and queer longing — this should have been exactly my thing, but the story is ultimately dragged down by a slow pace and two vastly different POVs that aren’t cohesive. It’s also barely magical realism, definitely not the fantasy it was billed under on NetGalley.

Big thanks to HarperCollins, William Morrow, and NetGalley for providing the ARC for this book in exchange for an honest review!

***Trigger Warnings for: spiders, ableism, mentioned death of a spouse, mentioned death of an infant, mentioned death during childbirth, racism, sexism and misogyny, mentioned death of a sibling, ON-PAGE MISCARRIAGE, mentioned animal abuse, blood, mentioned death from cancer (uterine or ovarian), mentioned forced institutionalization, mentioned domestic abuse, human experimentation, mind control, on-page hanging in first person POV, being caught in a flash flood, and drowning.***

‘The Silence Factory’ by Bridget Collins is a historical fiction novel set at two different points of the 19th century, one on a remote Greek island, and the other in England. We follow two points of view, one from Henry Latimer, a grieving, widowed aurist looking for a new start in life, and one several decades in the past from Sophia Ashmore, a young wife accompanying her husband to the Mediterranean in his search for an elusive and semi-mythical spider. We watch their tandem stories play out, and see how both their lives are affected by the siren call of the spider’s silk, for better and for worse.

I don’t have much to say about this book, other than the fact that, while the prose is beautiful and the premise is fascinating, it ultimately was a disappointment in its execution.

As I said, the book is well-written from a craft standpoint. The prose is very Victorian in style, which I enjoy, but it is a tad on the wordy side, even for me. I think the author does a good job of creating a sense of place and time, and of writing in a way that’s very immersive.

That said, this book suffered from a very slow plot, and, as I said in the TL;DR, two conflicting POVs that were connected only through the common thread (badum tss) of the spiders. I vastly preferred Sophia’s POV, and I really wish that this book had been solely about her and her life on the island. That’s not to say that Henry’s POV wasn’t good, it was just a lot less interesting. I really think having two opposing POVs hurt this book more than it enhanced it, because ultimately, there was too little time to fully explore all the possibilities of Sophia’s story *and* cover all the ground that Henry’s required. I almost think this could have been better if it was split into two separate books, one for each POV, but for how it all came together as-is, it left a lot to be desired for me.

I’m also decidedly not the target audience for “sad man slowly goes insane”, nor for “sad man allows injustice repeatedly and is only peripherally involved with the rightful downfall of the villain”. Henry, while he was written in a way that made me feel for him and his suffering, was not a fun character to follow around. It was bad decision after bad decision, and while that’s a perfectly acceptable story to tell, it’s not the kind I enjoy reading. I was much more invested in Sophia as a narrator and character, but we get so little time with her that I was left wanting so much more than I got.

And my last gripe is that I requested the ARC of this book under the pretense that the mythical spiders and their magic silk would play a much larger role in the story than they actually do. The blurb makes it sound like this is true magical realism (enough so to be shelved under “Sci-Fi & Fantasy” on NetGalley) but in reality, the “magical” aspects take a regrettable backseat to a tale of greed and human suffering — which is all well and good, but I was here for fantasy and I didn’t get it. The true nature of the spiders and their divine connections are never explained, and as a diehard Greek mythology girlie, I was extremely disappointed in what felt like a squandered opportunity for some really cool re-imaginings of Greek myth. This book is 99% historical fiction, which, if that’s what you come into it expecting, I think you’ll like this book — but if you, like me, are going into it for magic and mysticism, you’ll leave empty-handed.

I *do* appreciate that both POVs were from queer characters, I’m always down for that. However, I regret to inform you that neither relationship really pans out, and one does technically end with a variation of the “Bury Your Gays” trope. Sigh.

Final Thoughts:

A perfectly passable historical fiction novel, but a disappointment for the kind of reader I am, and for what I was expecting given the blurb. Will not be purchasing a physical copy.

Huge thanks to William Morrow and NetGalley for an advance e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest and unbiased review!

Oh boy. They really had me in the first half. This is such an intriguing concept and there were some tense and eerie scenes of Henry’s first encounters with the silk made from some mysterious spiders (arachnophobes need not apply to this story, btw) but by the book’s end I found no one to be redeemable and some really problematic messages about abusive people and relationships.

This is mainly Henry’s story, with some interstitials between chapters from a woman named Sophia telling the tale about how the spiders came to be here. Both of these people find themselves in abusive relationships and I HATED seeing Henry constantly covering for and supporting his abuser. At first I was very uncomfortable with myself that my main critique was victim-blaming the main character for defending their abuser (because of course they would! They don’t see the abuser for the absolute garbage heap of a person they actually are!) But as Henry’s present day actions continue to reveal increasingly flawed morals and his true past comes to light I came to realize: this man does not deserve my pity.

I’ll hide these flaws in spoiler tags, as they’re in the book’s second half/conclusion:

<<<SPOILERS>>>
- A flood *conveniently* destroys the factory in the book’s final chapters and Henry battles a confessed psychopath who confesses to killing several women and enjoying it, as well as relishing his human experimentations. Henry feels regretful that he cannot save this man in the flood and spares barely a thought for a woman who is TIED UP IN A ROOM FULL OF PSYCHOTROPIC SPIDERS WHO ALSO DROWNS (and whom he failed to listen to/help earlier because she opposed his abuser)
- It is revealed in the last few pages that Henry’s daughter - whom we’ve been led to believe throughout the story died while being born, in turn killing her mother - is not dead, but in fact simply abandoned by Henry to cousins because he couldn’t handle the grief.
- In the final pages, Henry gazes longingly up at the failed factory, wishing he could see Sir Edward again and REMAIN FRIENDS with someone who has:
- Allowed his wife to be locked into a room with psychotropic spiders while heavily pregnant
- Mentally and physically abused him
- Willfully permitted and actively engaged in human experimentation
- Employed children in his factories and ignored the mental and physical abuse the endured
- (This isn’t about Henry’s morality but it also rubbed me the wrong way, so I’m including it in spoilers alongside the others) In the excerpts from Sophia’s diary, it’s revealed that she is also trapped in an abusive relationship. We come to find out that she died horrifically without getting out of said relationship. She also shares a moment with a woman but the story tarnishes this too when a psychopath uses the diaries to develop a device that robs a person of their autonomy, suggesting that Sophia didn’t willingly have said encounter.