Walls of Silence

A very engaging book that looks into the history of mental health and how family secrets can shape peoples lives. I absolutely loved that the book is based in Sussex as this is my home town.
At the start of the book we meet Edith Potter who has lost her father at the hands of an intruder. Before his death Dr potter was diagnosed with dementia and Edith had become his carer. This being a traumatic time come clear when Edith's thought and feeling don't improve after a year, in fact slowly her mind is taking over her actions.
Edith is committed to a lunatic asylum and meets Dr Stephen Maynard who wants to change the way Edith has become, even without her help.
Set in the 1926, it's so clear from the language used like lunatic that mental health support is much more advanced than it was. The other doctors think Dr Stephen is strange when he said he wanted to make a different, they believe every person who comes to the asylum will remain till they die, its to keep them safe from the outside world and the outside world from them.
if you're into the history of psychoanalysis then this is the book for you. A little slow burner that truly opened up into a brilliant read.

I've always had a bit of a fascination when it comes to asylum's so reading the blurb for this book definitely piqued my interest.

The story is set into different parts. We first meet Edith when she is going about her every day life. She is a spinster and lives on her own. As with most small villages, everyone knows everyones business and Edith tries to keep herself to herself. 

Stephen becomes fixated with Edith. He is determined to break and fix her. She isn't like most of his patients and he knows as well as us that there is something dark and disturbing that is buried deep in her mind and I was as desperate as him to know just what that was.

Edith is a hard person to take to. What ever has happened to her she wants to forget about it. She also doesn't want anyone else's help. She has built a wall around her and so I did find it hard to empathise with her at times.

Walls Of Silence is one of those slow burners that with a build up of intrigue, keeps you turning those pages. It certainly held some surprises in store of which I totally did not see coming. The perfect read for lovers of a solid historical mystery.

I found Walls of Silence a long read but at the same time a very interesting and fascinating read! A one of a kind story to which I have not read anything similar, so cannot compare. I did find it took myself a while to get into the story but well worth the read and finishing. Parts of this story I found were dark and disturbing especially the opening, but thats what drags the reader in.

I also love the cover of this book! A historical thriller investigating mental health. I awarded a fair four stars, I would recommend this story to you all but I understand it may not be to all readers tastes as it took me a while to finish myself.

Ruth Wade has also written the May Keaps series under the pen name BK Duncan, which I have recently read and reviewed and the reviews can be found on my blog. A brilliant series. A brilliant author who has put a lot of time and research into all her stories.

Oh My Goodness!

This book packs a powerful punch that smacked me in the gut, there's a real shocker of a twist that I really didn't anticipate until just a chapter or two before it is to be revealed I began to have a nauseous sense that there was something coming that I hadn't been expecting .... then wham!

But I digress, it's hardly surprising that my thoughts are a little muddled having just spent several days locked in the mind of a woman incarcerated in a lunatic asylum.

This woman is Edith Potter, daughter of the renowned Dr Potter leader in the field of examining the psychological impact of shell shock following the first world war.

Spinster Edith lives alone, since her father was murdered by an unknown intruder, no wonder she is jumpy and nervous living in the very house where he was killed.

It's clear from the onset that Ediths mind is a little disturbed, she has secrets and has built a wall to keep them away, but this is to become her undoing and one day she flips completely and ends up an inmate in a cruel and uncaring mental asylum where she is catatonic and unresponsive.

In comes Dr Stephen Maynard, young and ambitious he hears of Edith and her plight and decides she will be the perfect subject for him to test his theories using the new-fangled psychoanalysis to try and help her. But is he about to unleash more than he can cope with? As he starts to break down the walls that surround Edith and she begins to respond we realize that she is harbouring a few terrible secrets which she needs to keep buried at all costs.

There is quite a lot of detail about psychoanalysis as we delve inside the mind of this deeply disturbed yet very intelligent woman and at several points throughout the book I really thought it was me that was going inasne, so deeply does the author make us feel the despair and confusion of a deeply damaged psyche.

The story is rather disjointed but this all adds to the feel of unease, uncertainty and a terrible sense of madness. When I discovered the final secret she is keeping hidden, it both shocked and saddened me. This is a thoroughly great historical look at mental health issues and a twisty psychological thriller combined. It is dark and scary and despite the despair I loved it. Highly recommended.

his book has such a beautifully creepy undertone that keeps you just waiting for the other shoe to drop. This book has everything that creates an incredibly creepy atmosphere: a historical setting in a time when men dressed in suits and locked up women for “hysteria”; manor houses and lunatic asylums; an unreliable narrator; and the shadow of domineering father whom we never meet.

I throughly enjoyed it.

I loved that we never quite know what the think of Edith – is she truly out of her mind? Is she sane but suffering? What is going on?! Then on top of it, she seems to change moods and behaviors just enough to keep you off-balance and curious about what’s going to happen next.

And the climax of the novel is quite a thing. I did not see it coming and it was one of those things that made me sit back and re-examine my view on the entire book. I loved that.

I really think this book is perfect for lovers of slow-burn, psychological thrillers and is a great read for people in the mood for a bit of a fright.

Highly recommended.

Walls of Silence is an entirely unique, compelling and gripping novel that explores mental health, psychiatry and the complexities of trauma. Set in the 1920s it examines Edith Potter, a troubled and at times vindictive and cruel woman who suffers from mental health problems. Brought up by her renowned Doctor father after mother died in a fire when she was a young child, she is living alone after his untimely death at the hands of intruders. She is a curious woman, tormented by the loss of her father and her cold and difficult upbringing she becomes extremely unstable. Madness, extended time in a grim lunatic asylum and her recovery aided by Dr Stephen Maynard are examined in unflinching detail in this powerful book.

I have to admit that I did struggle with this book at the beginning. I found the first part quite difficult to follow but, in hindsight, this was the section where Edith’s mental health deteriorated quite heavily. Ruth Wade’s skill is evident as I was off-kilter for much of this bit, I couldn’t work out what was real and what was imagined and it was only later that I realised that I was reading about a mental breakdown. The confusion I felt was the same as the confusion that Edith was feeling and I was blown away by the complexity of writing something so believable and all-encompassing.

Walls of Silence explores, in great detail, the history of psychiatry and psychology. From lunatic asylums where Electric Shock Therapy is administered and staff treat patients with barely disguised contempt to Dr. Stephen Maynard’s progressive techniques in psychiatric care – this is an unflinching and at times brutal examination of this period of history. Despite it being difficult at times to read, I found it very compelling and engrossing.

Edith is a difficult character to like, at times she is vile, using barbed comments and words to wound those who wish to help but as the book progressed I found myself warming to her. She has had an incredibly difficult life, a trauma from her past has been buried deep in her mind and she is alone in the world. Ruth Wade drip feeds the clues to the reader in a wonderfully subtle way, breaking down our barriers to Edith and allowing us to become sympathetic and connected to this complex and sad woman.

I really enjoyed this book, it was different to anything I have read in a while. It has a ‘mystery’ at its heart, is an incredibly well-written commentary on medicine and psychiatric care (I found these sections so interesting) and is a wonderful and absorbing read.

3.5 stars

This book starts off with that gripping hook that gives you all the disturbing feels, but you can’t stop reading on.

It is post wartime 1927 England, and the surroundings in this novel envelop that time period almost a century ago perfectly. Small town, neighborly feel…you have the market, your grocery store, the butcher, the baker, your local doctor and your church. Small town talk, small town whispers…everyone knows. But do they?

Edith Potter lives alone. Her father, a prominent Doctor in the field of psychology had been murdered and her mother passed away at child birth. Her grandmother aided more or less in her upbringing, but that was far from being a loved child. Now, a spinster of it’s time, in her forties, she isn’t feeling as she thinks she should and has nightmares. Is it grief? Her doctor thinks she is just experiencing some loneliness and gives her suggestions to cope. Edith’s favorite thing to do is tending to her roses. They are her joy and pride. She also is very verse in her father’s field of work and poetry. Amidst these, coping with some things from her past, she falls into a deep and dark depression.

We find Edith later in an asylum for the insane. Among filthy inhumane conditions, she is in a catatonic state and amongst the worst cases to be studied. Dr. Maynard is a budding Doctor with his own theses on the subject and has a chance to try some of his hypnotherapy on Edith, aside from the medications and electroshock therapy that the other doctors are using on the patients. When he recognizes that Edith is the daughter of the renown Dr. Potter, he takes a special interest in her. One that could further his career, but also one of personal liking to the patient. Can he safe her? Are his methods on the brink of a breakthrough or will his own vulnerabilities get in the way?

***

I enjoyed this intricate look into the methods of that time and Edith’s mind. The experience of reading her states go from docile, to angry or sly kept me wondering and guessing. I was sometimes really not sure if she was playing them all? Was she a step ahead? Was she faking anything or was this really her disturbed mind that made her be different from day to day or minute to minute. You want to read it to the end to get your answers, and even then, I am left speechless.

The writing to me was at times a little too long, but so is Edith’s arduous battle. It leaves you exhausted at moments. And although I recommend this book to others, just know you are going into some disturbing territory. If you are up for it, then this is the book for you.

Words can not describe what Edith Potter went through. Once you find out the back story you are left with your jaw hanging open! I was completely shocked when Stephen found her father’s journal and realized what he did to her. I am not going to tell you, but you need to read this book.

You may find that the psychoanalysis lingo to be confusing but the author has made it where even though you do not understand the wording you understand what is being said. Even for me who sees a psychiatrist & a psychologist was a little confused with some of the language. I was never left in the dark though about what Stephen and the other doctors were saying.

Poor Edith could never get over what was done to her without help. I am surprised that she didn’t have a breakdown long before she did. The lunatic asylum was the worst place for her and if she remained there then she would have just gone into a catatonic state and died. Her mind fought to release the secret that it had kept since she was three years old. What her father did was unforgivable and I am not surprised that she had no love for him.

I highly recommend you read this book, but it is brutal and heart wrenching so be forewarned. It will be slow to grab you completely, but even during the slow parts you are curious as to what is going on and what has happened to her. Plus, you will be dying to find out who Edward is to Edith. I promise you will not regret reading this book.

As a huge fan of historical fiction, I was really excited to read this book, because the 1920s are my favorite decade to read about. The premise was so unique and indeed, I have never read a book quite like this before. The character of Edith was very intriguing, and her story, well, it was shocking! I won't say much about the plot, so not to spoil the story, but this is a really memorable, engaging book and I definitely recommend it!