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The House of Whispers
A gothic tale set 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--from the author of The Silent Companions.
A perfect spooky read!
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.
A perfect spooky read!
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.
330 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 19, 2019
333 people are currently reading
11257 people want to read
About the author
Laura Purcell
17 books3,267 followersLaura Purcell is a former bookseller and lives in Colchester with her husband and pet guinea pigs.
Her first novel for Raven Books THE SILENT COMPANIONS won the WHSmith Thumping Good Read Award 2018 and featured in both the Zoe Ball and Radio 2 Book Clubs. Other Gothic novels include THE CORSET (THE POISON THREAD in USA), BONE CHINA and THE SHAPE OF DARKNESS (2020)
Laura’s historical fiction about the Hanoverian monarchs, QUEEN OF BEDLAM and MISTRESS OF THE COURT, was published by Myrmidon.
Her first novel for Raven Books THE SILENT COMPANIONS won the WHSmith Thumping Good Read Award 2018 and featured in both the Zoe Ball and Radio 2 Book Clubs. Other Gothic novels include THE CORSET (THE POISON THREAD in USA), BONE CHINA and THE SHAPE OF DARKNESS (2020)
Laura’s historical fiction about the Hanoverian monarchs, QUEEN OF BEDLAM and MISTRESS OF THE COURT, was published by Myrmidon.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,068 reviews
September 10, 2019
Laura Purcell writes another of her well written and atmospheric trademark gothic historical novels set in a isolated house, Morvoren House, on the Cornish coastline that goes back and forth in time. Hester Why is running away from her post as a lady's maid in London, a situation of which we learn much more later. She has changed her name as she arrives in Cornwall at Morvoren House to help nurse the partially paralysed, almost mute Miss Louise Pinecroft. However, Hester just might well have climbed out of the frying pan into the fire. Miss Pinecroft just stares around her, clearly disturbed in her mind in a cold room, her gaze often drawn to the fine china collection surrounding her, it is clear something is not right. The servants around around are a odd lot with their superstitions and folklore about fairies, and strange rituals aimed at fending off the fairies practiced around Miss Pinecroft.
Forty years ago, Louise and her father, Dr Pinecroft, lost their entire family to consumption, leaving them the only survivors, weighed down by an unbearable grief. Dr Pinecroft becomes convinced that sea air is the key to a cure for the ravages of the disease. To prove his controversial ideas, he undertakes an experiment, acquiring some prisoners with the disease, with his daughter, Louise helping him to manage. He brings them to the house, has them taken down into the caves, looked after by carers. What happens there has consequences that echo down the years, and form the basis of local legends and myths. Hester is a woman with the love of gin and opium, it is rather difficult to discern just how far we can trust her through the blurring haze of unreliable experiences. The author excels in creating the psychological conditions where ambiguity runs throughout the narrative, is it the supernatural at work or is it madness?
Purcell has created her very own brand of dark, disturbing, downright chilling and unsettling reading fare that immerse the reader in undertones of horror and creepiness. There are beautiful and well written rich descriptions, particularly of the wildness of the location that serves as an ideal background to the atmospheric tale that unfolds. This is complex storytelling with its complicated characterisations, with its house of secrets, magic, spells, fear and madness. I very much enjoyed reading this despite the occasional unevenness in the narrative, although I must admit that The Silent Companions remains my favourite from the author. Many thanks to Bloomsbury for an ARC.
Forty years ago, Louise and her father, Dr Pinecroft, lost their entire family to consumption, leaving them the only survivors, weighed down by an unbearable grief. Dr Pinecroft becomes convinced that sea air is the key to a cure for the ravages of the disease. To prove his controversial ideas, he undertakes an experiment, acquiring some prisoners with the disease, with his daughter, Louise helping him to manage. He brings them to the house, has them taken down into the caves, looked after by carers. What happens there has consequences that echo down the years, and form the basis of local legends and myths. Hester is a woman with the love of gin and opium, it is rather difficult to discern just how far we can trust her through the blurring haze of unreliable experiences. The author excels in creating the psychological conditions where ambiguity runs throughout the narrative, is it the supernatural at work or is it madness?
Purcell has created her very own brand of dark, disturbing, downright chilling and unsettling reading fare that immerse the reader in undertones of horror and creepiness. There are beautiful and well written rich descriptions, particularly of the wildness of the location that serves as an ideal background to the atmospheric tale that unfolds. This is complex storytelling with its complicated characterisations, with its house of secrets, magic, spells, fear and madness. I very much enjoyed reading this despite the occasional unevenness in the narrative, although I must admit that The Silent Companions remains my favourite from the author. Many thanks to Bloomsbury for an ARC.
April 23, 2020
Laura Purcell has a knack for writing Victorian Gothic Tales but this one didn't quite hit the spot for me.
This book is told in two alternating story-lines. One where Louise Pinecroft's family has died from consumption. Leaving her and her Physician father alone and grieving. In his grief Dr. Pinecraft believes that he knows a cure - he is going to conduct an experiment using prisoners who have consumption and show how the sea air can cure them. He is housing the prisoners in the caves underneath their new home. While he treats his patients, his daughter is becoming more uneasy as her maid talks of fairies and how they hunt the land.
Hester arrives at Morvoren House forty years later to work as a nurse for the ailing and partially paralyzed Miss Pinecraft. She comes with some baggage, so to speak. She is fleeing from a previous job and finds her new living situation strange but not as strange as the customs and bizarre behavior of others who live there. Something isn't quite right here, but what?
I will agree that this book is atmospheric and Gothic but for me it missed the mark on bringing on the full "creepy" factor and the ending left me with more questions than answers. The two story-lines do come together but with a fizzle and not with the bang I was hoping for. For me this book felt a little disjointed and I would have liked the past and present story-lines to line up a little better than they did.
I enjoyed the past story line more than the present. I found the characters in the past story line were more interesting and more fleshed out. I felt that there was something missing with Hester's character. I wanted to know a little bit more about her and her past before she was employed by her previous employer. We do get some info but I really felt as if her character was a little flat.
I had high hopes for this book as I have enjoyed her other books The Silent Companions and The Corset. Perhaps I was holding this book up to a very high standard, but I feel it wasn't quite as good as the other books I have read by her. I'll still be on the lookout for future books by this Author.
**This book is also Titled Bone China
Thank you to Penguin Publishing Group and Edelweiss who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.
This book is told in two alternating story-lines. One where Louise Pinecroft's family has died from consumption. Leaving her and her Physician father alone and grieving. In his grief Dr. Pinecraft believes that he knows a cure - he is going to conduct an experiment using prisoners who have consumption and show how the sea air can cure them. He is housing the prisoners in the caves underneath their new home. While he treats his patients, his daughter is becoming more uneasy as her maid talks of fairies and how they hunt the land.
Hester arrives at Morvoren House forty years later to work as a nurse for the ailing and partially paralyzed Miss Pinecraft. She comes with some baggage, so to speak. She is fleeing from a previous job and finds her new living situation strange but not as strange as the customs and bizarre behavior of others who live there. Something isn't quite right here, but what?
I will agree that this book is atmospheric and Gothic but for me it missed the mark on bringing on the full "creepy" factor and the ending left me with more questions than answers. The two story-lines do come together but with a fizzle and not with the bang I was hoping for. For me this book felt a little disjointed and I would have liked the past and present story-lines to line up a little better than they did.
I enjoyed the past story line more than the present. I found the characters in the past story line were more interesting and more fleshed out. I felt that there was something missing with Hester's character. I wanted to know a little bit more about her and her past before she was employed by her previous employer. We do get some info but I really felt as if her character was a little flat.
I had high hopes for this book as I have enjoyed her other books The Silent Companions and The Corset. Perhaps I was holding this book up to a very high standard, but I feel it wasn't quite as good as the other books I have read by her. I'll still be on the lookout for future books by this Author.
**This book is also Titled Bone China
Thank you to Penguin Publishing Group and Edelweiss who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.
August 1, 2020
Laura Purcell's third novel turned out be my first one, having enjoyed it, I ordered the two remaining books.
Two main characters, Hester Why and Louise Pinecroft, are brought together when Hester arrives at Morvoren House from London to be a companion to a mysterious Miss Pinecroft. Then, we are offered two stories, the first one that of Hester and later of Louise. The novel is full of secrets, remorse, death, unfulfilled love and failed medical experiments, of which we learn as the narration progresses.
The setting by the Cornish coast and atmosphere of understatements and reticence provide a superb background for the stories and the Gothic feel I was looking forward to receiving. No disappointment there!
Two main characters, Hester Why and Louise Pinecroft, are brought together when Hester arrives at Morvoren House from London to be a companion to a mysterious Miss Pinecroft. Then, we are offered two stories, the first one that of Hester and later of Louise. The novel is full of secrets, remorse, death, unfulfilled love and failed medical experiments, of which we learn as the narration progresses.
The setting by the Cornish coast and atmosphere of understatements and reticence provide a superb background for the stories and the Gothic feel I was looking forward to receiving. No disappointment there!
April 22, 2020
"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.
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.
June 3, 2020
Having loved The Silent Companions and The Corset by Laura Purcell I was excited to read Bone China as it was described as a A brilliantly atmospheric and chilling tale and seemed like my kind of book and while I enjoyed the story I found it a little confusing and had trouble connecting the threads within the story.
Consumption has ravaged Louise Pinecroft's family, leaving her and her father alone and heartbroken, but Dr Pinecroft is working on a ground breaking 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 same disease in the cliffs beneath his new Cornish home.
Forty years later, Hester Why arrives at Morvoren House to take up a position as nurse to the now partially paralysed and almost entirely mute Miss Pinecroft. Hester has fled to Cornwall to try and escape her past, but surrounded by superstitious staff enacting bizarre rituals, she soon discovers that her new home may be just as dangerous as her last…
Laura Purcell seems to have all the key elements for an intriguing Gothic thriller but it just didn’t thrill me like her other novels and while I liked it I found it a little tedious and slow. By the end of the novel I was glad to part company with the characters. I think the fairy element of the story just didn’t work for me. I purchased this one in hard copy and while I didn’t love it, i will still place it on my real life bookshelf alongside Laura Purcell’s other novels.
September 27, 2020
Eerie tale of superstition and sickness and redemption
In old England's history there were fairies and pixies, and they weren't cute and benevolent. This is a tale of the evil that lurks in the drip of a cave, the delirium from illness and drink, and the shadows in a monstrous old house. Hester Why comes to the house on the cliff over the sea to tend to a patient who has had a stroke. The old lady's body is weak, but her brain is sharp, and so is the vigil she keeps against the little people. Miss Why has troubles of her own that dog her step and try to unnerve and debilitate her along with what is happening in the house. The women in this story are strong and deliberate and rational; they have to be to confront what crouches in the dark.
In old England's history there were fairies and pixies, and they weren't cute and benevolent. This is a tale of the evil that lurks in the drip of a cave, the delirium from illness and drink, and the shadows in a monstrous old house. Hester Why comes to the house on the cliff over the sea to tend to a patient who has had a stroke. The old lady's body is weak, but her brain is sharp, and so is the vigil she keeps against the little people. Miss Why has troubles of her own that dog her step and try to unnerve and debilitate her along with what is happening in the house. The women in this story are strong and deliberate and rational; they have to be to confront what crouches in the dark.
October 8, 2019
When I see a book by Laura Purcell now I snap it up instantly. I also know what to expect - something Victorian, gothic, slightly creepy, containing lots of accurate historical fact, well written and very enjoyable.
Bone China did not let me down. There was my much loved Cornwall which can indeed be a spooky place up on the moors and on the bleaker parts of the coast line. There was all the history of the time - the folklore, the strange to us medical practices, the china clay industry in earlier days.
The story was similar to The Corset in that the main character considered herself responsible for the deaths which seemed to follow her. She was in fact a very unreliable narrator since she was mostly under the effects of either gin or laudanum but that just added to the overall sense of suspicion and confusion.
I enjoyed reading the two separate parts of Louise's life and trying to work out what had really happened in the past. Then came the totally surprising ending and I realised we will never really know. I usually hate endings that leave things unexplained - for some reason I do not mind when this author does it! What will she write next I wonder.
My thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.
Bone China did not let me down. There was my much loved Cornwall which can indeed be a spooky place up on the moors and on the bleaker parts of the coast line. There was all the history of the time - the folklore, the strange to us medical practices, the china clay industry in earlier days.
The story was similar to The Corset in that the main character considered herself responsible for the deaths which seemed to follow her. She was in fact a very unreliable narrator since she was mostly under the effects of either gin or laudanum but that just added to the overall sense of suspicion and confusion.
I enjoyed reading the two separate parts of Louise's life and trying to work out what had really happened in the past. Then came the totally surprising ending and I realised we will never really know. I usually hate endings that leave things unexplained - for some reason I do not mind when this author does it! What will she write next I wonder.
My thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.
July 13, 2020
3.5 Stars
I jumped at the chance to read this because I loved the author's previous two offerings, The Silent Companions and The Poison Thread. Laura Purcell has become my "go to" author for gothic historical fiction. However, this book fell just a bit short for me compared to those previous two.
When I first delved into this book I felt the warm and cozy familiarity of a similar journey on a horse driven wagon that reminded me of her first book. A woman utilizing the moniker of Hester Why was escaping her former position where she attended to one Lady Rose. Pretty, rose-cheeked, young Lady Rose "married up", but was trying her best to settle in to a privileged life, even though her mother-in-law acted like she was the lady of the house instead. Rose had previously miscarried, and it was very important for her to produce an heir. Hester was the kind of person who needed to be needed. When she served as Maid to Lady Rose, she was a constant at Rose's side, but there was a simmering diabolical gene running through her veins that could emerge when she felt she was being brushed aside. Hester had served in other positions prior to Rose's where her charges met a tragic end. It was almost as if her caring too much for others would meet a poisonous outcome. Perhaps this was why Hester suffered from alcoholism, to numb the pain of the loved ones left in her wake. It was at this juncture of travelling to work for a Miss Pinecroft that the book began. Hester felt the need to drag herself far away from London to Cornwall and Morvoran House, set on a cliff surrounded by water and caves. In her trunk, she secreted a news article posted by her last employer accusing her of stealing his wife's porcelain and gold snuffbox. Her major problem is functioning without access to gin, and she'll even make due with laudanum if need be. I actually enjoyed this character more than any other in the book, despite her checkered past and addictive proclivities.
At a certain point the book propelled itself backward 40 years at the same location of Morvoran House. I didn't like this portion of the story as much as the others. I felt a lag in my interest, although it served to inform the more current timeline at Morvoran House. It concerned a physician who was trying to find a cure for consumption, and was utilizing the caves for its proximity to sea air as a form of treatment. He had lost his wife and other children to the disease, only leaving his daughter Louise who acted as his nursing assistant. The doctor had recruited some prisoners suffering from consumption as his patients.
Basically, I experienced three locales throughout this book. One was where Hester (using her real name Esther Stevens) was Maid to Lady Rose. The second was when she was fleeing that situation in near criminal disgrace to work at Morvoran House in the role of a nursing caregiver to the elderly Miss Pinecroft. This woman was very thin and quiet, suffering some effects of a stroke. She just sat in a chair for hours and hours in a very cold room with all this blue and white bone china on display around the room, which Hester was going to have to clean. Another very weird lady in the house was a woman named Creeda who watched over a 40 year old developmentally delayed child/woman named Rosewyn who had two different colored eyes, carried around a doll and wore her dresses inside out. There was a lot of fearful talk of fairies who lived down in the caves and could steal you. There was a special lock on Rosewyn's door that changed a number every time it was unlocked. Creeda's family actually owned the bone china company that manufactured all the china around the house. At night, the shadows that would dance upon it from the moon and the fierce waves could make the painted figures play tricks on your eyes. The third setting was 40 years ago at the same house with the doctor and his daughter.
It's not a good sign when I'm hoping I can finally get through that last hour my kindle is showing me I have to go until it's finished. The book's beginning held great promise, so I was disappointed with the book's progression. There were a lot of really strange things going on with supposed fairies, bone china that sometimes changed pictures, sounds of drips and disembodied singing, that all added up to a lot of hogwash to me. My favorite part of the book was when Hester was first welcomed upon arrival into the warmest part of the house, the kitchen- fussed over and made to warm up with freshly baked bread and hot tea. I also loved hearing about how they made hot chocolate each morning for Miss Pinecroft. I guess you could say my favorite part of the book was in the kitchen! Although I was slightly disappointed with this offering, I will definitely look forward to reading her next one.
Thank you to the publisher Penguin Books for providing an advance reader copy via Edelweiss.
I jumped at the chance to read this because I loved the author's previous two offerings, The Silent Companions and The Poison Thread. Laura Purcell has become my "go to" author for gothic historical fiction. However, this book fell just a bit short for me compared to those previous two.
When I first delved into this book I felt the warm and cozy familiarity of a similar journey on a horse driven wagon that reminded me of her first book. A woman utilizing the moniker of Hester Why was escaping her former position where she attended to one Lady Rose. Pretty, rose-cheeked, young Lady Rose "married up", but was trying her best to settle in to a privileged life, even though her mother-in-law acted like she was the lady of the house instead. Rose had previously miscarried, and it was very important for her to produce an heir. Hester was the kind of person who needed to be needed. When she served as Maid to Lady Rose, she was a constant at Rose's side, but there was a simmering diabolical gene running through her veins that could emerge when she felt she was being brushed aside. Hester had served in other positions prior to Rose's where her charges met a tragic end. It was almost as if her caring too much for others would meet a poisonous outcome. Perhaps this was why Hester suffered from alcoholism, to numb the pain of the loved ones left in her wake. It was at this juncture of travelling to work for a Miss Pinecroft that the book began. Hester felt the need to drag herself far away from London to Cornwall and Morvoran House, set on a cliff surrounded by water and caves. In her trunk, she secreted a news article posted by her last employer accusing her of stealing his wife's porcelain and gold snuffbox. Her major problem is functioning without access to gin, and she'll even make due with laudanum if need be. I actually enjoyed this character more than any other in the book, despite her checkered past and addictive proclivities.
At a certain point the book propelled itself backward 40 years at the same location of Morvoran House. I didn't like this portion of the story as much as the others. I felt a lag in my interest, although it served to inform the more current timeline at Morvoran House. It concerned a physician who was trying to find a cure for consumption, and was utilizing the caves for its proximity to sea air as a form of treatment. He had lost his wife and other children to the disease, only leaving his daughter Louise who acted as his nursing assistant. The doctor had recruited some prisoners suffering from consumption as his patients.
Basically, I experienced three locales throughout this book. One was where Hester (using her real name Esther Stevens) was Maid to Lady Rose. The second was when she was fleeing that situation in near criminal disgrace to work at Morvoran House in the role of a nursing caregiver to the elderly Miss Pinecroft. This woman was very thin and quiet, suffering some effects of a stroke. She just sat in a chair for hours and hours in a very cold room with all this blue and white bone china on display around the room, which Hester was going to have to clean. Another very weird lady in the house was a woman named Creeda who watched over a 40 year old developmentally delayed child/woman named Rosewyn who had two different colored eyes, carried around a doll and wore her dresses inside out. There was a lot of fearful talk of fairies who lived down in the caves and could steal you. There was a special lock on Rosewyn's door that changed a number every time it was unlocked. Creeda's family actually owned the bone china company that manufactured all the china around the house. At night, the shadows that would dance upon it from the moon and the fierce waves could make the painted figures play tricks on your eyes. The third setting was 40 years ago at the same house with the doctor and his daughter.
It's not a good sign when I'm hoping I can finally get through that last hour my kindle is showing me I have to go until it's finished. The book's beginning held great promise, so I was disappointed with the book's progression. There were a lot of really strange things going on with supposed fairies, bone china that sometimes changed pictures, sounds of drips and disembodied singing, that all added up to a lot of hogwash to me. My favorite part of the book was when Hester was first welcomed upon arrival into the warmest part of the house, the kitchen- fussed over and made to warm up with freshly baked bread and hot tea. I also loved hearing about how they made hot chocolate each morning for Miss Pinecroft. I guess you could say my favorite part of the book was in the kitchen! Although I was slightly disappointed with this offering, I will definitely look forward to reading her next one.
Thank you to the publisher Penguin Books for providing an advance reader copy via Edelweiss.
September 14, 2020
Gothic in tone, this extremely atmospheric to line I set on the Cornish Coast in a house called Morovoren. A book that mixes superstition, medicine and ancient folklore. It goes back and forth, from the last and future. Intriguing characters and a storyline where I wasn't sure who or what to believe. Changelings, fairies, a new cure for tuberculous and a personal maid, Hester, with a challenging past.
I think enjoyment of this book depends on how much belief the reader is able to suspend. If they are able to keep track of the various storylines and where in the story they fit. While I found the atmosphere drew me in , I admit to not understanding how the different parts for? Parts of Hester's background story for instance. Still, I did enjoy, for the most part, this read. Curious to see where it went.
I think enjoyment of this book depends on how much belief the reader is able to suspend. If they are able to keep track of the various storylines and where in the story they fit. While I found the atmosphere drew me in , I admit to not understanding how the different parts for? Parts of Hester's background story for instance. Still, I did enjoy, for the most part, this read. Curious to see where it went.
February 16, 2023
I didn’t love this one as her previous two books. Neither have come close to The Silent Companions - I loved that one.
Hester Why has changed her name and moved to Cornwall to look after the ailing Ms Pinecroft. Ms Pinecroft barely speaks or moves, spending her days in a freezing cold room filled with china.
Separately we have chapters from when Ms Pinecroft was younger, when she first moved there with her father to set up an area for those suffering with tuberculosis. But there is something going on around the beach. The men are in delirium and it can’t just be the illness.
For me, these kind of stories often fall flat when not enough information is given.
I will still read Laura Purcell because I do love her writing.
Hester Why has changed her name and moved to Cornwall to look after the ailing Ms Pinecroft. Ms Pinecroft barely speaks or moves, spending her days in a freezing cold room filled with china.
Separately we have chapters from when Ms Pinecroft was younger, when she first moved there with her father to set up an area for those suffering with tuberculosis. But there is something going on around the beach. The men are in delirium and it can’t just be the illness.
For me, these kind of stories often fall flat when not enough information is given.
I will still read Laura Purcell because I do love her writing.
April 17, 2020
Hester Why has answered an advertisement for a nurse and maid, moving from London to Cornwall, the other end of the country. A place is that, in her own words, “teetering on the edge of the map”. She is crushed into a 4- person mail coach with five others. And yet she knows she is one of the lucky ones when the coach spins to a spine-jerking halt and one of the passengers riding on the roof falls from the carriage. Hester jumps from the carriage to help the unfortunate fellow realising that in doing so she is drawing attention to herself. Hester is running from something.
At the end of this journey she is picked up by an old man and a pony-trap and taken up the cliff to Morvoren House. Just like passages from “The Silent Companions”, Purcell turns this ascent into a terrifying, harrowing experience. The fragile little pony-trap teetering on the edge of the track which drops off into the churning sea beneath.
“A sheer drop yawns to my left, perhaps twenty feet, terminating in a flash of sand and black water. Lost in dreams, I had not observed that our rickety pony-trap was scaling a cliff.
My stomach churns along with the waters below. One of the few consolations I had cherished before this night was that I should behold the ocean at last. I had imagined it blue, serene. What seethes beneath me is dark, frighteningly powerful; a cauldron of demons”.
She is to be employed as the nurse and maid of the 68-year-old Miss Pinecroft.
The atmosphere of Hester’s first meeting with Miss Pinecroft fills the reader with dread and foreboding. The room in which she resides is cold and dank. One wall is almost completely covered with china objects. Miss Pinecroft has suffered a stroke and is partially paralysed barely acknowledging Hester’s presence.
The second part of the novel will reveal what Hester is running from and that Hester is not even her real name. This part of the novel gives the reader some insight into Hester’s character and reveals that she is an alcoholic. This affliction plays a wonderful role in the narrative placing doubt in the reader’s mind about everything Hester encounters later in the novel. I must say that I loved the character of Hester. A broken young woman, addicted to gin, stealing the laudanum from the supplies. Hester is flawed and far from your perfect cardboard heroine.
The third part of the novel takes us forty years into the past where Miss Pinecroft is a young woman working together with her father on an experimental treatment for consumption. Dr Pinecroft lost his entire family, apart from Miss Pinecroft, to consumption, and his grief has left him with a burning obsession to find a cure for this pernicious disease. A burning desire that perhaps clouds his medical mind and reasoning. He is certain that the answer to curing consumption lies in the sea air. To aid him with his work he has been assigned a group of convicts who have contracted consumption and are all trapped within its grasp, bereft of a cure that is yet to be found. These convicts are confined to the caves that adorn the cliffside beneath Morvoren House. And it is within these caves that the treatment takes place.
Finally, we return to the present for a thrilling conclusion.
Purcell has done a wonderful job with this novel. A wonderful job in obscuring the actual truth as to what is happening. Are, as it increasingly seems with the novel’s progression, the evil fairies real? Or is everything imagined by Hester’s clouded laudanum laced mind. Ambiguity reins supreme in this novel.
As with “The Silent Companions”, Purcell again creates a claustrophobic, eerie, dark, gothic atmosphere around Morvoren House. And again, just like the companions, the fairies feel like a malignant presence, always watching. At times I almost felt I was trapped alongside Hester in the cold, dank china room. With this book Purcell has proven that she is, or is well on her way to becoming, a master of this genre.
I did enjoy “The Silent Companions” more but this is still a superb, haunting, read. 4 Stars.
At the end of this journey she is picked up by an old man and a pony-trap and taken up the cliff to Morvoren House. Just like passages from “The Silent Companions”, Purcell turns this ascent into a terrifying, harrowing experience. The fragile little pony-trap teetering on the edge of the track which drops off into the churning sea beneath.
“A sheer drop yawns to my left, perhaps twenty feet, terminating in a flash of sand and black water. Lost in dreams, I had not observed that our rickety pony-trap was scaling a cliff.
My stomach churns along with the waters below. One of the few consolations I had cherished before this night was that I should behold the ocean at last. I had imagined it blue, serene. What seethes beneath me is dark, frighteningly powerful; a cauldron of demons”.
She is to be employed as the nurse and maid of the 68-year-old Miss Pinecroft.
The atmosphere of Hester’s first meeting with Miss Pinecroft fills the reader with dread and foreboding. The room in which she resides is cold and dank. One wall is almost completely covered with china objects. Miss Pinecroft has suffered a stroke and is partially paralysed barely acknowledging Hester’s presence.
The second part of the novel will reveal what Hester is running from and that Hester is not even her real name. This part of the novel gives the reader some insight into Hester’s character and reveals that she is an alcoholic. This affliction plays a wonderful role in the narrative placing doubt in the reader’s mind about everything Hester encounters later in the novel. I must say that I loved the character of Hester. A broken young woman, addicted to gin, stealing the laudanum from the supplies. Hester is flawed and far from your perfect cardboard heroine.
The third part of the novel takes us forty years into the past where Miss Pinecroft is a young woman working together with her father on an experimental treatment for consumption. Dr Pinecroft lost his entire family, apart from Miss Pinecroft, to consumption, and his grief has left him with a burning obsession to find a cure for this pernicious disease. A burning desire that perhaps clouds his medical mind and reasoning. He is certain that the answer to curing consumption lies in the sea air. To aid him with his work he has been assigned a group of convicts who have contracted consumption and are all trapped within its grasp, bereft of a cure that is yet to be found. These convicts are confined to the caves that adorn the cliffside beneath Morvoren House. And it is within these caves that the treatment takes place.
Finally, we return to the present for a thrilling conclusion.
Purcell has done a wonderful job with this novel. A wonderful job in obscuring the actual truth as to what is happening. Are, as it increasingly seems with the novel’s progression, the evil fairies real? Or is everything imagined by Hester’s clouded laudanum laced mind. Ambiguity reins supreme in this novel.
As with “The Silent Companions”, Purcell again creates a claustrophobic, eerie, dark, gothic atmosphere around Morvoren House. And again, just like the companions, the fairies feel like a malignant presence, always watching. At times I almost felt I was trapped alongside Hester in the cold, dank china room. With this book Purcell has proven that she is, or is well on her way to becoming, a master of this genre.
I did enjoy “The Silent Companions” more but this is still a superb, haunting, read. 4 Stars.
January 17, 2021
Well, it has become apparent today, that apart from Purcells debut novel, The Silent Companions the other two that I've read, which includes this one, are definitely lacking in plot and tension.
I have had Bone China on my list for some time, and considering how much I loved "The Silent Companions" I was hoping for something just as good. Unfortunately, this just wasn't the case.
I must state, Purcell writes tremendously well, and I enjoy her style, but without a decent plot, there simply isn't a point to writing 450 pages.
Our main character, Hester Why, is one of the issues within the book. She feels like a weak and feeble girl, with no real bite or charisma, and this in turn, lead me to not really being bothered about what became of her, which is problematic really, because the story jumps back and forth in the time line, and it is based solely around Hester. Hester does odd things, and the book doesn't give any reasons as why she does these things. I mean, why do we need Hester in the first place?
Parts of this felt entirely rushed, like Purcell wanted to bring the plot up to speed, but by doing this, she missed out key developments, which would have been handy for the reader.
The two timeliness failed to weave together amicably, which lead me to feeling detached and confused, and I was left high and dry almost, just waiting for the grand crescendo. This was a very disappointing read, and I hope for better things from Purcell in the future, as she is an excellent writer.
I have had Bone China on my list for some time, and considering how much I loved "The Silent Companions" I was hoping for something just as good. Unfortunately, this just wasn't the case.
I must state, Purcell writes tremendously well, and I enjoy her style, but without a decent plot, there simply isn't a point to writing 450 pages.
Our main character, Hester Why, is one of the issues within the book. She feels like a weak and feeble girl, with no real bite or charisma, and this in turn, lead me to not really being bothered about what became of her, which is problematic really, because the story jumps back and forth in the time line, and it is based solely around Hester. Hester does odd things, and the book doesn't give any reasons as why she does these things. I mean, why do we need Hester in the first place?
Parts of this felt entirely rushed, like Purcell wanted to bring the plot up to speed, but by doing this, she missed out key developments, which would have been handy for the reader.
The two timeliness failed to weave together amicably, which lead me to feeling detached and confused, and I was left high and dry almost, just waiting for the grand crescendo. This was a very disappointing read, and I hope for better things from Purcell in the future, as she is an excellent writer.
November 26, 2021
There’s a definite nod to Du Maurier with the Cornish setting, the house on the cliffs and the gothic nature. The protagonist is Hester Why (I found myself asking that question on a regular basis). She is fleeing London after a misunderstanding with a previous employer and taking up a post looking after an older woman, Miss Pinecroft. There are three different timelines and we see Miss Pinecroft in her youth. One of the themes is the search for a cure for TB. Miss Pinecroft’s father had bought the house for the caves underneath as there was a time when it was thought that cave and sea air was good for TB.
Purcell introduces superstition and the folklore of fairie with the inevitable changeling myths. Cornish folklore is central to the story. Add a few doses of laudanum and gin, some odd goings on with china (possibly something to do with the title no doubt) with the bone part being a bit literal, lots of things going bump in the night and some gloomy corridors. There’s plenty of melodrama and odd goings on and atmosphere:
“The wind howls and ravens about the house, crashing the branches of the ash trees together. The waves roar back. They are wild creatures, these elements. They will tear one another apart.”
The whole thing is a bit of a mess as the strands somehow don’t hang together. The story rattles along at a good pace and if you like gothic tales that don’t make sense you may enjoy it. The ending is rushed and doesn’t make much sense (what am I saying!). I also won’t be able to look at bone china in quite the same way again!
Purcell introduces superstition and the folklore of fairie with the inevitable changeling myths. Cornish folklore is central to the story. Add a few doses of laudanum and gin, some odd goings on with china (possibly something to do with the title no doubt) with the bone part being a bit literal, lots of things going bump in the night and some gloomy corridors. There’s plenty of melodrama and odd goings on and atmosphere:
“The wind howls and ravens about the house, crashing the branches of the ash trees together. The waves roar back. They are wild creatures, these elements. They will tear one another apart.”
The whole thing is a bit of a mess as the strands somehow don’t hang together. The story rattles along at a good pace and if you like gothic tales that don’t make sense you may enjoy it. The ending is rushed and doesn’t make much sense (what am I saying!). I also won’t be able to look at bone china in quite the same way again!
June 29, 2019
I think at this stage, we can say the only book I enjoyed from Purcell is The Silent Companions. The Corset was a miss being very crowded and having plot holes in it.
I was still excited for Bone China because I love her spooky, gothic writing style. Also, the history and atmosphere she contains in her books are amazing. I still find the historic and atmospheric quality of her books very strong. But, I just don't get along with her plots.
This one contained 3 different story lines very separate from each other, and they were very disjointed. And for the life of me, I couldn't understand why she chose to have an end leaving it untied . If you're having different plots going on, they need to come together at some stage, but it didn't.
Also, the use of same content now feels like a copy paste. The spooky house, the creepy staff, a furniture related to the story (in this case, the china). I personally don't want to read the same book that feels like it's built over a formulation. I would like to see some originality even if it's the same writer.
I'm sorry to say it wasn't for me, but I'm sure there will be a lot of people enjoying it.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-ARC I received.
I was still excited for Bone China because I love her spooky, gothic writing style. Also, the history and atmosphere she contains in her books are amazing. I still find the historic and atmospheric quality of her books very strong. But, I just don't get along with her plots.
This one contained 3 different story lines very separate from each other, and they were very disjointed. And for the life of me, I couldn't understand why she chose to have an end leaving it untied . If you're having different plots going on, they need to come together at some stage, but it didn't.
Also, the use of same content now feels like a copy paste. The spooky house, the creepy staff, a furniture related to the story (in this case, the china). I personally don't want to read the same book that feels like it's built over a formulation. I would like to see some originality even if it's the same writer.
I'm sorry to say it wasn't for me, but I'm sure there will be a lot of people enjoying it.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-ARC I received.
June 19, 2023
Creepy, gothic, tragic, superstition, insanity: these are becoming the hallmark of a Laura Purcell story and long may it continue. Does belief in the local Cornish folklore make it true? This tale is saturated in folklore, fear, paranoia and dread. Hester Why is a misguided and sad character who seems only to want to be loved and needed- finally she finds a way to save one of her charges.
September 26, 2020
2,5 stars
I thought the beginning of the story very promising but as it progressed it became less interesting. An OK read.
I thought the beginning of the story very promising but as it progressed it became less interesting. An OK read.
October 8, 2019
A serviceable gothic novel stuffed with so many characters and subplots that it begins to trip up over itself... which probably makes it even more authentically gothic, I suppose. After leaving her previous role in disgrace, Esther Stevens has reinvented herself as 'Hester Why' and fled to the Cornish coast. Employed at a forbidding house named Morvoren, she finds herself tasked with caring for the near-mute Miss Pinecroft, whose household is dominated by her superstitious maid Creeda. Flashbacks reveal how Miss Pinecroft came to live at Morvoren: 40 years ago, she assisted her father, a doctor, who was convinced that the sea air would cure his consumptive patients.
There is so much going on here. Esther's life with Lady Rose, her alcoholism, her attempts to look after Miss Pinecroft. Louise's past, her father's doomed scheme, her equally doomed romance. Rosewyn. Creeda's backstory. The creepy china. The whole fairy thing. I liked parts of it a lot (Esther's past is particularly fascinating) and struggled with others (I know Creeda is the 'villain', but even so I found her a chore to read about). Esther's background is the plot's anchor, and it always seemed there should be more to it, some greater link to the events in Cornwall. I was waiting for something more to be revealed about her other jobs and why she felt herself 'cursed'. But this is sidelined in favour of intimations of the supernatural that never fully come to fruition.
It all reminded me of a Victorian version of Erin Kelly's Stone Mothers. Both books have the same sense of being painstakingly plotted and researched, but lacking in how they come together as stories. Despite a few great details and some promising character development, in the end Bone China is hampered by over-convolution and lack of cohesiveness.
I received an advance review copy of Bone China from the publisher through NetGalley.
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There is so much going on here. Esther's life with Lady Rose, her alcoholism, her attempts to look after Miss Pinecroft. Louise's past, her father's doomed scheme, her equally doomed romance. Rosewyn. Creeda's backstory. The creepy china. The whole fairy thing. I liked parts of it a lot (Esther's past is particularly fascinating) and struggled with others (I know Creeda is the 'villain', but even so I found her a chore to read about). Esther's background is the plot's anchor, and it always seemed there should be more to it, some greater link to the events in Cornwall. I was waiting for something more to be revealed about her other jobs and why she felt herself 'cursed'. But this is sidelined in favour of intimations of the supernatural that never fully come to fruition.
It all reminded me of a Victorian version of Erin Kelly's Stone Mothers. Both books have the same sense of being painstakingly plotted and researched, but lacking in how they come together as stories. Despite a few great details and some promising character development, in the end Bone China is hampered by over-convolution and lack of cohesiveness.
I received an advance review copy of Bone China from the publisher through NetGalley.
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November 25, 2019
I enjoyed this book much more than ‘The Silent Companions’ and Laura Purcell is becoming a great historical novelist. The book is well researched and the characters are emotionally developed and intriguing. Four stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
July 21, 2019
A gothic novel based in Cornwall about two women Louise and Hester.
This story is told in two timelines 40 years apart.
I found the story creepy and strange.
Thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for my e-copy in exchange for an honest review.
This story is told in two timelines 40 years apart.
I found the story creepy and strange.
Thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for my e-copy in exchange for an honest review.
September 30, 2025
3.5 rounded up. More soon.
October 7, 2019
Bone China marks the return of critically acclaimed writer Ms Purcell in a whole new gothic historical thriller which really packs a punch. Full of dark, disturbing elements and a spooky and almost claustrophobic atmosphere, we are treated to compulsively readable tale and one that is difficult to put down once it has you in its grasp. Set in Morvoren House, an isolated and eerie building standing alone on the stunning but often harsh Cornish coastline, we enter a world of myth, superstition and folklore and see first-hand just how many people live and die by what these old tales specify should or should not be done. It is told from the perspectives of two very different women 40 years apart and very much plays on the fear and paranoia of the characters.
It's by no means a light read as it covers bleak and chilling themes but it does so with a subtle sophistication missing from many other similar novels. It must be said that Purcell writes so vividly and accurately about the Victorian era that it often feels as though you are there beside the characters and experiencing life with them. The sight, sounds, smells are right on the money and that makes it very simple to immerse oneself in the world and get lost between the pages. The author knows exactly how to play with a readers mind throughout the narrative by making you question whether supernatural really is to blame or whether it is just good old insanity brought about by too much gin and opium. Many thanks to Raven Books for an ARC.
It's by no means a light read as it covers bleak and chilling themes but it does so with a subtle sophistication missing from many other similar novels. It must be said that Purcell writes so vividly and accurately about the Victorian era that it often feels as though you are there beside the characters and experiencing life with them. The sight, sounds, smells are right on the money and that makes it very simple to immerse oneself in the world and get lost between the pages. The author knows exactly how to play with a readers mind throughout the narrative by making you question whether supernatural really is to blame or whether it is just good old insanity brought about by too much gin and opium. Many thanks to Raven Books for an ARC.
June 29, 2019
Hester Why is exceedingly unlucky. Either that, or the kind of person who makes her own bad fortune. Fleeing from her position in London, she arrives at Morvoren House to find out that things might have gotten worse. Her troubles in the city, at least, had been human in nature; in the wilds of the Cornish coast, she might have attracted the attention of something much darker and more dangerous…
Although individually the three main threads of the book have all the ingredients for a good story, they are not brought together well enough to make an impactful or cohesive narrative overall. There was neither enough time to include the necessary depth to each section, nor to bring everything satisfactorily together at the end. It’s a shame because I adored the opening segment: an unequal relationship with a hint of queer marred by bitter jealousy, the very real possibility that our narrator is not all that she seems. Then the flight to escape the consequences of her actions forcing Heather into even more dangerous circumstances. It’s all deliciously creepy and full to the brim with foreboding, with Heather’s mysterious experiences at Morvoren House ticking all the right gothic boxes.
And then it all comes apart. Or more precisely, it stays apart- each thread suspenseful in its own right, but lacking any real feeling of connection. The flashbacks which explain Miss Pincroft’s obsession with the china and refusal to speak are brought in too late. The fact that she is basically a whole different person in the past only adding to the sense of detachment between both characters and plot. It’s frustrating because I can see what the various parts were supposed to do, but I couldn’t feel them. And if that’s the case, then it’s not working. While the ‘something isn’t right’ atmosphere remains at the forefront of each section, the way Purcell usually balances supernatural vs psychological explanations breaks down because there’s not enough of a relationship between the characters in the book or between them and the reader to care either way. Even Hester, who we get to know best, got nothing more than an eye roll from me for her choice during the final scenes of revelation. There’s just not enough in the book or her character to explain it. It might, kinda, draw together the threads but it makes no sense. Ultimately, it was disappointing, so different from the feeling of dark possibility that closed the truly excellent The Silent Companions….
ARC via Netgalley
Although individually the three main threads of the book have all the ingredients for a good story, they are not brought together well enough to make an impactful or cohesive narrative overall. There was neither enough time to include the necessary depth to each section, nor to bring everything satisfactorily together at the end. It’s a shame because I adored the opening segment: an unequal relationship with a hint of queer marred by bitter jealousy, the very real possibility that our narrator is not all that she seems. Then the flight to escape the consequences of her actions forcing Heather into even more dangerous circumstances. It’s all deliciously creepy and full to the brim with foreboding, with Heather’s mysterious experiences at Morvoren House ticking all the right gothic boxes.
And then it all comes apart. Or more precisely, it stays apart- each thread suspenseful in its own right, but lacking any real feeling of connection. The flashbacks which explain Miss Pincroft’s obsession with the china and refusal to speak are brought in too late. The fact that she is basically a whole different person in the past only adding to the sense of detachment between both characters and plot. It’s frustrating because I can see what the various parts were supposed to do, but I couldn’t feel them. And if that’s the case, then it’s not working. While the ‘something isn’t right’ atmosphere remains at the forefront of each section, the way Purcell usually balances supernatural vs psychological explanations breaks down because there’s not enough of a relationship between the characters in the book or between them and the reader to care either way. Even Hester, who we get to know best, got nothing more than an eye roll from me for her choice during the final scenes of revelation. There’s just not enough in the book or her character to explain it. It might, kinda, draw together the threads but it makes no sense. Ultimately, it was disappointing, so different from the feeling of dark possibility that closed the truly excellent The Silent Companions….
ARC via Netgalley
December 18, 2019
Genre: Historical Fiction/Mystery
Type: Standalone
POV: Shifting – First person & third person POV
Rating:
Hester Why arrived in Cornwall with a hope for a fresh beginning as the new live-in nurse. Running from her troubled past, little did she know Morvoren House held its own secret, festering into the household in the last 40 years. As she tried to help them with the truth, she must toe it delicately or risked shattering everything she believed in.
This book turned out to be different than I thought it would be. There were several elements that I discovered as I read that attracted my attention even more.
I loved how atmospheric the settings were, from house to the cliffs. The historical and folklore aspects of the story also added to the intrigue. The book was slow at times, but the different timelines helped propelled the story.
Bone China is an eerie tale of obsession and redemption. It would appeal to readers who enjoy a psychological gothic mystery.
For more reviews/reveals/giveaways visit:
Type: Standalone
POV: Shifting – First person & third person POV
Rating:
Hester Why arrived in Cornwall with a hope for a fresh beginning as the new live-in nurse. Running from her troubled past, little did she know Morvoren House held its own secret, festering into the household in the last 40 years. As she tried to help them with the truth, she must toe it delicately or risked shattering everything she believed in.
This book turned out to be different than I thought it would be. There were several elements that I discovered as I read that attracted my attention even more.
Could not tell him that to my eyes, this was when she was truly beautiful; at the moment of fragility, when she required only me.
I loved how atmospheric the settings were, from house to the cliffs. The historical and folklore aspects of the story also added to the intrigue. The book was slow at times, but the different timelines helped propelled the story.
“I will wait,” she said. “I will wait as long as it takes.”
Bone China is an eerie tale of obsession and redemption. It would appeal to readers who enjoy a psychological gothic mystery.
For more reviews/reveals/giveaways visit:
January 21, 2024
Bei der Autorin kann man einfach nichts falsch machen. Ein Highlight, das für mich sogar vor "Die stillen Gefährten" steht.
June 24, 2020
The definitive blue willow china pattern horror story has yet to be written, because this ain't it.
But we'll always have Don Moyer's Things Could Be Worse mock-willow mugs
Jamesian unreliable narrator can't decide if she's to blame for all the disasters left trailing in her wake, or whether it could be the Cornish pixies. You've seen this screw turn before.
But we'll always have Don Moyer's Things Could Be Worse mock-willow mugs
Jamesian unreliable narrator can't decide if she's to blame for all the disasters left trailing in her wake, or whether it could be the Cornish pixies. You've seen this screw turn before.
September 16, 2024
This was an enjoyable Victorian Gothic with a couple of twists. The short chapters are broken up into seven parts and switch between two primary timelines (with a brief excursion into a third), the stories of Hester Why/Esther Stevens, and the desolate and cold Moroven House and its residents kept me flipping pages and the pace brisk.
I read the author's more well-known book, The Silent Companions , a few years ago and while I enjoyed that one as well there were some sections where I remember being bored. I wasn't ever bored while reading The House of Whispers. The modern twist to the classic Gothic setting, with a "heroine" who is seriously flawed and possibly worse, was really interesting. And bad fairies as the supernatural element replacing the usual ghostly specters added another layer of interest and novelty to the story.
I would recommend this to fans of Gothic horror, and would suggest reading it on a cold winter's night with a howling wind outside.
I read the author's more well-known book, The Silent Companions , a few years ago and while I enjoyed that one as well there were some sections where I remember being bored. I wasn't ever bored while reading The House of Whispers. The modern twist to the classic Gothic setting, with a "heroine" who is seriously flawed and possibly worse, was really interesting. And bad fairies as the supernatural element replacing the usual ghostly specters added another layer of interest and novelty to the story.
I would recommend this to fans of Gothic horror, and would suggest reading it on a cold winter's night with a howling wind outside.
October 29, 2024
Die Geschichte beginnt mit einer Reise - die zugleich eine Flucht vor den Schatten der Vergangenheit ist, aber auch eine Suche nach einer Perspektive für die Zukunft. Nach einer Aufgabe, einem Platz im Leben der Erfüllung verspricht und das wärmende Gefühl von Zuneigung. Doch schon auf den ersten Seiten kriecht einem die Kälte unter die Haut, denn Hester Why (wie sie sich jetzt nennt) ist auf dem Weg zu einer einsam gelegenen Grafschaft in Cornwall, mitten im eisigen Winter.
Es ist der bitterste Winter, solange ich mich erinnern kann. Selbst für Schnee ist es zu kalt. Eine in weißer Unschuld gewaschene Welt soll mir Trost spenden, aber nein - das hier ist die Jahreszeit von Schneeregen und metallblauem Himmel. Alles ist grau und kalt. Wie im Eiskeller; wie in meinem Herzen.
Zitat Seite 11
Die frostige Stimmung bleibt auch bei Hesters Ankunft im Morvoren Haus an den Klippen, wo es über dem schäumenden, tiefdunklen Meer thront und mit seinen sterilen weiß-blauen Farben im Inneren den abweisenden Charakter beibehält. Auch wenn sie freundlich empfangen wird, spürt man recht schnell die seltsamen Gepflogenheiten mancher Bewohner: die alte Hausherrin, die sich scheinbar niemals aus dem Porzellanzimmer entfernt, ihr geistig beeinträchtigtes Mündel und auch die abergläubische Creeda, die sich um diese kümmert.
Während Hester versucht, sich mit Alkohol und Laudanum bei Sinnen zu halten, und um zu vergessen weshalb sie aus London geflohen ist, versucht sie ihr Gewissen zu reinigen, indem sie sich um die kranke Herrin kümmert. Ihre Einsamkeit spiegelt sich in ihrem Bestreben wider, unentbehrlich zu werden, gemocht und gebraucht zu werden und damit in Abhängigkeiten zu verfallen, die ihr Gemüt immer verzweifelter werden lassen.
Der Rückblick auf die Vorgeschichte dieses Hauses spielt sich 40 Jahre vorher ab. Dr. Pinecroft hat bis auf seine Tochter Louise seine gesamte Familie an die Schwindsucht verloren und versucht mit einer neuen Methode, die er an kranken Gefangenen ausprobiert, eine Heilmethode zu entwickeln. Nicht nur, um seinen guten Ruf wieder herzustellen, sondern um seinen Seelenfrieden wieder zu gewinnen.
Den Wechsel zwischen Vergangenheit und Gegenwart hat die Autorin sehr gut miteinander verflochten. Jedes Detail wirkt auf andere Art unheimlich und beängstigend - vor allem die Kombination mit den alten Mythen über die Feen und wie dieser alte Glaube die Menschen beeinflusst, lässt einen beim Lesen schwanken zwischen Wahrheit und Illusion, bis einen die Tragik des Ganzen mit in den Abgrund zieht.
Das schafft die Autorin nicht nur mit der Handlung, sondern auch mit dem wunderschönen Schreibstil, der trotz - oder gerade durch - seine gedämpfte Art sehr effektvoll die verhängnisvolle Entwicklung trägt und konstant mit den verschiedensten Mitteln das Gefühl der Isolation, der Hoffnungslosigkeit und der Kälte im Äußeren wie im Inneren spielt.
Während die Schwindsucht damals (um 1900) meist tödlich endete, ist Tuberkulose mittlerweile heilbar. Die zahlreichen Versuche und der Verlauf der Krankheit hat sein ganz eigenes Grauen - wie auch viele andere Fragmente, die einen permanent ein Banges Gefühl bereiten.
Auch das Porzellan spielt eine Rolle und der Originaltitel "Bone China" gibt hier einen interessanten Hinweis, der mir völlig neu war und der allein schon eine gruselige Komponente besitzt.
Es ist eine eher ruhige, von unheilvoller Stimmung getragene Geschichte, die mich sehr gefesselt hat. Das Cover und die Aufmachung des Buches sind wirklich wunderschön gelungen und transportieren perfekt die unterkühlte Isolation wider, die durch die vielen Schicksalsschläge auf die Figuren abgefärbt hat.
Weltenwanderer
Es ist der bitterste Winter, solange ich mich erinnern kann. Selbst für Schnee ist es zu kalt. Eine in weißer Unschuld gewaschene Welt soll mir Trost spenden, aber nein - das hier ist die Jahreszeit von Schneeregen und metallblauem Himmel. Alles ist grau und kalt. Wie im Eiskeller; wie in meinem Herzen.
Zitat Seite 11
Die frostige Stimmung bleibt auch bei Hesters Ankunft im Morvoren Haus an den Klippen, wo es über dem schäumenden, tiefdunklen Meer thront und mit seinen sterilen weiß-blauen Farben im Inneren den abweisenden Charakter beibehält. Auch wenn sie freundlich empfangen wird, spürt man recht schnell die seltsamen Gepflogenheiten mancher Bewohner: die alte Hausherrin, die sich scheinbar niemals aus dem Porzellanzimmer entfernt, ihr geistig beeinträchtigtes Mündel und auch die abergläubische Creeda, die sich um diese kümmert.
Während Hester versucht, sich mit Alkohol und Laudanum bei Sinnen zu halten, und um zu vergessen weshalb sie aus London geflohen ist, versucht sie ihr Gewissen zu reinigen, indem sie sich um die kranke Herrin kümmert. Ihre Einsamkeit spiegelt sich in ihrem Bestreben wider, unentbehrlich zu werden, gemocht und gebraucht zu werden und damit in Abhängigkeiten zu verfallen, die ihr Gemüt immer verzweifelter werden lassen.
Der Rückblick auf die Vorgeschichte dieses Hauses spielt sich 40 Jahre vorher ab. Dr. Pinecroft hat bis auf seine Tochter Louise seine gesamte Familie an die Schwindsucht verloren und versucht mit einer neuen Methode, die er an kranken Gefangenen ausprobiert, eine Heilmethode zu entwickeln. Nicht nur, um seinen guten Ruf wieder herzustellen, sondern um seinen Seelenfrieden wieder zu gewinnen.
Den Wechsel zwischen Vergangenheit und Gegenwart hat die Autorin sehr gut miteinander verflochten. Jedes Detail wirkt auf andere Art unheimlich und beängstigend - vor allem die Kombination mit den alten Mythen über die Feen und wie dieser alte Glaube die Menschen beeinflusst, lässt einen beim Lesen schwanken zwischen Wahrheit und Illusion, bis einen die Tragik des Ganzen mit in den Abgrund zieht.
Das schafft die Autorin nicht nur mit der Handlung, sondern auch mit dem wunderschönen Schreibstil, der trotz - oder gerade durch - seine gedämpfte Art sehr effektvoll die verhängnisvolle Entwicklung trägt und konstant mit den verschiedensten Mitteln das Gefühl der Isolation, der Hoffnungslosigkeit und der Kälte im Äußeren wie im Inneren spielt.
Während die Schwindsucht damals (um 1900) meist tödlich endete, ist Tuberkulose mittlerweile heilbar. Die zahlreichen Versuche und der Verlauf der Krankheit hat sein ganz eigenes Grauen - wie auch viele andere Fragmente, die einen permanent ein Banges Gefühl bereiten.
Auch das Porzellan spielt eine Rolle und der Originaltitel "Bone China" gibt hier einen interessanten Hinweis, der mir völlig neu war und der allein schon eine gruselige Komponente besitzt.
Es ist eine eher ruhige, von unheilvoller Stimmung getragene Geschichte, die mich sehr gefesselt hat. Das Cover und die Aufmachung des Buches sind wirklich wunderschön gelungen und transportieren perfekt die unterkühlte Isolation wider, die durch die vielen Schicksalsschläge auf die Figuren abgefärbt hat.
Weltenwanderer
June 8, 2019
Beautifully written and truly original. 🖤
I have read and loved The Silent Companions and The Corset, so I was really excited when I saw LP had a new book due out. Bone China continues LP’s reign as the new Queen of Gothic Fiction.
Set on the cliffs of Cornwall, the scene is set for Hester Why to join the staff in Morveron house, and within a very short timeframe things become increasingly odd. The book focuses on Hester’s story, and the medical experiments that took place in the cliffs under the house forty years previously.
The past actions of Louise Pinefield (the lady of the house that Hester cares for) are still having repercussions to this day, and as Hester discovers more about the house certain revelations will change her forever.
It’s difficult to say much about this book, other than that it is exquisitely written, well plotted, completely original and unputdownable. I really felt like I’d gone back in time, and everything was so well described I felt like I could smell the sea, and feel the cold. I’ll be telling everyone to read this!
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to read this book.
I have read and loved The Silent Companions and The Corset, so I was really excited when I saw LP had a new book due out. Bone China continues LP’s reign as the new Queen of Gothic Fiction.
Set on the cliffs of Cornwall, the scene is set for Hester Why to join the staff in Morveron house, and within a very short timeframe things become increasingly odd. The book focuses on Hester’s story, and the medical experiments that took place in the cliffs under the house forty years previously.
The past actions of Louise Pinefield (the lady of the house that Hester cares for) are still having repercussions to this day, and as Hester discovers more about the house certain revelations will change her forever.
It’s difficult to say much about this book, other than that it is exquisitely written, well plotted, completely original and unputdownable. I really felt like I’d gone back in time, and everything was so well described I felt like I could smell the sea, and feel the cold. I’ll be telling everyone to read this!
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to read this book.
October 30, 2019
Another creepy offering from Laura Purcell that I perhaps didn't enjoy as much as her others. Happily I found much of my beloved gothic gloom to wallow in, mist, bleak cliffs, fairy folklore, superstition, fainting and fatal bouts of consumption abound, but the main character Esther/Hester, left me wanting. She was somewhat irritating and unlikeable (which is not necessarily a problem in itself) but her back story wasn't filled out enough. Events that had occurred in her life previously, were alluded to with tantalising frequency but never elaborated on and I found it a bit frustrating, I wanted to know how and why these events and family relationships shaped her. In all, a decent read though and I'm looking forward to the author's next offering, 3.5 stars rounded up to 4.
October 11, 2019
I loved Laura Purcell's first novel, The Silent Companions, and this certainly didn't disappoint. It's a spooky glory of the highest order. The setting of a sea-blasted, salt-crusted house on the Cornish cliffs is so atmospheric and creepy; I loved all the details about how bone china is made (no spoilers, though I would have liked a little more leaning-in to the horror of that at the end); and the emotional journey of the protagonist was intriguing. Already looking forward to Purcell's next!
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