I have a love of Victorian gothic tales, all information on their attraction to spirituality, the supernatural and ghosts have always fascinated me.

Purcell’s Bone China is certainly atmospheric and ghostly and the way the story is told – via two tales set forty years apart, sets the tone for strange behaviour and spine tingling moments.

I highly recommend this book and will now be looking to read other Purcell books.

Creepy and atmospheric but ultimately, unforgettable. Good choice to while a way a stormy evening (if you can ignore its weak protagonist and the confused plotting of its narrative), but not one destined to make any lasting impression, either on its readers or on the ghost story genre in general.

Hester Why is on the run from her last position as lady's maid in a well-to-do household in London, where her jealously led to tragedy.

She has taken up a position at the remote Moroven House in Cornwall, as the nurse to a partially paralysed and almost completely mute old lady called Miss Pinecroft, where she hopes to escape her past.

But Moroven House has a sinister history. Forty years ago, after her family having been ravaged by consumption, Miss Pinecroft moved here with her father to undertake a revolutionary experiment to find a cure for the disease that had brought them so much grief.

Dr Pinecroft housed a group of consumptive former convicts in the cliffs under the house in the hope that the sea air would relieve their suffering and bring about a cure. But his experiment did not end well and only brought further tragedy to the lives of himself and his daughter.

What happened in those caves all those years ago and why is Miss Pinecroft obsessed with silently guarding the collection of china that is housed at Moroven House? What is she afraid of?

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After thoroughly enjoying Laura Purcell's terrifying debut The Silent Companions, I couldn't wait to get started on her latest book, Bone China. And, dear reader, it did not disappoint!

The secretive Hester Why, on the run from her dodgy past, thinks she has successfully hidden herself away in a new position in the wilds of Cornwall. But it is not long before we realise that she may have actually jumped out of the frying pan into the fire, because things are not quite as they seem at Moroven House. There are whispers of strange beings in Hester's new home, namely fairies and pixies, that Hester is quick to dismiss as superstitious nonsense, but there is no denying that something is not quite right here - be it stemming from the supernatural, or by human design - and the house itself is extremely creepy and filled with rather odd residents.

As Hester begins to wonder whether she has made the right decision in taking up the position as Moroven House, we are suddenly whisked back 40 years to the circumstances surrounding the experiment of Dr Pinecroft and his daughter - and from then on, the story moves back and forth between Hester's tale and the doomed experiment from the past.

This is wonderful stuff - atmospheric, chilling, tense and exciting - and we are never quite sure how much is real or the work of imagination. The remote setting, on the edge of the cliffs, and in the dark damp caves below, is terrifyingly perfect. No spoilers from me, but Bone China is every bit as scary as The Silent Companions, and it kept me completely spellbound from the first page to the very last.

As a side note, I have also listened to the audio versions of both The Silent Companions and Bone China, and they are fabulous too.

Laura Purcell is quickly becoming my go to author for terrifying historical fiction and I can't wait to make a start on her second book, The Corset, which I hope will tide me over until her new novel The Shape of Darkness is published in January next year!

Fascinating read, enthralling and unnerving, allowing the reader to take those parts into their own imagination. The journey of the main character was intriguing was she destined to end up where she was to finally resolve the past history. I loved going into the past to find out more about the mistress and how she became as she was and what was haunting her. Very enjoyable read! I do love this authors style of writing, keeping the reader gripped right up to the end.

A very complex book.

There is so much going on in this that I actually had to keep putting the book aside to give myself time to process - and this just isn't something that I ever do.

On the whole, I really did enjoy reading this. The research that must have gone into the writing is just mind-blowing but I just feel that the conclusion was lacking something. A real shame as I had enjoyed reading this so much.

A cracker of a gothic-style novel, filled with mystery, the supernatural and streaks of madness. The story of maid Hester Why and that of her mistress 40 years ago in the spooky clifftop house in Cornwall is written in a hugely compelling way with characters who are richly drawn. The atmosphere is genuinely chilling and certainly had me jumping at noises.

I finished this early this morning and I absolutely loved it. Bone China is different to what I usually read and I’m so glad I read this. The setting was amazing, Laura Purcell described Cornwall beautifully I could picture the waves, the cliffs and the house as I read. From the first page everything was unsettling and I could feel Esthers trepidation as she headed to what will be her new residence. Not home, I don’t think anything could ever feel at home in Morvoren though perhaps that was just me. Esther is running from her own past but she could never have predicted she’d be running to a place with such a dark and menacing past of its own and that her new mistress Louise Pinecroft is in its grip.

The Pinecroft family have been torn apart by Consumption. Louise has lost her mother, brother & sister to the disease & in many ways has lost her father as he is obsessed with finding a cure. He buys a house on a Cornish cliff-side because he believes that the caves underneath will be the perfect place to trial his cure.

Forty years on Hester Why comes to be a nurse to the paralysed, mostly mute Miss Pinecroft. She is running away from things in her passed & thought she had reached a place of safety but strange goings on & the other staff's beliefs in fairies- & not the cute Tinkerbell types make her realise she might be more endangered now.

This was a well written atmospheric book, but it failed to really hook me & I was quite pleased to finish it. Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book.

My first Laura Purcell adventure. I'm a big fan of gothic literature; I studied it at university and fell in love with its qualities. This has them... But they're obscured sometimes by the sheer volume of characters and subplots. That said, it's based in Cornwall, it's creepy and I didn't need to negotiate with myself to finish it. I think I'll definitely give her another chance now that I'm a little more aware of her writing style, I just need a pen and paper to help myself keep up with everyone and everything that's going on!
I've given this 3 but it's definitely more worthy of 3.5, I just couldn't round it up to 4!

Set in Cornwall, where tales of fairies are rife. Esther Steven's is running away from her old life, she comes to look after Miss Pineceoft as her personal nurse. But High Place has secrets.
I liked the idea of the story, but I felt it dragged a bit in places and found my mind wondering as I was reading. I really wanted to like this book as I love Laura's other books.

Thank you Netgalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for letting me read

I enjoyed this book loved that it was a gothic victorian an a chilling story about an era that believes in fairies. It story begins around a ladies maid Hester who you find out why she is in Cornwall as well as her mistress Louise Pinecroft who you find has a back story of 40 years ago an why she believes in fairies.

Louise Pinecroft has lost her mother, brother and sister to Consumption, leaving her and her father heartbroken. Her father Dr Pinecroft has convinced himself that sea air will be a revolutionary cure and arranges for a group of prisoners suffering from Consumption to move into a cave beneath his new home in Cornwall for treatment. At the same time, Louise becomes concerned by the strange folktales and superstitions she has learned about from her new maid.

Forty years later, Hester Why becomes a nurse for the partially paralysed and almost entirely mute Louise Pinecroft. The superstitious and bizarre rituals undertaken by the staff soon start to play with Hester’s mind, as she discovers that her new home may not be the escape she was looking for.

I loved The Silent Companions, the first gothic novel from Laura Purcell, so I had high expectations for Bone China and luckily I was not disappointed. I love the creepy, atmospheric style of her writing and even though I am not an expert, the historical aspects seemed very believable to me. It was clear from reading the acknowledgements that a lot of research had gone into the book and making sure that the medical terminology and the types of medications and herbs used at the time were accurate.

The way the story was split over multiple timelines set forty years apart made it really interesting. Trying to piece together bits of the mystery and work out how the current occupants at Morvoren House had ended up in the situation they were in was part of the appeal. I didn’t find it as spooky as The Silent Companions but I still enjoyed the story, and the Cornish setting allowed the introduction of the local folklore which I found really interesting.

I don’t want to give any spoilers but I will say that I was completely shocked by the ending. I didn’t picture the story going that way at all and I liked the way that certain questions were left unanswered. There are several ways you could interpret the ending and the question of what is real and what is supernatural still plays on your mind right until the end.

Thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for the opportunity to read and review.

I am a huge fan of gothic, creepy stories and Laura Purcell is definitely one of the best historical fiction writers around for this type of book. Her style of writing is just perfection. The way she creates such an eerie atmosphere in her books is just incredible.

Bone China is another gem that she has written. It is set in Cornwall and it brings in some Cornish folklore about fairies. Not nice twinkly, Tinkerbell type fairies, but fairies who want to kidnap young children or women!

So many of the characters were very odd and made me feel uneasy. My favourite parts were of the young Louise Pinecroft when she was helping her father to try and treat the men suffering with consumption in the caves. I was a bit disappointed to not have more insight into her character when the story jumps to 40 years later as it would have been great to understand her thoughts by that point.

I have given this 4 stars instead of 5 as I loved The Silent Companions more and that was a 5 star read for me. Also at one point I felt the story fell a bit flat with not too much happening but it soon picked up and I loved the ending although I do have a lot of unanswered questions still about some of the characters. I highly recommend this to any readers who love a dark, disturbing gothic story.

Once again, Laura Purcell has dropped in on a Gothic wind to explode on the shelves. With her usual wit, power, and natural talent for writing believable perspectives, "Bone China" is strong and fearless.
I really did enjoy every page. It took a little while to get going, for that ball to start rolling, and then all at once I found myself completely submerged in a world of her creation.
Compared by many to Daphne du Maurier, there is something fabulous about seeing a gap on the market filled. Until Purcell's books, modern gothic was an almost complete unknown. It's wonderful to know that is no longer the case. All of her books have had messages running through them, and this was no different.
Read this, then sleep with the light on!

This was a beautifully written novel. It's a Victorian Gothic thriller with a disturbing atmosphere and wonderful pace that left me breathless until I reached the last page. I loved following Hester's story from the moment she reaches Falmouth and is driven to Morvoren House which is mysterious to the point of spooky, standing on the Cornish coastline, and with three very different inhabitants whom we get to know as we learn more and more about Hester herself. It's a very clever story. A reader wants to learn more about Hester. What is she running from and why. She has demons and a gin addiction that must be satisfied if she can function. Hester is a companion and carer for the mute Miss Pinecroft so we are curious about her. In addition, why is there a child woman , Rosewyn, living in the house as this strange woman's ward? The servants too a keeping secrets. . Everyone is a flawed character. There is the peculiar room with Bone China. This in itself is bizarre because Hester is charged with cleaning it. Does the China keep secrets as well? Amongst the secrets are fairytales and folklore and a very old Cornish world. A secondary story interlinked with the main plot takes the reader back decades and also is enthralling. Louise, in this part of the story, helps her doctor father experimenting with a cure for consumption. Since his family, except for Louise, died of the disease he feels duty bound to discover a way to make his ginuea pig prisoner patients well again. He is utterly obsessive. Louise will suffer the consequences of this. I found Louise intriguing but , of course, I loved the character of Hester most of all in the novel, even though and because her personal history was dubious. Hester's character, too, was a result of circumstance. This is an exceptionally impressive novel and I loved every chapter. I loved the story telling, the descriptions and characters. If you want a fabulous read that's a mix of books like Fingersmith, Jane Eyre, The Essex Serpent, only to name a few of the best novels in this genre, please read Bone China.

Thanks to Bloomsbury and NetGalley for the Advance Review Copy in exchange for an honest review.

I’ve tried to write this review on and off since I read this book months ago. I don’t really know what to say about it other than it just wasn’t for me. The synopsis sounded like it would be right up my street, but I found myself disengaged from the start and I didn’t like it anymore as I progressed through the book. Perhaps it was just too similar to other books of this genre that I've read over the past few years. It had a similar feel to some of Sarah Waters’ books but I just didn’t feel it was of the same standard. Maybe I've just had my fill of gothic Victorian fiction. There’s nothing bad about this book, it just wasn’t for me.

In a time when fairies are thought to be real, ordinary worries in life such as illness or being ‘different’ seem spooky.
Consumption was killing people so life and death were at the forefront of people’s lives. The story centres around the maid Hester Why. She comes to the house years after the death of the master. She has just left a death and thinks the strange goings on are to do with her.

This is the third book by Laura Purcell that I had read and I think it’s my favourite.

Laura has such a wonderfully haunting style of writing that just pulls me in every time. I truly couldn’t put this book down and I think it’s the quickest I’ve ever read a book!

Once again we have a strong female character- in fact, a strong female cast, bar the father/doctor, and Laura makes these very real to us., drawing us in.

An absolutely fantastic book.

My thanks to Netgalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for them copy.

This book had me hooked from the start. At the end I still wasn’t sure what who was good and who was bad? I had to sit and think about it. Gothic in style but not Victorian in language. For comments left by others, it would seem it is different for her previous two books, which I look forward to reading.

If I had to use one word to describe Laura Purcell’s books it would sinister. This is a creepy read set in Cornwall around the lives of 2 women. Hester Why who moves to Morvoren House to care for Miss Pinecroft, it then goes back 40 years earlier and follows Miss Pinecrofts former years. At times it gets confusing and there seems to be a lot of characters to follow but as it unfolds it becomes easier. There is much going on in the story and the list of characters at the front does help the further you read. I enjoyed the book but there is a lot happening in it and it does require time and patience to complete.