I need to get me a copy of this book (read this one on Netgalley). I'm a bit sad that it doesn't look like her previous two, but I still need this. The writing was astounding, just what I remember from The Binding! As soon as I started reading it sucked me in. If you're after a lyrical (but not flowery) writing that just flows perfectly, pick this up. The atmosphere was built beautifully, I felt transported, and even though we only get a fraction of the time spent with Sophia, I really felt connected to her. Collins' way of writing the inside of our characters' heads is incredible. I can't remember the last time I had to put a book down because of his disgusted I was with a character, but James took the flipping cake with that one. Trigger warning here for miscarriage and very visceral depiction of the aftermath of it. I just really felt like I was living her life.
I love how complex both plotlines were. I took my time with this one but it also felt like it flew by. The descriptions of silence, and how well true silence could help the world, was so genius. But then also Worsley's side of how silence can 'help' was very true. There are two sides to each coin. I really thought something was up with Edward, however that felt a little bit too open-ended for me. Realistic, but open-ended.

Fantastic story and characters but OMG if you are in any way nervous or scared of spiders, this novel is FULL of the buggers.
Central to plot but I am still scratching and looking around me.
Guess it's a good book if it makes me feel like this!

This was such an interesting story. I was never really sure where it was going to go and it kept me guessing with all its twists and turns. It was also, rather fittingly, a quiet story that unfurled slowly until it happened all at once.

It was so beautifully written and there were so many stunning images woven in throughout.

I did think that the storyline from the past did end a bit abruptly, which I understood on some level, but there was so much there that the end of it did catch me off guard. Also, I wasn’t completely sold on the final twist but it didn’t spoil my overall enjoyment of the book.

“The imposition of silence upon on oneself may be a good; the imposition of it on anyone else is always an evil.”

I read about 85% of this in one day because I was caught in its web. Brilliantly plotted, gothic, lush, rich with poetry and description, heavy with foreshadowing and meaning. This is a book about power, and the implicit evil of exerting power over other people.

It is a book laden with silences, with pockets and lulls where the meaning is most impactful - never have I ever been more aware of repetition as a tool for delivering meaning than each time I read the phrase “there was a silence.” I haven’t read - yet - any of Bridget Collins’ work, and I certainly will be from now on.

The novel is set into two timelines, one in Victorian England with Henry, and one during the 1820’s in Greece, with Sophia Ashmore-Percy as our narrator. The story unfolds as we follow Henry’s descent into a complex web of illusions, power and lies at the heart of Telverton mill, where a new kind of silk is being made. In Sophia’s timeline, we see where the spiders producing this silk comes from, where the disaster in Henry’s timeline is foreshadowed and where Sophia connects deeply with Hira, a woman on the island as she experiences her own private revelation.

In Henry’s timeline, we follow his chance encounter with Edward Ashmore-Percy; who we soon come to realise is descended from Sophia and James in the earlier timeline. Working as an aurist with his father-in-law, Henry winds up travelling to Edward’s home in Telverton in an attempt to help his daughter, who was born deaf, recover some part of her hearing. Instantly, he is embroiled in his own feelings about Edward, the discovery of the ‘site I be ’ spiders and the power of their silk, their webs and the ‘echoes’ heard from their webs. Telverton silk banishes sound on one side, and on the other created and distorts sound, creating ‘echoes’ which have driven half the town to despair, deafness and violence. The factory is considered an abomination on the town by some, its workers go deaf as a result of the auditory disturbances of the silk and the machines, and we meet key side characters who are seeking retribution for harm that’s befallen their families.

Sure, there are great swathes of the book where “nothing” happens - I would counter this with a suggestion that this is a book about listening to the quieter moments for the truths they harbour. As the moments where we see Henry’s slice of life is where I think we see Henry truly in the thrall of his own heart, the seduction of the silk, and the metaphorical web he’s caught in. These are moments where he is given small keys to unlock the truths of Telverton, and where we see him mentally shove them aside. The spiders are known - from Sophia’s timeline - to weave webs which entice their prey, using melodies which act upon the soul to enchant, lure their prey which goes willingly to its destruction into the heart of the web, the most dangerous - for Henry, Cathermute House is the web, and Sir Edward Ashmore-Percy is the centre, the heart. Whether or not what he felt was love for Edward, Henry’s is a tale of someone that many of us have been. Someone willing to be ignorant for comfort, to wilfully put aside the misgivings of our truer nature because we didn’t want to believe wrongness about someone we held dear; or to accept these things would be to ruin a fantasy for ourselves, to harm our own happiness even if it is fake.

Do I agree with the decisions that Henry makes for most of this story? No. But I understand his mindset; he is a lonely and desperate widower, seeking a new start. He convinces himself that Edward is this opportunity, and so forcibly rewrites the truths he sees around him that could endanger that narrative. However I loved his arc, his opportunity for redemption, and his journey and am wholly satisfied with where he ends up!

In Sophia’s timeline, I adored the unfurling of the relationship that began to emerge between Sophia and Hira, a woman on the remote island she and her husband James travel to, on his quest to discover the spiders he’d been researching with a counterpart - who’s ended up deceased when they arrive onto the island. James is a character who, rightly and deliberately, incensed me. I hated him and the recognition of the comment that Collins used him to make. He belittled Sophia, negated her every feeling and intelligence, he was self-centred, egotistical, convinced of his own right to whatever he wanted - including the spiders. Sophia’s narrative is a bright squall of female suffering, of being made into a shape smaller than you should be because that’s what the world has told you is right. Sophia is, in Hira’s words, a “maggot-woman”, waiting to be hatched. To be free. I adored and despaired for Sophia, but loved her quiet rebellion, and just wished her story ended differently. She was bright, but dimmed by James, a story too often seen in reality; her experiences with Hira where liberating, and I wish she had more of them.

I personally would have LOVED more development in Sophia’s narrative - it felt towards the middle of the book that her story was used more as a tool to show the power of the spiders, how they’re revered and respected in their home, to contrast the ugly use of them for silk and profit in Telverton. And while this makes sense, I was connected to Sophia and Hira, I felt like they should have had more time on the page to breathe. Hira and Sophia’s connection was soul-deep, and I wanted more of it. I would have loved an more equal weighting between these timelines - I wanted to know what happened to Sophia in the latter parts of their time on the island. I wanted to know why Sophia hastily left, how James managed to hastily secure more spiders, enough to breed them, when Hira had so rightly accused him of disrespect, of exploiting them, of taking without thought:

“Oh you men, your religions are all the same. You ask for stories of the old gods, and look down your white nose at us as though we believed them all, and think yourself superior.”

I can’t help but read this as a cry against the patriarchal desire to take, control, dominate. Sure, I’m biased towards finding and appreciating this as a theme whenever I’m reading work because it was my choice of topic for the latter parts of my university experience - the presence of eco feminism in literature and the exploration of this in fiction. But this is an angry and vengeful book. It is one that explores the consequences of greed and tyranny, of taking something which is sacred from its home and exploiting it for profit - the spiders are a lens through which the real world is played out.

And through characters like Mercy, we see the lengths that many will go to in order to protect and avenge harm done to those they love - and the denial of suffering to suit profit. Through characters like Philomel, Edward’s daughter we see the attempt to force conformity and the silencing of his daughters truth, her deafness, and the origin of her deafness. Through characters like Worsley and Sir Edward, we see the causal oppression of women, children, anyone not deemed on the same ‘level’ as these men. Henry himself, is assumed to be subservient to Edward, his emotions manipulated for Edward’s gain - even I was hooked along, at the beginning - and Worsley is a man who will inflict pain and suffering upon anyone for the pleasure of it, for the control of it. The silk’s natural qualities are bastardised in the hands of these men, something dangerous but naturally occurring which needed to be respected was twisted into a tool that would have been all about manipulation, oppression and control.

Silence is imposed on so many levels in this book, and in so many ways. The literal silence of the workers in the factory, wrought by the machines and the production of the silk; the silence imposed upon the people who attempt to speak out against the factory, and to Sir Edward for the harm it’s doing; the silence that Henry imposes on himself, about his past, his pain. The silence forced upon Sophia by her husband, the denial of her thoughts and feelings, and the subsequent solace she finds in Hira. The silence of the soul, the erasure of self, that Edward and Worsley are attempting. And ultimately, the silence of history, when so many times it is the wrong people telling it.

There are many, many layers to this book - so many of which I can only begin to unpick, though I enjoyed them all. This is a feat of storytelling. A rich and challenging story, one of silences that are so often overbearingly loud. I cannot wait to dive into Bridget Collins’ backlist, and will be buying her books from now on!

Thank you to HarperCollins UK and NetGalley for the e-arc in exchange for my honest review!

Thank you Netgalley for the free ARC of The Silence Factory by Bridget Collins in exchange for an honest review.

I found this book really intrieging. It's not a genre I often pick up, but every time I do, I sit and wonder why I'm letting myself miss out.
The Silence Factory is told in 2 parts; we follow Henry, a widow who is eager to please a man who produces revolutionary silk that blocks all noise, and Sophia, the wife of the man who brought spiders back from Greece to make his fortune.

Pros:
- This book kept me guessing all the way. The thought that has gone into how the silk works is so in depth. If I saw this in a NatGeo doc I would probably just g0 "Yeah, checks out."
- Expertly creepy. I like spiders, and even I was itching with the pure vides this novel exudes.

Cons:
- I would hat ATE every part of this, but damn the ending just soured it. The Henry reveal had me screaming "What?!" and not in the best way, though I will put that down to personal tastes.

4.0 stars

A unique, somewhat gothic novel witch each half telling different stories.
The first story follows a woman who travels to a remote Greek island to meet a scientist friend only to find he is dead.
The second story follows an audiologist who sells ear trumpets who’s life changed forever when a customer, purchasing an ear trumpet for his deaf daughter, gifts him a piece of cloth.


I found this novel to be so well written, very unique and page turning.

The authors use of language was well executed and very intriguing.

Thank you to the publisher and the author for allowing me to read this ARC for free in exchange for my honest review.

Yeah, that cover right? Irresistible. I was all in on this one even before I skimmed over the blurb.

A Victorian gothic, part fantasy, part sci-fi tale about spiders and their silk!

Told in two time frames, in the present(Victorian era(ish) England) and in the past, a couple of generations before where the ancestors of some of our main characters are searching the Greek Islands for a mythical spider, who legend has it, makes silk that can silence the world among other things.

A really intriguing premise and the two time lines work well up to a point. The writing in large parts is absolutely beautiful. I’ve never read this author before but there is certainly a flair to her words that is very impressive.
The story is really interesting and both worlds feel very familiar and yet otherworldly.

Now the problems I had with the book:

It’s too goddam long. There are large parts of the book where little if anything happens. The book really dragged in parts.
The characters. Not one of them felt well written. They were either waifer thin or just incredibly stupid and unlikeable. Our main character Henry is both of the latter. Like the book kind of hangs on his exploits and he just makes too many dumb decisions, seems to idolise another hugely unlikeable character for no conceivable reason other than to move the story along and just becomes incredibly frustrating and unpleasant to spend time with.

Also, the storyline from the past just stops dead, after promising a lot more. It ends up just being a vehicle to explain where the spiders came from and that could have been done in a couple of chapters. It had been slowly revealing what may or may have been going on on the island and then….thats it, no more. Infuriating.

This could have been great. There are sprinklings of brilliance and the idea is so interesting. It just falls apart on a lot of the basics for me. Character development and storytelling. It feels muddled, like the author ultimately was unsure what she wanted the book to be.

2.5 stars rounded up to 3 because, despite my criticisms, there was nearly a gem here.

Many thanks to the publisher for the ARC through Netgalley.

This was an unusual and quite odd book - it took me a long time to get into and I must admit that at the beginning I thought I'd missed a bit as it seemed to start in the middle of a story. However I realised that like prey to a web I had gradually been drawn into this Gothic novel and appreciate Ms Collins vivid imagination and ability to write about her ideas. I did feel it dragged slightly in the middle but overall I really enjoyed it.
Thank you to netgalley and Harper Collins for an advance copy of this book

After losing his wife in child birth Henry Latimer is working as an audiologist for his father-in-law when Sir Edward Ashmore Percy visits seeking help for his deaf daughter. When he gives Henry a square of Telverton Silk Henry sees it as a chance to escape to the silence that he craves.
Told from the alternating viewpoints of Henry & then Sophy Ashmore Percy's 1820s diary on a Greek Island where her husband is searching for the spiders that spin the silk thread.
Brilliant gothic story with great twists & turns.

3.5/5

My first ever gothic historical fantasy and it was such a treat! I really enjoyed the descriptive writing style and the author did a great job setting up the eerie environment in both timelines (the island and the factory). I liked that we had a dual timeline situation and was especially consumed with Sophie's POV as it dove more into the origins of the spiders and their potential "mythical powers", as opposed to Henry's which was much more grounded and plot based.

I really loved the set-up of this book, probably until the 60% mark but then it hit a bit of a slump for me. The ending third fell a little flat (especially with no reappearance of Sir Edward or explanation of the spiders) and a plot point was revealed at the very end, which didn't make much sense to me. All in all, still enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend to character-driven gothic historical fantasy book lovers.

review to come, but let me tell you the first reason you should read this book is its writing. IT’S PHENOMENAL

Henry finds himself trying to help a young deaf girl but soon ends up embroiled in a different career after learning about her father's silk. It seems almost magical but can it really be so good.

This was an interesting read, its quite a dark story and you do find yourself feeling rather sorry for the creatures involved in this. The story is told by him and Sophia further in the past. It does take a bit of following and i was slow to get into the story but it eventually drew me in. The plot is a slow and steady build. The ending was dark and then hopeful which really finished the story well. Henry is not the most likeable, but he goes through a lot and you start to understand him more. A dark, gothic story.

This powerfully woven tale draws you into its web from the very beginning. I found it almost impossible to put down. It is that rarest of things; a novel with a brilliantly original idea and a terrific plot.
Grieving widower, Henry Latimer, falls under the influence of a charming industrialist, the enigmatic Edward Ashmore-Percy, who has discovered how to weave a silk from spider thread that has a strange effect on the transmission of sound. But as Henry takes on his new job and learns more about the ‘Silence Factory’ and the history of the spiders, his fresh start takes a terrible turn.
The two storylines are deftly woven together, each with their own twists and turns and surprises, building to a terrifying climax. They work together to build an atmosphere of genuinely frightening gothic horror. You don’t need to be afraid of spiders to find yourself brushing your neck as you read; in fact, the spiders are in many ways the least scary of the monsters in this book. That being said, the thought of the rows of spider tanks, with their silent, watchful denizens will stay with me for some time.
I particularly liked the way this novel worked on so many layers. Henry himself sometimes admits that he feels he has fallen into a ‘penny dreadful’ beneath the brilliantly-realised gothic adventure, deeper issues are at play; the theft that lies at the heart of empire, the abuse of power, the dangers of allowing the ends to justify the means, the exploitation of nature for profit. And, running through it all like a sinuous thread of spider silk, the suffocating oppression of women. Henry’s growth in understanding, both of the world around him and his own nature, is all the more powerful because he is so very much a man of his time. As the story grows ever darker, everything he thought he knew will be turned upside down. And some of the webs ensnaring him are not made by spiders.
I absolutely loved this book. For me, it combined the sinister threat of the darkest Sherlock Holmes stories with the passion and fury of the Brontes – with a touch of Bram Stoker for spice. It was beautifully written, thoughtful and thought-provoking – and I was desperate to find out how it ended. What a great read. It turns out that silence is not always golden.

What drew me into this gothic historical mystery by Bridget Collins was its eerie cover art and captivating storyline. Looking at it closely, the haunting cover sets the tone perfectly- expect a journey full of surprises, lores and deep thematic exploration.

Collins masterfully weaves two timelines together, introducing us to characters like Sophia Ashmore Percy and Henry Latimer. Sophia's 1820 diary entries on a Greek island and Henry's struggles in the industrial era shed light on societal injustices, poverty, and the dark underbelly of wealth-driven motives.

The magical element of spider silk adds a unique twist, enveloping readers in a world of intrigue and mystery. However, amidst the brilliance, there are moments that falter. While the story grips you, some character flaws can be a bit distracting. Henry's presence is extremely exhausting and he does nothing to make the store better.

Yet, despite these nuances, the novel shines in its depiction of the Victorian era's harsh realities, highlighting themes of greed, corruption, and societal disparities with raw authenticity. Sophie's diary, intertwined with Henry's narrative, adds depth and emotional resonance, making you empathize with characters caught in the web of societal pressures and manipulations.

Overall, this is a great pick for fans of historical mysteries and gothic fiction. Collins' vivid portrayal of the era's complexities and her characters' struggles make for a compelling and thought-provoking experience, leaving an impression.

Bridget Collins is a unique voice in the historical fiction genre. Weaving a touch of magical realism into her novels she likes to explore emotional themes and reexamine history, relationships and humanity from interesting new angles. The Silence Factory takes us to industrial Victorian England with a creative reinvention of the silk weaving factories. This novel interrogates voice and agency viewing the restrictions placed on subsets of people based on their gender, sexuality, class and disability. It is also a story of echoes with hints of colonialism and the ethics of scientific research. Thought provoking and fun! Although content warnings for arachnophobics!
This honest review is given with thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this book.

I really enjoyed this. It was a very…. strange story, but one I really did enjoy reading.
I liked the characters, well, most of them. Some weren’t too nice. But in my mind the writing painted pictures, I wanted to be friends with some of them. I wanted to see their homes, and visit their countryside.

As I said, it was a very strange story, but one that called to me, to have me wanting to be in there, with them, wanting to know them.

"The Silence Factory" by Bridget Collins is a mesmerizing tale that draws you into its web of intrigue and mystery.
From the moment I started reading, I was captivated by the allure of silence and the enigmatic Sir Edward Ashmore-Percy. The premise of silk that can drown out the noise of the world is both fascinating and chilling, and Collins weaves it into a narrative that feels almost too real to be fiction. The characters are richly portrayed, each with their own secrets and motivations, and the descriptions of the spiders and their silk are so vivid.
As Henry is drawn deeper into Sir Edward's world, the stakes rise, and I found myself unable to put the book down.
“The Silence Factory" is a must-read for anyone who enjoys immersive storytelling and thought-provoking themes.

‘The Silence Factory’ is a dual timeline novel, set between the 1820s and roughly forty to fifty years later. It is in this latter period in which we meet Henry Latimer, working as an audiologist in his father-in-law's shop. Stifled by the grief of losing his wife through childbirth, he is offered an opportunity to leave London to attend to a wealthy industrialist’s deaf daughter and soon discovers the town of Telverton, with its imposing factory and enigmatic owner.

Similarly to Collins’ previous two novels, ‘The Binding’ and ‘The Betrayals’, ‘The Silence Factory’ is set in a world very much like our own but with a layer of magical realism. In ‘The Silence Factory’, I found this to be particularly deftly and subtly done, to the point where you are so immersed it’s possible to believe the astonishing properties of the silk made in the factory.

Though Latimer is the main character here, his benefactor Sir Edward Ashmore-Percy is the more elaborately drawn. I found him fascinating, not least because he is devastatingly charming but also totally inscrutable. The factory itself could also be considered a major character in this novel, its malevolent presence in the town utterly palpable through the pages.

I would have liked to have had more of the novel given over to the portion set in the 1820s, following Sophia and James Ashmore-Percy, but since this is presented through diary entries written by Sophia, perhaps it’s the intention of the author to keep these characters at an arm’s length, to allow the latter timeline to fully develop ahead of its cataclysmic conclusion.

I love Bridget Collins’ world-building and am always captivated by the stories she tells. Though I have to confess that this hasn't replaced my favourite of her novels so far (that title would go to ‘The Betrayals’), I would say that she, and ‘The Silence Factory’, still stand head and shoulders above her peers in this arena.

With grateful thanks to the publishers and to NetGalley for the advance copy of ‘The Silence Factory’, on which this review is based.

A captivating, gothic, historical mystery… it is haunting, magical, eerie and sometimes just downright weird! Despite this being a very unique, artistic and really well written book… I did find the premise slightly strange!! And at points I just felt like the plot was slightly pointless… but I was also completely addicted and definitely really enjoyed it! I absolutely loved The Binding and this just fell a little flat compared to that for me.

Beautifully constructed tale of greed and ambition for power, fame and fortune -capitalism at its worst. Those who are either forced, coerced or tricked with the promise of financial gain eventually find that the outcomes promised are not what was expected. Some are able to walk away whilst the lives of those dependent on the factory for their livelihood are irrevocably damaged beyond comprehension.