’”Silence is not only silence, sir, it is attention – it is sanity. It is sleep for infants, medicine for invalids, rest for the working man – it is money for the man who must think or stave.”’

Mesmerising, enchanting, beguiling; ’The Silence Factory’ cast a spell over me and left me utterly entranced from its very first page. Reading this book was like being struck by Telverton silk itself, although it was the world that drifted away from me, rather than sound, as the pages of this book dragged me in and kept me lost within its mesmerising world. As a fan of the author’s debut perhaps that’s not entirely surprising but even so this book left me speechless.

Getting hooked upon this narrative is easy thanks to how beautifully it’s crafted and how vividly it depicts it setting. There’s something about Bridget Collins’ writing that lends itself perfectly to the gothic delights that she pens. And this one; this one was almost like a fever dream at times to read. It’s not surreal – don’t let that description put you off – but it’s simply the way that it gets under your skin and sinks its teeth into you. Reading this book the atmosphere overwhelms you, leaving you totally immersed within all that the characters feel. Which, given the effect of the silk, leads to that haunting experience.

The narrative is split between two perspectives. The main one, Henry’s, is told through his voice and lets you discover Telverton silk as he does. It’s a fascinating storyline to unravel and left me mesmerised throughout. Wrapped around this narrative are extracts from Sophia’s diary back when she and her husband first came across the spiders who create this bewitching silk. And those segments were equally impossible to tear my eyes away from. If the narrative had focused upon either I’d have been delighted but to have both felt like a perfectly precious gift.

The characters are wonderfully well depicted and brimming with life. Everybody felt fleshed out in a believable manner and there wasn’t anyone involved who didn’t leave me intrigued. The more villainous characters of this novel though; goodness they chilled me. There are scenes in both storylines that were uncomfortable to read and made my skin crawl with loathing. That’s how deplorable, yet realistically depicted, some of the darkest deeds are within this book.

Set within a factory in a historic setting this book naturally touches on some of the horrific conditions that people were forced to work in during this time and setting (and yes, it will make you despair and seethe). Similarly it shines a light on colonialism, class divides and sexism in a manner that fits perfectly within the story that is told. The topics are there, and depicted in a way that will inevitably move you, yet not pushed in a way that disrupts the story’s flow.

Finally I just want to say that the ending was beautifully captured. Honestly I long to go into details about exactly how it moved me but won’t due to the spoiler risk. But it fits the narrative perfectly and will certainly make you feel...something.

Altogether I think it goes without saying that I recommend ’The Silence Factory’. It’s a beautiful, beguiling wonder of a book that will swiftly cast its spell over you. The atmosphere is vivid enough to engulf you entirely and the plot will leave you mesmerised throughout. Needless to say I can’t wait to read more by the author.

’I do not know if this is the birthplace of silence, but I am sure that there is something strange here, something of which I should be afraid. But I am not.’

I don’t generally go into depth with triggers (I know that I’ll inevitably overlook one and worry that they can venture into spoiler territory at times) but I do feel compelled to warn readers that this book could be difficult at times for readers triggered by mentions of suicide and/or miscarriage.

I loved Bridget Collins’s first two adult novels The Binding and The Betrayals. They have in common a certain vagueness of place and/or time. The Silence Factory has our protagonist Henry firmly rooted in 1870s England, and his patron’s great aunt Sophia writing a generation before. Her treatment by husband James and attitude to that are very much of their time.
This arachnophobe could have done without silk-spinning spiders, crucial to the action, being introduced on the first page. But they’re not used to creepy effect; it’s their webs and items woven from their silk that are sinister or wondrous. The fabric can completely absorb sound or reflect it back, creating a cocoon of silence or an unbearable echo.
We travel with Henry from London to the West Country, as he becomes smitten with more than the powers of the silk. It suits him to shut out things he doesn’t want to see or to think about, for a time at least. As in her previous novels, Bridget Collins has created a world with a certain je ne sais quoi of atmosphere with an undercurrent of threat. There’s desire and drama and even force majeure, and a reveal near the end I didn’t see coming.

This book was an automatic choice for me for two reasons. Firstly because of the author. Her other books are spellbinding. Secondly, the cover which is wonderful! It did not disappoint. The narrative is told from two time periods and from the points of view of two different characters, another plus from me. It has a gothic and magical atmosphere provided by spiders stolen from a remote Greek Island that spin magic silk able to give complete silence to users. All the ingredients for a cracking good read. Recommended.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advance copy. All opinions are my own.

This is tremendous - I loved it! Definitely her best yet. A book about silence overlaid with unsettling and eerie nuances. When Henry Latimer volunteers to attend to the young deaf daughter of a notable factory owner he enters a world far removed from his former life in London. A world where strange happenings affect the workers of a silk factory and where dreams and ambitions harbour greed and dangers. I really enjoyed the premise of the plot, the back story of James and Sophia gave a framework to everything that happened to Henry mirroring it in a clever way. Perhaps the ending was suffered from a neat resolution that seemed too tidy after the chaos in the last part of the book but this was a minor thought. A very good read indeed.

My thanks to Bloomsbury and Net galley for this ARC.

Thank you to publishers The Borough Press, NetGalley and the author Bridget Collins, for allowing me to read this fantastic new novel from the aforementioned Ms Collins. It is filled with lots of vibrant characters, some nice and some not so nice, that will live on in your head long after you have finished the book.
I loved the clever concept of a spider-spun silk that can block out all sound, rendering the world silent, and one man’s journey to bring it to the masses…. Albeit the rich masses. When Henry Latimer travels to Sir Edward Ashmore-Percy’s large mansion house, primarily to help Sir Edward’s deaf daughter, Philomel, little does he know what the future has in store for him. We follow every twist and turn of his extraordinary journey from his normal everyday life, to the brink of insanity.
I really liked reading this book. Even though historical-industrial-romance fiction, with a touch of sci-fi thrown in for good measure, was always way outside of my usual comfort zone, I devoured it in just a few sessions. I would recommend it to anyone, and look forward to seeing it on the shelves.

There is a sense of unreality and magic about this book that is compelling, even for a reader who is not usually attracted to such stories. There are two timelines here - the first imagines a lonely woman living on a Greek island in an earlier century with her thoughtless, pompous and very unpleasant husband who cares for nothing but his own standing in society. The second is about Henry, a rather pathetic chap who, having lost his wife and baby in childbirth is working for his father-in-law, supplying the wealthy with hearing implements. Henry is offered the chance to try to give some hearing back to the young daughter of Sir Edward and he travels to Telverton, where Sir Edward is supposedly making huge wealth by weaving magical cloth from spiders’ webs. The same spiders were brought to England by the aforementioned pompous husband of Sophia, which is what links the two storylines. The book is really about the perils of greed, and the rightness of leaving what is good in nature in its rightful place, no matter what opportunities may be offered. I found the book charming, troubling, thought provoking and absolutely entrancing too!

Henry Latimer is working in his father-in-law’s shop which sells a vast variety of auditory equipment when he meets Sir Edward Ashmore-Percy who has come for some help for his young daughter. Henry has recently lost his wife and infant daughter, his wife having died in childbirth.

When Sir Edward Ashmore-Percy asks for a consultation for his daughter, Henry agrees to travel to Devon to see if he has any equipment to help with Philomel’s hearing. After several days Henry has no success in helping Philomel. Ordinarily he would have left Cathermute House at this stage but instead he is plunged into a strange world helping Sir Ashmore-Percy to find investors for the spider silk made at his factory in Telverton. Sir Ashmore-Percy has been making the silk for ten years and is on the verge of losing all his inheritance.

The Silence Factory is a book that draws you in to a mysterious world and takes you back in time to the 1820’s when Edward’s grandfather travelled to Greece with his wife Sophia and discovered a spider whose web had special qualities as it masked all external sounds when made into silk.

Henry is attracted to his employer, Edward and will do anything to win his favour and promote the silk produced at the factory but all is not as it seems at the factory and there are many who are at breaking point because of methods used there. As Sir Edward’s world starts to unravel, Henry starts to realise that the lives of the people of Telverton are worth much more than his employee’s business.
I became so submerged in this book and the ending was really exciting and not at all what I expected.

This was a mess of a book full of unlikeable characters and confusing plotlines.
The story is told through two viewpoints. Henry, recently widowed through childbirth and struggling to find his place in the world, accepts a job offer in Telverton from the mysterious Sir Edward. There he finds a town crippled by the strange effects of the silk weaving factory and falls under a strange enchantment. Sophie's story is told through the pages of a diary, detailing her travels with her husband and their time on Kratos where they discover the spiders at the centre of this tenuous web.
The two stories never really come together and Sophie's tale, after a promising start, becomes an overblown gothic affair that is never properly resolved.
Henry is the most spineless, vacillating character. He developes an improbable passion for his new employer, Sir Edward, and despite abundant evidence to the contrary, continues to believe he is a decent man misled by others.
Most of the other characters, have no real depth, and Sir Edward's motivations remain a complete mystery.
The central idea of the spider's Silk has real promise but it doesn't really get properly explored. I wanted to know more about the sacred aspects of their worship on the island and why the local women welcomed Sophie into their rituals.
And the most unbelievable aspect of the whole book? Nobody seems to have any hint of arachnophobia!! Everyone happily handles the spiders and no one seems worried at all about them getting out. If I lived in Telverton the funny noise issues would be the least of my concerns!!
I wasn't sure what this book was trying to say other than some vague themes about relationships and parenthood, and the ending was improbably neat. All in all a very disappointing read.
Thanks to Harper Collins UK and Netgalley for the ARC.

The Binding and The Betrayals by Bridget Collins were excellent novels.

The Silence Factory is another winner.

This is the story of Henry- recently widowed and tormented by memories, sleepless nights and the sounds around him during the early hours; that is until he is given a piece of silk cloth woven from the thread of a spider- it diminishes all sound and seems to lull him into a different state of mind.

Henry is an audiologist and works with hearing implements to alleviate the isolation of deafness. When he's invited to visit the home of Sir Edward Ashmore-Percy -who is the supposed creator of this magical sound-eliminating silk- he feels drawn to the man- to help his hearing-impaired daughter Philomel and soon to assist him promoting the magical silk

But so begins Henry's troubles as he is pulled into the world of Sir Edward Ashmore-Percy and the town of Telverton where local children who work at the factory are becoming deaf and a madness prevails among the workers; this insanity and deep enchantment soon begins to emerge within Henry as his only desire is to please and be with Sir Henry- an insanity

In his desire to be accepted and blind infatuation Henry wants to ignore the story behind the spiders, the provenance of the silk , Sir Edward's avarice and the damage to the local area. The story is interspersed with diary excerpts from Sir Edward's ancestors who first visited the Greek island home of the spider, learned of their magical strengths, encountered tragedy yet still stole the creatures for personal gain.

Henry's infatuations soon finds himself in a life or death situation.

Although there is a sense of the gothic about the novel- similar to Bridget Collins previous novels- the dark somewhat mystical, menacing and surreal nature of the tale and the magical influences of the silk and the spiders, there is also another element.

The story takes on something deeper - an analogy linked to modern life; the rituals and customs of societies whose belief in nature and its power are undermined versus the desire of man and science to control what he cannot explain; the evolution and magical/unexplained characteristics of the natural world versus man's intervention to want to control and adapt nature( GM) in the name of a better society or greater common good but ultimately aligned greed.

Personally, this is Bridget Collins best book so far- if you have a fear of spiders be warned .But ultimately, this is a story of infatuation and man's predatory nature to control and manipulate without concern. The desire to succeed above common sense. A great read.

Thank you to Net Galley for the advance copy

Very nice writing, very imaginative and unique, and it definitely managed to build quite the atmosphere. Personally, I found the story very slow, quite boring, and just not enough to hold my attention. The book felt very long because barely anything was happening. The ending however wrapped up super quickly and after all that build up I just wanted more.

A massive thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for giving me an arc of one of my most anticipated releases this year— It certainly did not disappoint! I love Collins’ style of writing, have done since The Binding, and am so impressed by how she managed to make me both hate and love Henry within a few chapters. I found myself interested in both storylines, which is oftentimes rare when there are different point of views. The plot twists were devastating, I really felt for Sophia, and the conclusion of the novel was satisfying yet I crave more of Henry and what he does!

📚 Book Review 📚

After reading The Binding at the end of last year, I was keen to read this.

The language and writing is typical Bridget Collins, with distinct gothic overtones, great description, wonderful imagery and the thread of fantasy and magic woven throughout the pages.

The book has two timelines and two pov; Sophia who travels to Greece with her husband James and Henry, a recently widowed young man who lives with his father in law.

Both lives are intertwined through the years by magical spiders, whose silken webs can create a void of sound. But nothing is as it seems for either character and the path each takes.

Both characters take a journey of self discovery against the backdrop of Greece and Telverton; a dark town with a large factory owned by the descent of Sophia. A factory which is renowned for making magical cloth whilst the workers live in illness and torment.

Whilst the descriptions are stunning, the characters become more and more unappealing as the story goes on. This I think, is a deliberate plan but I found about 75% in, that I wanted the story to end quicker. I started to loose my interest in what happens to them.

Overall though, this is an intense, well written gothic story with historical and magical hues. Although, I felt less affinity to the characters than I hoped, I still enjoyed reading this book and Bridget Collins writing is still beautiful and mysterious.

I’d like to thank Harper Collins UK, NetGalley and the author for the arc and the fantastic opportunity, in exchange for my honest feedback 😊

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Read halfway dnf. Found that I was drifting through the sentences which I didn't find enough to hold my attention was waiting for something to happen. I think the idea is excellent and the book cover fantastic. I just didn't love the writing.

Thank you Netgalley, Harper Collins UK, & Harper Fiction for the opportunity to read this title.

The Silence Factory by Bridget Collins is a gothic mysterious tale set in the Victorian era. We follow our main protagonist Henry, a recent widower who works alongside his father in law in London, within a small shop offering a range of hearing aids. One afternoon a wealthy businessman named Sir Edward enquired about their services for his deaf daughter, & naturally, when making conversation with Henry he explained the nature of his business and offered him an intriguing sample of seemingly magical Silk.

The Silk had the power to silence Henry’s hounding traumatic thoughts and offer him solace, being able to sleep.

Throughout the book Henry begins to work alongside Sir Edward, helping him to flourish his business and spread the word of the magical properties the Silk has.

However, not is all as it seems; when we flash back to Sir Henry’s Great Aunts journal entries, she details the origins of the Silk, and the effects it has on her personal and marital life.

The Silence Factory was a very intriguing read that was thoroughly well written, and I did enjoy the ending, however I feel that some parts of the story were not concluded properly - Sophia’s life, ‘pregnancy’, her relationship with Hira, being regarded to as a Maggot (what did she mean by this?). Did the Silk seem to have some erotic persuasion upon the same sexes or was it merely coincidence that both Sophia and Henry both seemed to have fell in love, and with the same sex - I couldn’t quite understand?

3.5 Stars. K.

I enjoyed The Binding and hoped this would be as compelling a read, and it absolutely was! The world she’s created is so vivid and the idea of the silencing silk was dark and strange and brilliant.

The Silence Factory by Bridget Collins is her third book and the third I've had the pleasure of reading. I absolutely adore her prose and the way in which the words flow and the story captures me from the very first line. She weaves a magical effect and as a reader I am transported deep into the world of the characters she creates. The Silence Factory was no different and the world created felt so real. I loved how easily it captured me, the rhythmic storytelling and the emotional depth explored.

The Silence Factory by Bridget Collins is her third book and the third I've had the pleasure of reading. I absolutely adore her prose and the way in which the words flow and the story captures me from the very first line. She has a magical effect on me as a reader transporting me into the world of the characters. The Silence Factory was no different and the world created felt so real. I loved how easily it captured me, the rhythmic storytelling and the emotional depth explored.

The story has a gothic feel to it and Henry Latimer the main character is widow who works as an aurist with his father-in-law in London. When he meets Sir Edward Ashmore-Percy who comes seeking help for his daughter, Henry is thrust into a new world in the town of Telverton and the strange mystery of the silk spiders. Throughout the story we get diary entries from Sophia Ashmore from the 1820's when she travelled to the Greek Islands with her husband James in search of some remarkable discovery he has heard of. These diary entries tell Sophia's story and her struggles and are an integral part of bridging the past and the present in which Henry finds himself in.

Collins's writing with its vivid imagery pulls the reader deep into this new world, building tension and creeping horror that will have you turning the pages late into the night to see how the mystery unfolds. The Telverton factory where the silk is woven is an eerie place with a noise that deafens the children forced to work inside and pulls Henry's own horrors to the surface. There is building tension throughout culminating in an ending that is very satisfying and also very poignant.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this latest novel from Bridget Collins and know that I will never hesitate to pick up one of her books. Her name is synonymous with a superb read that I know will stay with me long after the story is finished. A true story-teller that has proven her talents and excels with every novel released.

Bridget Collins is back with another spellbinding story of intrigue and mystery. The Silence Factory is a curious tale, full of magic and wonder but told through a lens of power struggles, corruption and dark deeds in almost a twisted fairytale style but without the charming prince to save the day. The storytelling was stunning — it takes a minute to find the flow as the narration gives itself an “old fashioned” feel to match the time period, but it’s poetic, highly descriptive and mesmerizingly hypnotic once you get into it.

But personally I just couldn’t get into it — I think the pacing was just a little off and it kept me from fully finding the flow of the story.

A strange but absorbing book.
A biologist takes some spiders from a Greek island once he discovers that their silk can provide silence. Years later a relation seeks to mass produce the silk and sell it for a fortune.
However why are there unfortunate accidents at the factory and what is the real secret of the spiders web. Is its properties a use for good or greed.
I struggled initially through the first chapters but became more engrossed as the story unfolded.

Henry is a sad man recently widowed when his wife and daughter died in childbirth. In his job as an aurist he is sent to see if he can help the daughter of a wealthy businessman to hear. Sir Edward wants to make his fortune making special silk which has the power to produce silence. He asks Henry to help with the marketing and Henry falls under his spell, but the more he learns about the man and his business the more it emerges that there are dark secrets in the family.. A leather bound diary, which Henry finds in the library , written by one of Sir Edwards ancestors tells thew story of how the silk was discovered on a Greek Island. Reminiscent of Wilkie Collins this is a rattling good tale.

This book was not quite what I expected, especially after reading and enjoying Bridget’s novel The Binding. Although the plot was very different - weaving silk from snails I found it a long and difficult read. I kept waiting for I don’t know what, but something else to happen. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read and give an honest review. Sorry, but I know others will probably enjoy it.