I think Bridget Collins might be my new favourite author! I read The Binding earlier this month and absolutely loved it and I possibly enjoyed The Silence Factory even more. Both will be in my top five books of the year.
I never usually read fantasy books but I love the way these books are written as gothic Victorian fiction but with a slight magical storyline which feels so real! It actually has a classic feel to it when reading too.

The Silence Factory is gripping, creepy (particularly with the spiders!) and so atmospheric! I loved the dual time frame, particularly the part by Henry Lattimer as he goes to stay with Sir Edward and gets totally enthralled by the mysterious silk with its magical silencing powers that slowly draw him in deeper. I could picture the Silence Factory and all the horrors it contained within it's walls! The writing is just superb!

I literally couldn’t put this book down and alternated between reading and listening on audible. The audiobook is brilliant and I would recommend it too. I'm definitely going to read The Betrayls next and I can't wait!

This is a fabulous gothic thriller. I loved the atmosphere, and characters and the cover is amazing. Thank you so much for allowing me to read this in advance I loved it

First of all thank you to the publishers for letting me review Bridget's new book you have no idea how over the moon and excited to read this book.

I have read Bridget books before and always loved them so much , she sucked me into every story and i always feel totally spellbound .
I feel this book is so different yet I still feel all those feelings .
I really loved the story so much i found it so fascinating the idea of being wrapped in a Greek spider spider spun silk wrapped around you where you feel safe and no sound wow .
Honestly i felt this book was even better . I really had my head spinning ,it was jaw dropping and so sinister creepy and spine tingling perfect read for me and never read anything like it before .

Every character had me on my toes you think you know what your getting then bang they drop a bomb on you .they was all very compelling ,i have never been so invested in characters in a story as much as these ,

Bridget's writing is always incredible but this time she taken huge step and taken me out of my comfort zone .i think she is one of the most phenomenal writers of this decade.

This story is going to sit in my brain for a very long time .

I am giving this spine chilling compelling 5 stars

I’ve read other books by this author and this one is just as good. It has everything woven into the story, great characters just a brilliant book.
Would recommend to others.

I was drawn to this book firstly by the cover, which really caught my eye. It's a creeping, gothic story which held my interest right the way through. It follows the story of Henry who is sent to try and cure a young girl of her deafness. We also read the story of Sophia from decades earlier, as she and her husband travel to a Greek island where he is on the search for a rare spider. These magical spiders spin silk that completely silences everything, although it also has a dark side, which Henry discovers the longer he spends in the factory town. I really enjoyed this book, and it was hard to put down. I loved the eerie feeling and rising horror which persisted through the book. It was very well written and I would definitely recommend it.
Thank you to NetGalley for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for a review.

At points reflective, macabre, and gothic, The Silence Factory was a delicately spun story about silence, belonging, and purpose. I appreciated Collins’ poetic prose, as usual, and also how I’m never quite sure just how grounded in reality we are as we flit between metaphor and reality. The premise of the mystical spiders was also very unique, and I appreciated that they never became too caricatured (ie. never too ridiculously cartoonish or villainous). I wish we could have learned more about Sir Edward and his wife, but I thought Henry was an interesting character to read the book through. Personally, I felt that Sophia’s diary entries didn’t actually add that much to the story, and would have preferred more time given to the present day. Nonetheless, I was very much caught in the web of this novel, and would recommend to anyone who likes historical fantasy, magical realism, and gothic settings. 3.5/5!

‘The Silence Factory’ is a great gothic thriller. It’s perfectly creepy, a story filled with greed, mystique, and threat.

Sir Edward Ashmore-Percy sells a special kind of silk - one that can fully block out sounds. Henry Latimer is given a small piece, after they meet in his father-in-laws shop of auditory curious, and is amazed at how it culls the sound of the London streets, how it completely silences the world.

Henry ends up in Devon, at the Ashmore-Percy estate, on the request of helping his deaf daughter to hear again, but while there he becomes even more enthralled by the silk, the effect its creation is having on its small town (‘The Telverton Malaise’ becoming quite a well known phrase, locally and beyond), and eventually even begins to champion for it when investors are about. But how was such a silk found, and is it truly something that should be mass produced….?

This book was almost claustrophobic at times - the spiders weaving around, the noise all en-compassing, the weight and effect of capital greed. It was extremely well executed, and the rising threat level, mixed with our growing understanding of what the silk is, led to a pretty heart pounding third act.

The actions some of the characters made me genuinely angry at times, which is not a feeling I often get while reading. I might feel frustrated, or mild annoyance, but I don’t think I’ve ever exclaimed quite so loudly, while reading, as I did while reading this book. I was impressed that it managed to get such a strong rise out of me.

I loved the writing. It was both lyrical and disorienting. It felt like a dream that slowly tilted into becoming an all out nightmare, a play that cannot be stopped once it had started. So wonderfully eerie.

This was my first Bridget Collins book, but it certainly won’t be my last. I’m excited to dive into her back catalogue, while I also eagerly await whatever she releases next.

Thank you to the publishers, and netgalley, for the copy to review.

This is a story that is different from most other that I have read, It is a Gothic story with two timelines
The first is from the perspective of Sophia Ashmore Percy, who's diary written in the 1820’s tells how she travels to Greece with her husband to capture a rare silk spider in the hope of making important scientific discoveries that would make his name within the scientific community. The second later timeline tells of a hearing aid seller Henry Latimer who assists in his father-in-laws London business, He meets factory owner Sir Edward Ashmore Percy nephew of Sophia who is looking for a hearing devise for his deaf daughter. The factory produces cloth from the rare spider silk that seems to produce absolute silence from one surface and unsettling sound effects from the reverse, Henry is called to the factory owners estate in Telverton to meet the deaf daughter of Sir Edward and try and find a hearing devise that will aid the child. Henry is so taken by the silks properties that he convinces sir Edward that he can help promote and sell the silk. This tale is dark and unsettling in many ways and so well written that the book like the silk itself enfolds and enraptures the reader.I highly recommend this book and I would like to thank both The Borough Press and NetGallery for the advance e-copy of this novel

This was so atmospheric and creepy, it made me want to dive into more of Bridget Collins' work. The Binding has been on my tbr for a while.

The spiders and the way they were introduced were eerie and sinister while remaining intriguing, I wanted to know more even though I have such a fear and revulsion of spiders, I can't even bear to see images or descriptions of them.

The idea of manipulating the animals to create a fabric that can bestow silence is such a clever idea and when placed against the previously unimaginable noise of the industrial revolution and colonial entitlement, the resulting themes which are open to be explored are as rich as the mighty overbearing paternalistic industrialists that forced their smoggy contradictory morals upon the masses.

I did want more from some of the storylines, like the entries from Sophia Ashmore-Percy, Edward's great-aunt, and a bit more gumption or awareness from Henry, but on the whole it was an engaging and beautifully written story, and I would recommend it to lovers of Victorian gothic.

The Silence Factory by Bridget Collins
I had read and loved The Binding by the same author and so was really looking forward to reading this novel. It is Victorian Gothic at its best, the author’s use of imagery is poetic and allowing you visualise everything she writes about.
We follow two storylines one the diary of Sophia Ashmore Percy, written in the 1820’s, as she travels through Greece with her husband in search the spiders he wants to capture to bring back to England to make his name in scientific fields. On his arrival he discovers that the scientist he had thought he would meet is dead and he finds the locals uncooperative in helping him locate the special spiders. Sophia befriends a local woman and her relationship with her will have a dramatic impact on her life.
The other storyline is set decades later and revolves around Henry Latimer a young widower who is an audiologist working for his father in law. He is called to Telverton by Sir Edward Ashmore Percy to help him enable his daughter to hear. Sir Edward gives Henry a piece of silk spun by the spiders at his factory but the silk has beguiling qualities. It is able to cocoon you within absolute silence blocking out all other sounds but the other side of the silk seems to create noises which captivate Henry.
The factory where the silk is made appears to have a terrible impact on the workers. Many of the children of Telverton are deaf and there are stories of madness linked to the factory. The author’s descriptions of the poverty and the abuse of children in order to make a profit are powerfully evoked. We are shown how the pursuit of wealth and status allows some unscrupulous people to have complete disregard for the well-being of others.
The conclusion of the story is dramatic and gripping. I will be highly recommending this book at my various book groups and would like to thank Bridget Collins, Harper Collins and Net Galley for the opportunity to read the book in return for an honest review.

Like her earlier novel, The Binding, Bridget Collins has produced an extraordinary feast of words. Her beautiful imagery transports you effortlessly into a fascinating story. Whilst the book is very good, I found some of the descriptions far too long and I ended up skimming them in several places. I only gave it three stars because I had very high expectations, after the five-star The Binding.

A gothic novel about the power of human greed set in Victorian England. The richly descriptive and atmospheric writing incorporates art, mythology and poetry alongside an immersive setting. However the story itself was lacking with villains who are little more than caricatures and queer storylines that felt shoehorned in. Not one for me.

I loved both The Binding and The Betrayals, so I was eager to dive into Bridget Collins' latest speculative historical novel, The Silence Factory. In late nineteenth-century England, Edward Ashmore-Percy, landed industrialist, is struggling with his silk business: despite the fact that the magical spider-spun silk has the ability to block all noise, it's expensive to make, and few see the need for it. When Henry Latimer comes to his home to examine his deaf daughter, he is captivated by Edward's silk, and decides to try and find a market. But the dark underside of this business is immediately obvious: the villagers who work in Edward's factory and live near it go deaf, but are also troubled by mental disturbances, birth defects and hallucinations. In a second thread of diary entries, we hear from Sophia Ashmore-Percy, Edward's great-aunt, who travelled with her husband to a remote Greek island in 1820; her husband's keen to find and possess the spiders, but Sophia finds herself becoming entwined with the mystical local culture.

Sadly, although The Silence Factory had the makings of something truly imaginative and memorable, it all fell a bit flat for me. Henry's slow realisation of the damage caused by the silk industry takes up the vast bulk of the novel, and it's just so long and unconvincing: surely he would have figured all this out earlier? Because the reader knows that this is dangerous from the get-go, it feels like we're waiting for three hundred pages for Henry to catch up, which makes him such a frustrating protagonist. Collins suggests that he is blinded by his attraction to Edward, but this never rang true for me either, as Edward is so obviously a bad man (all the villains in this are incredibly 2D, which I hated). Having said that, Sophia's diary entries are wonderful - atmospheric, compelling, and thought-provoking about colonialism and extraction in a way that the didactic critique of Victorian capitalism in the rest of the novel is not - and it's such a shame she gets so little page-time. The final chapters of the novel, when Henry finally gets it together, are also darkly dramatic. I'm still a Collins fan, but for me this was closer to her two slightly disappointing short stories in The Haunting Season and The Winter Spirits than her two previous adult novels. I hope, in her next one, she leaves the restrictive apparatus of the nineteenth-century Gothic behind and focuses on the vivid, first-person inventiveness we see in Sophia's sections, as well as in The Binding and parts of The Betrayals. 3.5 stars.

Thank you Netgalley for this review copy.
Very original idea and I like the origin story and the women in this book but the men I found a little irritating and not well thought through.
Setting for the book was perfect, however, and the descriptive prose was beautiful.

This is an amazing gothic historical novel - I loved it. There are 2 timelines and 2 story tellers - the forst is set in 1820 and is told by diary of Sophia who along with her husband are in Greece and come across some elusive spiders that the locals protect . Her husband (not a very pleasant man) wants them and will do whatever to get them. Then the other timeline is 50 years later of a man called Robert who is called upon to help Sir Edwards daughter who is deaf hear again as he is an audiologist. There are so many stories laced in this book and a lot of sadness but a riveting read.

Another excellent book by Bridget Collins! Her wonderfully descriptive writing style keeps you engaged from beginning to end. This story explores the themes of silence and greed and how both can have destructive consequences.

I particularly enjoyed the way Greek mythology is interwoven (pun intended) into the narrative. In the book, we meet a minor character named Philomel, who is deaf and mute. Interestingly, in Greek mythology, there is also a minor character named Philomel who transforms into a nightingale, and female nightingales are mute.

At times in our lives, we all crave silence. In this book, silence is sometimes literally deafening!

Imagine if you found a way to create silence and tranquillity for yourself, but not for those around you. What would the repercussions be for them and, ultimately, for you?

"The imposition of silence on oneself may be good; the imposition of it on anyone else is always an evil"

The only critique I have is that I would have loved to learn more about Sophia Ashmore-Percy and her spouse, James. They played a significant role in the narrative, and I would have liked knowing their ultimate fate.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins UK for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion

I’m a big fan of Bridget Collins’ gothic fiction and this is excellent. Not suitable for arachnophobes, this tells the story of a factory in Telverton which is making silk from spider webs. One side brings utter silence, the other seems to conjure sounds or feelings which drive people a bit mad.
Our hero, Henry, travels to Telverton, in the hope of restoring hearing to the factory owner’s daughter’s hearing. Once in the town he falls under its spell, using his skills to try to gain investors for the silk. But there is something rotten at the heart of the town, and the factory. Can Henry escape from its spell and come to his senses?
This is a properly creepy book. The backstory of how the spiders were imported is chilling. There’s a message here about stealing from nature for profit in the Industrial Revolution which is very clever.
Lots to enjoy here. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

To begin with, the cover of this one is fabulous and immediately sparked my interest. What lies beneath the cover is a dual time line, historical fiction with a touch of magical realism.

I loved the idea of spiders whose threads could be used to create fabric which blocked out sound. Although this was the magical element it felt very authentic and worked well in the Victorian setting. I don’t have a phobia of spiders but after reading this I am more weary of them!

Henry’s yearning for silence is something that a modern day reader will empathise with. The desire for silence was expertly contrasted against the ear shattering noise of the factory. The descriptions of the factory were such that I could feel and hear it.

This is a slow burn novel and although there are some revelations along the way, the writing is concentrated on building the landscape and exploring the character’s emotions rather than twists and turns in the plot.

Silence. It can be either golden or too loud. Something we crave or something we dread. The best possible answer or the one that puts the final nail in the coffin. In summary, an eight letter word that inspires conflicting thoughts.

In what is now her third adult novel, Bridget Collins explores the concept of silence within a C19th setting & adds a touch of gothic influence to her familiar magical realism. "The Silence Factory" follows the recently widowed audiologist Henry Latimer as he finds himself in the employ of Sir Edward Ashmore-Percy & obsessed with the production of the extraordinary Telverton silk. But though it provides an escape from his own troubled past, he uncovers many dark secrets that suggest this opportunity is not all it seems.

Collins delivers her complex story through a dual narrative that alternates between past & present. Each having its own unique style & a shift from first person diary entries to a third person perspective which draws upon them as the truth is slowly revealed. I found Sophia Ashmore-Percy's observations of life on a remote Greek island & the infamous spiders responsible for the noise-cancelling silk particularly engaging. The language use is well-suited to the period & we come to understand her difficult experiences despite a tendency to be indirect (e.g. her strained relationship with her husband, the miscarriage, leaving Hira, illness, etc.). It was also interesting to see how these then impacted events later on.

Henry's plot, on the other hand, was fairly standard for both the genre & Victorian factory town in which it took place. Through him, we learn of his grief & guilt regarding his wife's death, as well as the internal & external debates around the ethics of the industry. For example, the use of child & workhouse labour, injuries sustained & worker rights, & experiments conducted in the background. There is the incorporation of art, mythology, & poetry here too, further adding to the detail in the storytelling.

As for the silk itself, I thought it was an intriguing idea with a dark twist that I would have loved to have seen evidenced more on the page. The cost of the silence it provides, its significance to the island's people & culture, & the nature of the echoes that haunt those who come into contact with them.

Another theme I liked was in the inclusion of deaf child Philomel & her governess Miss Fielding. It reminded me of "A Sign Of Her Own" by Sarah Marsh in its discussions of fingerspeak, schools, & adapting to a society refusing to embrace your differences.

If I'm honest, the opening was a bit slow to get into but the second half moved at a much quicker pace. And, overall, Collins has created an immersive reading experience that leaves you wanting more explanation than has already been provided & with plenty to think about. Especially as the ending is somewhat vague about the future of the characters.

Thank you to @harpercollinsuk & @netgalley for accepting my request to read this eARC.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy.

I knew the author from a collection of short stories, and it did not disappoint.

Following the gothic epistolar structure combined with some prose narrative we follow Henry through a journey of personal growth and self-discovery, all tinted with an underlying ominous tone.

I found it very entertaining and loved the language, it felt very genuine to the historical context , giving the feeling it could have well been written in the 19th Century.

Well done!