I was sent a copy of The Silence Factory by Bridget Collins to read and review by NetGalley. This is a really intense and compelling novel with a great sense of place and a believable cast of characters. The author, as always, managed to conjure up the atmosphere and emotion in some beautifully written prose. There were a few anomalies here and there and some moments were a little repetitive, but this didn’t really spoil my enjoyment of the book too much and I still think that it deserves the maximum 5 stars. A great engrossing read.

This was a really creepy story based around extraordinary, imported spiders, who spin webs which have a strange effect on people. A factory was set up which utilised the webs the spiders spun to make curtains, clothes etc.. It also affected the minds and health of the community where it was built. Very dramtic conclusion.

I really liked the premise of this gothic historical novel - some mysterious Greek spiders produce silk that completely deadens sound but also drives susceptible people mad. Grief and madness, secrets and desires: all good fun!

A gothic, romantic, and haunting story which takes place from two povs decades apart. In the early 19th century, a married couple travel to remote Greek islands looking for spiders with mythical qualities. It appears to be a hopeless endeavour and, in the search, Sophia lonely and repressed, finds herself drawn to an enigmatic women. Years later the spiders have been transported back to England, in the height of industrialisation, and Sir Edward is eager to make his fortune with the strange but magical silk the spiders’ weave. We follow Henry Latimer as he is drawn to the home of Sir Edward, his family, and the silk. This novel captures beautifully the greed, exploitation, and exploration of this century. The new noise of the factories and growing cities of the Victorian period which is exhilarating and maddening, and the loss of time which seemed more delicate and mythical.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Now it's official: Gothic stories are not for me. I couldn't wait for this one to end. The prose was beautiful, Bridget Collins writes magically, yet the story was dragging and I felt that it was much ado about nothing. OK, a bit of an exaggeration. Sadly there's not a single character who could be likeable.
I'm not giving up on the author just yet though.

Where do I begin describing this book... This is a story of industrialism in a small factory town in Victorian England where the workers, amongst which are children, are being exploited. It is a commentary on the mistreatment of women by society and the men in their life. It is a story of obsession when it's confused for love and it shows us clashes of cultures and classes through our main characters.

The story has two timelines: one in the past through diary entries of a woman that joins her husband on a scientific expedition. He is in search of a spider that produces a silk that has magical properties. As she is neglected by her husband she finds herself enchanted by a local woman. The timeline in the present (Victorian London) follows a young widower who wants to start a new life and is offered that opportunity by a charismatic factory owner that produces that exact silk that I just mentioned. This story was well-written and it thematically quite unique. The only points of critisism I have are that I was annoyed at times by the blind obsession/lack of critical thinking by Henry, one of our main characters and that the story dragged on a bit too long and it got a bit dull at those points. The story, however, was unlike any other and makes me want to read more by this author.

After absolutely loving The Binding, I was very nervous about picking this one up! I do love the way Collins writes and this gothic vibe was certainly atmospheric. I love dual POV and I think that helped but I’m not sure I connected with the characters and I’m not sure this one hit me with the same impact as the binding, sadly,

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.