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.

I have devoured all of Bridget Collins’ adult novels and even though The Betrayals was less brilliant The Silence Factory is back to the same ridiculous standard of The Binding, if not better.
Collins’ combines the horrors of the Industrial Revolution, the haunted house, and a mysterious island, and (shudders) spiders to create an atmospheric gothic novel.
Featuring Dual perspectives and two different timelines the book mostly follows Henry Latimer, a widower and aurist is recruited by the powerful, wealthy and charming Sir Edward Ashmore Percy first to see if any of the hearing aids Latimer’s Father-in-Law creates can help his deaf daughter. In so doing Henry encounters the mysterious and dangerous silk the Ashmore-Percy fortune is built upon. Its incredible silencing properties allow the grieving Henry to sleep properly for the first time in months. Astonished by the silk he impulsively defends the silk to an investor her happens to overhear denigrating the silk and the business to Sir Edward’s face. Impressed Sir Edward takes Henry on as his publicist as Henry wilfully ignores the Terrible echoes and the damage the silk is doing to the factory workers rendering them deaf, dumb, and madness seeps through the town.

Alongside the main narrative runs the diary of Sophia Ashmore Percy. Trapped on the Greek island of Kratos with her husband James she is subject to his conditional love and scientific obsession with the spiders he is convinced will make his fortune. Once there, however, she sets on her own voyage of discovery—stumbling across the very creature he is looking for, making an unexpected connection with a local woman, and ultimately reconsidering her marriage, life, and own desires. Once there, however, she sets on her own voyage of discovery—stumbling across the very creature he is looking for, making an unexpected connection with a local woman, and ultimately reconsidering her marriage, life, and own desires.

I was gripped and I adored the story. Ultimately I longed for more from Sophia whose tragic story is the catalyst for everything that happens to Henry which is the only reason I gave it four stars. Henry replaces the damsel in distress being charmed and seduced by the dangerous and powerful Sir Edward with Collins’ making the implicit queerness of Gothic literature explicit in both timelines. The spiders and the story and the method behind them borrows from Greek Myth whilst also gently lambasting it - particularly the very narrow patriarchal, misogynistic interpretation of the classics that dominated at the time.

The characters are so engaging, Sir Edward has much in common with today’s billionaires not stopping to wonder if a thing should be done only that it can and that it must make money. The deranged psychopathic Worsley, the fierce, loyal and compassionate Miss Fielding, the mysterious and fascinating Hira, the tyrannical and mercurial James, and the patient, kind, and plain speaking Quaker Hinshaw are all as vivid as the settings that are so clear I felt as though I could touch them from the textile mill, the great house and the wooded yet rockily coastal Greek island I was so lost I could hear the silk, hear the waves, hear the clanking clamour of the factory totally forgetting the racket of the world around me.

This book is a treat narratively, descriptively and it would be a tragedy to miss out.

Having previously never read Bridget Collins before, I was intrigued beyond belief.
The story is told with a dual narrative, Henry Latimer and Sophie.
Both strands of the story were extremely and equally well written.
I could feel the tension, the emotion, the claustrophobic nature especially with the spiders. The spiders themselves are really interesting too. I really, really enjoyed this book. Thank you. I just reviewed The Silence Factory by Bridget Collins. #TheSilenceFactory #NetGalley

This isn't a style as a book I would normally go for, but the 'selling silence' aspect piqued my interest. We start off with some diary entries from a woman named Sophie, and it's through her POV that we learn how the rare spiders were discovered and came into the families possession. We are then brought to the present day, where we follow a young man named Henry and follow his journey as he becomes tangled up in the Telverton silk business, where we find out the unique qualities the spiders silk offers. Both the trials and tribulations involved growing a niche business, and the results by the end were both interesting and well deserved as it showcased how greed and power can change people. At the same time, I felt like the author also showed us how easily blinded we can become by a vision of what we want or feelings we may have, and that can be just as dangerous.
I was more interested in Sophia's story, and I looked forward to her diary entries more than I did Henry's story. Henry came across a little plain for me, although I did feel for him towards the end as it became clearer that he wanted someone to love and notice him.

James has moved to the top of my villain list. I know most of his opinions of Sophie and how she should act fit with the time period, but oh em goodness. This man is a manipulative shit and the most selfish and inhumane person I've ever read. Please have a look for trigger warnings as there is a big one in Sophie's story. What he did and said had me speechless, and I had to take a break after reading it. I don't get triggered, and I can read pretty much anything at least once, but what this man did angered me to my core. So, props to the author for filling me with a rage I've never experienced before while reading.

The beginning was slow, and I felt more invested about halfway through, but I still enjoyed this book. I don't see myself picking it up again as the ending wasn't mind-blowing, but I'm glad it ended the way it did. Thank you to netgalley for the opportunity to read this book.

What a treat to be immersed in Bridget Collins’ extraordinary writing again. Silk, secrets and silence woven into a gleaming Gothic web. Loved it.

I've previously read The Betrayals by Bridget Collins, a book which I found hard going but ultimately worth every second spent on it. The Silence Factory also has an element of fantasy in it so I was looking forward to it.

This book concerns the use of spider silk and how two men in particular became fascinated with its powers. It is a dual timeline with two main POVs. Henry, recovering from the loss of his wife and child, yearns for silence. A piece of cloth woven from spider silk appears to give him this. The man who gifted it has a deaf daughter and henry who works with deaf aids offers to help with her., falling in love with her father at the same time. Interspersed with this is the tale of how Sophia's husband also became obsessed with the spiders and brought them back to England.

i found this to be an unengaging read. The main characters irritated me, especially Henry who seemed to have no moral compass at all although he did redeem himself slightly towards the end.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

The Silence Factory is a tale so well told it is almost believable. Spiders, we know, make intricate patterns with their silk so that is a given. That a particular breed of spider, from Greece, made such strong silk that when manufactured provided silence is the premise for this title. That the spiders are worshipped on this Greek island and that their removal by James Ashmore-Percy for research and development causes death and destruction decades later.
Henry is a widower who works for his father-in-law selling 'hearing aids' and that is how he meets Sir Edward Ashmore-Percy who is looking for something to help his daughter who is deaf gain some hearing. He gives Henry a piece of his silk which gives him silence and enthrals him.
The characters are so well portrayed and the descriptions of the spiders, their silk, the effects of the silk are so beautifully portrayed the writing is mesmerising.
Many thanks to Netgalley/Bridget Collins/HarperCollins UK for a digital copy of this title. All opinions expressed are my own.

Ultimately an enthralling read, although it did take me a while to really get drawn into this one. Bridget Collins writing is always incredibly original and this story is no different. Two time periods, two protagonists, gothic undercurrents and magical spider silk weaving the narratives together.

The ending was brilliant, tying up some loose strands and leaving me very satisfied with this novel. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC, for me to review. It confirmed my love of this author and her wonderfully unique writing.

From the start this book has a fascinating story of the main character craving silence and meeting a intriguing gentleman who produces a special silk from a specimen of spiders that no one had heard of and believed to be a a myth. Henry is supposed to be helping the man's deaf daughter hear again but when coming to acknowledge the silk, he does anything he can to help the man who produces it.


A first of reading Bridget Collins work and have loved the gothic historical that happens in this book.

The Silence Factory by Bridget Collins is a dark and atmospheric historical read.
Henry Latimer dreams of silence. Bereft by the loss of his wife and new born daughter he is working for his father in law in a bustling and noisy city when the opportunity arises to travel to the home of Sir Edward Ashmore Percy, a man who claims to be able to produce a type of silk that blocks out noise. While there he learns about the mysterious origins of the silk through the diary of Sophia , the wife of one of Sir Edward's ancestors, Sir James, the man responsible for bringing the rare spiders that produce the silk from Greece back to England in the 1860s. As the story unfolds in these two timelines it proves to be a very tangled web indeed , woven not just by spiders but by the very human characters that the author has portrayed.
This is a slow moving tale, dense and gloomy as the atmosphere described by the author, and is quite heavily character driven. I found that the dual timeline did not really work for me, Sophia's felt stunted and poorly detailed in contrast to Henry's which is a shame as it had a lot of potential and added a unique mythological feel to the book which I would love to have seen more of. I also found the relationship between Henry and Edward felt shoe horned into the story and was really undeveloped.. I did enjoy the brooding and atmospheric descriptive writing style but not enough for it to compensate for the other issues I had with the book.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

First book I have read by Bridget Collins who writes in a genre I would not usually read. I found the book very heavy going and very drawn out although the writing is clearly very good I don't think I will be reading anymore of this authors work or indeed this genre. I was neither entertained or enlightened. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the chance to ARC a book that is written in a genre I am not familiar with.

“Funny isn’t it? You sell sound, and I sell silence. We are two sides of the same coin.”

The Silence factory was a very dense book. I loved the gothic ambiance that lingers all around the story. The author transports us in her universe by using all the codes and many 19th century codes. I truly loved that, the writing was almost cinematographic. The pace, the descriptions, the mood –the writing in general– made me love to wander in this novel.
The book mixes two timelines: Henry’s in the present (but told past tense) in England, and Sophia’s in the past, in Greece (told in present tense, under the form of her diary). Absolutely all the characters are grey, which makes them deep and accurate. Some are worse than others, though…
All around the book, we wonder “who” the spiders truly are. I ADORED that humans were scarier than spiders. No one is really worried about spiders, and even if the silk appears dangerous, in the end, it's more its use by humans that is. I loved how our society was painted here, the relationships to progress, colonization, science, disability or ecology. The references to Darwin were delightful to me, as much as the oppositions between Greek Mythology and Monotheistic religions. The parent-children relationship is a recurring theme in the book, as much as orphaning. Not that it constitutes a problem to me, but I would warn people sensitive about miscarriage and perinatal mortality. It’s an important part of the story and characters’ background.
However, I wished we had more in the end. Sophia’s part, especially, seems a bit rushed. I would have liked more about the Greek and “pagan superstitions,” to have the past enlightening the present. If I loved the reflection about the place of women in this book, about the place of children, I would have liked more about the characters’ motivations and fall, especially about Lord Edward. But in the end, just like Henry, we are left in a haze about who, what, he represents. Some parts (I think about the painting) would have needed more depth to truly hit.
That’s a pity because if I loved my journey through that story, in the end, I can only memorize the little aftertaste of unfinished.

Rate 3.5/5

Thank you NetGalley, Bridget Collins and HarperCollin UK for this ARC in exchange for my honest review

Marketed as a gothic tale of desire and corruption, The Silence Factory is a historical novel told from two perspectives set decades apart: Sophia, a woman reluctantly following her husband to a Greek island for his research on spiders, and Henry, a recently widowed audiologist who is hired by an industrialist to cure his young daughters deafness. Collins signature prose is present in this n0vel, something I have enjoyed in both her previous works, and it builds a chilling atmosphere. The decision to include two perspectives is a confusing one as the two stories never really come together. instead Sophie's tale is never properly resolved and ends in a rather lacklustre fashion. The main concept of the spider silk is not sufficiently explored, specifically its connection to the local women of the island and its role in their sacred worship. The relationship between Sophie and Hira had potential and was one of the stronger points of the novel. In contrast, Henry's infatuation with Sir Edward lacked a proper setup and felt forced, overall falling flat for me. This is mostly due to both men lacking depth as characters , which could also be said for most of the characters in this book. I think I would have preferred a story centred solely on Sophie and her experience on the island. I would still recommend The Silence Factory to those who appreciate a gothic historical tale with good descriptive writing.

This book had me needing to know more, as I finished each chapter.

A uniquely eerie, gothic tale of one man's longing for silence in a world full of commotion, but even peace can't silence your conscience.

I enjoyed the dual timelines, especially Sophia's and was lost in the portrayal of the island.

This book feels like stepping into a captivating gothic fairy tale! It beautifully explores themes of obsession, power, control, class, and sexuality, woven with intriguing ideas of silence and the body. Set across decades in Greece and Britain, it focuses on a near-mythical silk spun by spiders, which casts a mysterious spell over those who encounter it.

There's an irresistible aura of mystery and intrigue—it's like embarking on a thrilling quest for hidden truths and unexpected revelations!

Thank you for the opportunity to read this book.

This was my first book by Bridget Collin’s and after hearing such great things of her work and then the description of this book I was so excited to get this.

I really struggled with this book.
The language and timelines were difficult for me to follow and I honesty hadn’t a clue what was happening for the first 10-15% of the book.

It was beautifully descriptive and confronting in regards to the male superiority complex, however I never felt
Overly engaged by the storyline or characters and it was a very slow burn for me.

There is something innately enchanting and hypnotic about Bridget Collins's newest gothic historical novel, like the spiders in the tale that weave the silent silk with such incredible properties. But it is in the misuse of this mystical substance that the novel really holds its own, becoming a tale of toxic masculine traits and generational pain and trauma. I'd heard so much about this author, after the smash hit The Binding, but had never got the chance to read her work. I'm glad to say that, despite all the hype, this didn't disappoint.

This book was amazing, just like Bridget's previous books. It took a little while to fully get into the story, and the two different narratives had me a little off in the beginning. But once I got the hang of it, I enjoyed it so much! The story was immersive and the characters intriguing, and the ending was satisfying as well. Can definitely recommend this!

The premise behind this was amazing but I found it hard to engage and get into it. It is a dark gothic fantasy and not sure if that’s my kind of thing.

A lot of different themes explored through this and if you like your fantasy books with a thought provoking element you’ll enjoy this but I just wasn’t enjoying it myself.

I really wanted to love this book - the plot sounded intriguing and I'd enjoyed The Binding - but I just didn't and found myself slogging through the book just to finish it. For whatever reason I didnt engage with the characters and found the pace of the book to be a little slow.