I loved this book so much that I stayed up all night to finish it. Such a good story to get lost in. Please put this on your tbr.

A brilliant read. Five stars. Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the chance to read an ARC,

Another winner by Bridget Collins, another twisty and dark story that kept me hooked and on the edge.
Great world building, solid and well researched bistorical background, excellent storytelling
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I love folk horror and hope that the thandrells are based on an actual legend - I will be looking into his as it’s a fascinating idea for a small, isolated village. The sapphic romance feels honest - to the point where we are shown the worst feelings from each POV, the selfish and the spiteful.

The slow burn doesn’t just apply to the romance, the horror also builds slowly but is genuinely creepy, as well as unique when it does happen.

This is bold and unflinching - the themes of the futility of war, grief and superstition are woven throughout the imagery of the stark countryside and Kit’s struggle to capture it in her paintings. There is also a deeper meaning involving masks and the faces that we choose to show to each other.

Didn't feel I was the target audience somehow. Enjoyed this as a complete change from. my normal "whodunnit" fare but mot enough to seek out a sequel. A very slow burn, with a number of unresolved issues by the end. Very atmospheric, slightly mystical, a romance of a sort. Well enough written, but not for me, however many thanks to Harper Collins and Netgalley for the chance to read pre-publication copy.

A compelling folk horror story set in the interwar period, with a bonus sapphic romance. I enjoyed the characterisation of Florence and Kit, though Phoebe's spitefulness could have been better rooted: I get that she was jealous of Florence, and perhaps had complicated feelings about her since she was her mother's sister, but it felt like that aspect of her motivations was a bit underdeveloped.

All in all though, the plot unwound very pleasingly and I liked how Florence and Kit weren't a perfect couple- I also appreciated how you got multiple perspectives on quite a few characters, including them, which played well into the 'faces/masks' theme of the story. You never knew quite what you were looking at, which was perfect for the horrors drawn to the Face.

Thank you to @NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC of The Naked Light by Bridget Collins.

The Naked Light is a richly gothic and deeply haunting novel that intertwines folklore and gender and history and the uncanny. It grips you with a slow, insistent dread that seeps into your bones. It’s a folk‑horror for the soul, a tender, terrifying exploration of a love that defies convention, ancient darkness awakening and the reality of life after war.

If you love slow burn gothic horror and a story that sticks with you after the last page is turned then I’d really recommend this one. I gave it 5 stars.

Having read The Binding which I enjoyed and The Silence Factory which I loved, I was very happy to be offered The Nake Light by Bridget Collins to read and review.
This is the story of the relaitonship between Florence Stock and Kit Clayton. Florence is a spinster, thrown upon the mercy of her brother in law the vicar of Haltington to giver her a roof over her head. Kit is an artist, recently returned from Paris where she worked in a studio creating masks for men disfigured in WW1. Florence finds herself drawn to the unconventional Kit and a relationahip develops.
Meanwhile there are mysterious forces at work in the village as the face carved into the chalk, which protects the village, is allowed to fall into disrepair after the last of the Bone family who kept it tidy and the chalk whitened died. While the face can no longer be seen, it does not mean it is not there, and it appears to have Kit and Florence within its sights.
So having been excited to begin this book, I was disappointed to find it was slow to get going, and I didn't really like any of the main characters much. It became a little more interesting as the face made itself known as a rather sinister and demanding character in its own right.
The writing, as with all of Collin's novels is excellent with graphic scenes and interesting detail but I'm afraid in this case it wasn't enough for me to enjoy the book. The ending was good, a nice wrap up, coming several years after the majority of the story takes place, but it also left a few gaps, things I"d like to have know more about at the same time.
I was left a little disappointed by this book after enjoying Collin's previous novels but am grateful to Team HarperFiction and Netgalley for an early copy in return for an honest review.

Brigit Collins always weaves a good story with an element of the unexplained within it. The world has changed fast since the First world War, especially for women, and we see the effects on Florence and Kit.

The Naked Light focuses on Kit, Phoebe and Florence in the years after the First World War. In many ways this book is a love story. There’s the love between the two women and there is the love for their world that has been lost due to the war. The story picks at societal attitudes towards women and throughout the story you see a relationship develop and yet still being introduced as the new neighbour up the road and a new friend.
Collins weaves a story detailing how society has changed since the war and the cost that this has had in its characters and this is tough
This is a slow paced book and quite unlike Collins’ previous novels. The scenery and characters are well developed and likeable. Some tough content in this book but this shouldn’t put you off reading.

I loved The Binding and was excited to receive an ARC of The Naked Light.
Sadly, I found it hard going. It was very slow and didn't hold my interest. It's an ok story but just felt a little flat to me.

Another great read by Bridget Collins, set in the 1920's it really does give an insight into the war and womens and familys priorities back then , i felt like i actually learnt something out of this book. The face is what brings our main characters together and although you are swept up in the day to day of life for Florence and Kit , you do start to understand how the face forms part of the village and its heritage.

A very easy read and i liked the sound of the synopsis as it gave an air of mystery combined with something spooky and a bit scary. After reading the Binding i knew this book would be requested and many thanks to Net galley for an advanced reader copy , it was a pleasure to read as always.

We meet some really strong well written female characters, but i like how the characters also show their vunerability in the era its set in. I looked forward to curling up with the book and been transported to the vicars house and the cottage that Kit lives in.

All these characters come with a past and some trauma that reflects on the horrific events of the war and i do think they has been bought to life by the writer and effectively done. At times there is sadness and darkness but when you look at Florence she still is so positive and always looks forward, a character to admire in her setting. There is a strong reflection on relationships, family, forbidden fruits and how people really did perceive sexuality is the 1920's.

Florence and Kit meet each other and i dont want add any spoilers but they find light in each other in hard times, but they plan and map their futures based on what they know and think is the, two women who have come from different parts of the UK and have different priorities and paths. They are woven together with the face and this is when we start to hear about the folklore the mysterys of the village and what the local people say. But is there any truth in any of it ?

Once i had started this book i didnt want to stop , the first 35% was settingt the scene getting to know the characters and there is some sadness built into the 1920's and the reflection on how grateful people were and what really mattered, very different to todays stresses and pressures. After i felt like i was glued to it as i wanted to see how the story develops and it really did develop, i thought oh well ill just read for an hour, well 4 and a half hours later am still reading . It provided a great escape and then the next day i cant put the book down.

I have loved every book I have read by Bridget but sadly this is a dnf at 35%. I'm struggling to connect with any of the characters it's a very slow read and I just can't seem to get into it.

Thank you to the publishers for the chance to read this.

Following the Great War of 1914 to 1918, talented artist Kit Clayton returns to England from France looking for peace, quiet and rehabilitation following her harrowing war work, settling in the Sussex hamlet of Haltington. However, an unexpected interaction with a neighbour looks to scupper her quest for solitude, and she is soon drawn into the village’s superstitions and misgivings about a local landmark, the ‘Haltington Face’.

This is a brilliant novel, with lots of themes woven into the plot: the futility and destruction of war, the nature of superstition and rural folklore, and the perceived purpose of women during this period of enormous societal change.

Shortly after starting to read ‘The Naked Light’, I started to wonder if the author had decided to set aside her trademark magical realism for this novel but, as I got deeper and deeper into the story, I was pleased to find this wasn’t to be the case.

I don’t want to write too much about this element of the book, so as not to spoil the enjoyment for others, but Collins gradually builds up the suspense, revealing more and more, little by little, until the full horror of what is occurring is known. By this point, I was so invested, I was wanting to reach into the book to warn the characters!

The characters surprised me throughout the novel and, on reflection, it felt to me like the reader is presented with one version of them initially and then, later, forced to revise our opinion. Certainly, I found myself changing my perceptions of Florence, Phoebe, Muckle and, to some extent towards the end, Horace.

Finally, for me, as much as I also love her novels in between, ‘The Naked Light’ reminds me in many ways of Collins’ first novel, ‘The Binding’, where the interplay between the world as we know it and magical realism is perfectly balanced. In fact, I think that this novel is perhaps even better in that regard, as – given how folklore and legends are so tightly woven into our culture in the UK – it’s so almost, nearly, possibly believable!

A fantastic read, and perfect for the time of year it’s being published. Definitely one for when the nights are drawing in and the imagination can run wild.

All my thanks to the publisher and to NetGalley for the advance copy on which this review is based.

1920: On the chalk hill above Haltington is carved, in four strokes, a face. It’s been there longer than anyone remembers, tended – almost ritualistically – by the Bone family until the blood line was cut short by the Great War.

Kit Clayton, an artist just back from France, is traumatised after painting masks for men disfigured in battle. In search of calm she fled into the English countryside.

Florence, who had cared for her late mother, comes to Haltington to live with her sister’s widowed husband and her niece Phoebe. Out of place and unwanted, she is startled to see men’s clothes on the line outside the deserted Bone cottage. Hoping for companionship, she finds not a man but Kit – in short hair, men’s shirts, and trousers – and is stirred in ways she cannot name.

As Florence and Kit’s relationship deepens, plagued by the drably malevolent Phoebe, the Haltington Face falls into disrepair, and the dark forces it once pacified begin to stir.

I loved The Binding and came to The Naked Light with high expectations. I was not let down. The reality of life for “surplus women” after the war is rendered with force – family lines dissolved, young wives and mothers left with nothing but grief. The stoic maiden aunt is nowhere to be found. We feel the hopelessness of these women, and the trauma of the men who survived – wounded, disfigured, or outwardly whole, yet shattered. Those who weren’t there can never know.

Into this landscape comes a hungry darkness, probing for entry. Collins balances folk-horror and earthly threads beautifully, weaving them together in ways which amplify both. The book is moving, with moments of joy punctuating Florence and Kit’s fraught journey, and when the horror comes it carries the cold dread of nightmares.

The characterisations are so good. Phoebe is not the stock antagonist she seems but is given a richer form, shaped by her own trauma.

Gripping and poignant, this is a hugely effective, thoroughly enjoyable book—its brilliant conceit lifted by Collins’ pitch-perfect writing, which makes the most of every moment.
Edit Review

The Naked Light focuses on three women in a rural area: Spinster Florence, Florence's peculiar niece Phoebe, and artist Kit who has just moved to the village after suffering trauma from her work during the war. There's a supernatural aspect to the book, but I did find that side of the story a bit harder to follow than the author's previous book (which I loved - The Silence Factory). The Naked Light really shone with its messy but nuanced characters. No-one was 'good' or 'bad', and they all made decisions that had me facepalming, but those actions did all make sense for their characters.

Disclaimer: I received an Advance Reader Copy from HarperCollins UK and NetGalley but this is my voluntary and honest review.

At its core, The Naked Light is a post-WWI gothic sapphic romance, taking place in a small English village steeped in local legend. The writing was beautifully atmospheric and painted a good picture of the setting and the mystery that surrounds it.

At around the 70% mark, some supernatural elements start to creep in and for me this is where the story started to hit the gas and bumped my rating up to a 3⭐️.

Until this point, the plot moved a little slow for my liking and the folklore element of the book took a backseat. A necessary evil perhaps, to allow for character and relationship development, but I would’ve liked to see the supernatural side of this book shine through for a little bit longer.

Thank you so much to the author, publisher and NetGalley for granting this eARC to me!

This is an unhappy story about unhappy characters, therefore making it a perfect book to study in English class. This is the type of book where you would gradually come to appreciate the characters, themes and nuances through hours of detailed analysis.

Bridget Collins specialises in writing grey, oppressive atmospheres and this was no exception. The pacing was quite slow, and though I didn't find it dull, I wouldn't say I greatly enjoyed the experience of reading the book. However, I thought the writing, plot choices and characters were excellently crafted and would definitely warrant a re-read.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperFiction for providing a copy of this book for review. All opinions are my own.

This is a compelling portrait (if you'll forgive the pun) of the trauma left by WW1. The supernatural elements form a powerful metaphor for the hollowness the characters feel, and highlight their emotional journeys without detracting from the main focus of the story, which is the theme of recovery, helplessness, and hope. The main characters are engaging and nuanced; my only issue was with the addition of too many minor point-of-view characters.

'The Naked Light' by Bridget Collins is set in a small village in post first world war Britain. There, a chalk image of a face has been marked out on a hill side, tended to by the Bone's family. Mythology has it that the face protects the villager's from the 'Thurlath',- beings that have the power to suck people in and imprison them in the bones of the earth. However, due to the war, there are no Bones left to tend to the face, and obscured by weeds the face is left quietly to rot. Consequently when Kit, a woman scarred by war, comes to the village she doesn't know that behind her cottage lies the face. Nor does she expect to develop feelings for the Pastor's sister in law, Florence.

I really enjoyed the 'Silence Factory' by Collins and whilst significantly different this novel has the same uncanny sense. Drawing on similar research to Pat Barker, who in her regeneration books talks about the artists conscripted to help men with facial disfigurements to return from the war, Collins writes a gothic tale that is full of intrigue. All of her characters have experienced some form of trauma, and lack of identity, which they are trying to cope with, and the over layering of the Face's mythology works well. This is definitely a dark book, and there are several parts that are very difficult to read (including rape and suicide). However, for people who like interesting takes on the gothic genre, this is definitely for you.