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christinevellis's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
amalia1985's review
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
‘’This is my destiny,’she declared. ‘Just you watch, Kitty. I’ll set that stage on fire.’’
We know that the world of Theatre is fascinating, mystical, terrifying. We know that actors are mercurial, chaotic, obsessed with their calling. Yes, Jenny knows but she has no choice. Her family needs her and, after all, costumes are HER obsession. Not to mention that her ‘protector’, Mrs Dye, is such a nice woman!
Oh, Jenny, Jenny…What have you got yourself into?
Prepare to have your mind, free time, and life taken over by a book. Laura Purcell’s ABSOLUTE MASTERPIECE!
Yes, all capital letters because I CAN!
Where to begin? The setting, the imagery, the plot, the characters? We’re talking pure perfection here. A rainy summer welcomes you once you open this astonishing book and transports you to a vibrant, dirty, lusty London. Follow the lead of two brilliant women and become part of the haunting world of Theatre. Jenny and Lilith, named after the controversial figure of the Hebrew culture. The disobedient, the profane, the one driven by her own principles. Jenny is responsible for her costumes, creating a persona, forming a facade right from the start. Stereotypes are strong here, after all. Actresses are women of ‘loose morals’. Even marrying into the business will have you marred in the eyes of society. Lady Macbeth, Cleopatra, Margaret. Women who defied the rules and became symbols of ‘Evil’. Cautionary tales.
But what salvation is there when you willingly make a pact with the Devil? When all you have left is quoting plays? That’s all your obsession drives you at and Hell is murky…
The writing is glorious, sumptuous, terrifying. From the very start, we are given shocking, dark moments and some are quite hard to stomach. BUT! Laura Purcell turns even the goriest of scenes into sheer, frightening poetry. I adored the way Mythology was inserted in the narrative. The Muses and the Sirens, Mercury, Eurydice, the connections with the Underworld. Mythology is a dark place and Theatre rises up to the challenge. The heart of the book lies in the story of Macbeth, the Cursed Play (which never fails to remind me of the hilarious circumstances taking place in an extraordinarily funny Blackadder episode…)
‘’I must pay my pound of flesh…and there is no Portia to save me.’’
There is guilt, and death, and obsession. We can be Lady Macbeth and Lady Macduff at the same time. We can sacrifice everything for one touch of glory, for a career. You become ‘unwomanly’, ‘unsexed’ and there is a heavy price to pay. Along with the extraordinary plot, Laura Purcell doesn’t refrain from touching difficult themes, from the ‘kept’ and ‘fallen’ woman to abortion. However, your heart will be captivated by the setting with a playhouse, an otherworldly land of darkness, superstitions, and raw emotions. Some believe that Theatre is all about lying and pretending. Far from it. Theatre changes you and lures you into revealing aspects of a self you didn’t know you were hiding inside. Theatre hovers between this tangible world and a land created by poets and Muses and spirit. I loved the reference to the tradition of the Ghost Light, the notion that a light must always remain within an otherwise dark theatre for the spirits of the actors who have passed away. My dad was an actor and can verify that this custom was more than alive even in our time.
A plot, no matter how ingenious it may be, cannot work independently of its characters. And my God, what characters we have here! Lilith is FASCINATING! I loved her, I want an entire novel about her. Jenny was a refreshing character. Obnoxious and a bit irritating at first, she is no naive young girl (the kind we have often met in Gothic Fiction.) She knows what she wants, she sees right and wrong, and tells it like it is. Mrs Dyer starts as a character you wonder about and slowly becomes the utter fiend she is. Oscar is a charming young man without being superficial. The cast is beyond perfect, the dialogue is brilliant!
My review is all over the place but this novel absolutely floored me. I fell in love with it, I am its slave for eternity. Laura Purcell is one of my absolute favourite writers, I would read her shopping list and consider it poetry, I have read every single novel of hers and adored it but The Whispering Muse is a supernatural, otherworldly experience.
As if that wasn’t enough, the Acknowledgments section had me wailing in tears. Laura Purcell, why are you so perfect?
‘’Do you think you could tell the difference between the Muse and the Siren Song? One a divine voice calling you to create and the other a lure, pulling you down to destruction? What if…what if they sound precisely the same?’’
My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com/
niamhk18's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
katielou72's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I absolutely loved this book, it kept me enthralled from the start and I got completely engrossed in it. I loved Jenny, she was strong, but also vulnerable, with a huge love for her family and empathy for all those around her, even those she disliked. I loved the growing friendship between her and Lillith.
The book is a tragic Victorian gothic horror, a genre which I didn’t think until recently that I loved. It’s the second of Laura Purcell’s books that I’ve now read and I loved both of them.
The story is full of obsession, jealousy, revenge, and envy, but there is also love and the magic of theatre, and I felt transported to that world.
Brilliant!
The book is a tragic Victorian gothic horror, a genre which I didn’t think until recently that I loved. It’s the second of Laura Purcell’s books that I’ve now read and I loved both of them.
The story is full of obsession, jealousy, revenge, and envy, but there is also love and the magic of theatre, and I felt transported to that world.
Brilliant!
starlingsky's review
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
isabelrs's review
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
emilyd_91's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
beckys_books's review against another edition
4.0
After her brother abandoned her and ran off to marry an actress, Jenny Wilcox finds herself in a precarious position, unable to look after the three younger siblings her brother left her to care for, so when she gets offered a job at The Mercury Theatre in London’s West End as the dresser for their new lead actress, Lilith, Jenny jumps at the chance, even after she is informed the job is part dresser, part spy. When Jenny gets to the theatre she finds Lilith to be intolerable, but she can’t deny her acting skills, Lilith seeming to embody the essence of any part she plays. Lilith claims her skill comes from her muse, Melpomene, the tragic muse of Greek mythology, but the more time Jenny spends at the theatre, and around Lilith herself, the more she starts to feel their is something wrong, the talks of dark deals, and fatal accidents occurring. When strange events begin to take place around the theatre, Jenny wonders if the rumours are true, and fears that when the Muse comes calling for payment, the cost will be too high.
The Whispering Muse is a delectable and atmospheric tale filled to the brim with darkness, danger and some truly brilliantly written characters. Jenny is our MC, with the story being told from her POV. She is someone desperate for help after her brother abandoned their family and set sail for America. So when Mrs Dyer comes calling with a proposition she finds it hard to turn down, especially when she offers not only pay, but the chance to better the lives of her younger siblings. She is sympathetic to Mrs Dyer, believing her similarly wounded to Jenny herself, so it doesn’t take much to convince her to be a part of her scheme to report on Lilith, the newest actress at the theatre. Jenny is someone I empathised with instantly, and though she isn’t wholly good, knew that she agreed to the deal for her family’s sake rather than her own. Lilith was a character that took me a little to warm up to. She comes across as incredibly entitled and obsessed with the theatre and making sure she outshone everyone else there. She is prickly and entitled, but deep down she is simply a woman who had to fight to get where she was now, and someone who did so without any fear of the consequences.
This is my first book by Purcell, but it’s safe to say it wont be my last. I’ve never quite felt as transported when reading historical gothic novels as I did with The Whispering Muse. Her atmospheric writing style wholly brings the theatre and the characters who inhabit it to life. Her use of the different parts of the book, each part focusing on a different play, was exceptionally done. Each part, and with it, each play seems to perfectly capture the atmosphere and feelings not only of the story but of the characters themselves, and the use of foreshadowing was just *chefs kiss.* I also enjoyed the mythological element. It was spooky without being outright fantasy, but had enough of the element to keep me on my toes, wondering whether the muse, Melpomene, was actually causing Liliths bizarre behaviours, or whether it was her obsession with needing to become a star so bright no one could ever forget her.
Obsession plays a large role in this book, and is shown through multiple lenses. We have Mrs Dyer, obsessed with bringing down Lilith and determined to do whatever it takes to ensure that happens, and Lilith herself who is so incredibly obsessed with not only performing, but ensuring that she goes out and gives the performance of a lifetime every time she steps on the stage, but both of these characters share one, large obsession, which brings them only darkness and danger and death. Purcell shows just how encompassing obsession can be and how, once we loose focus on it, our world can come crashing down around us, making us a mere shell of who we were before. Purcell blends the magical with the mundane brilliantly, ensuring were never quite sure who is behind the tragic goings on at the theatre, and leaving it open enough for our imaginations to run wild.
My one gripe was the ending, there was so much I adored about it. The build up was sublime, and the actual event was so incredibly well done but then it just… ended, and I felt like I needed more. I needed to see life after, what happened, and it just ended a little abruptly for me to feel completely satisfied. That being said, it didn’t detract from my overall love for this book. It was dark, incredibly creepy in parts, shocking and gory in others and wondrously gothic. If you’re looking for a good book to curl up with I can’t recommend this enough, it gripped me from the first page until the last & I will certainly be checking out the authors backlog.
The Whispering Muse is a delectable and atmospheric tale filled to the brim with darkness, danger and some truly brilliantly written characters. Jenny is our MC, with the story being told from her POV. She is someone desperate for help after her brother abandoned their family and set sail for America. So when Mrs Dyer comes calling with a proposition she finds it hard to turn down, especially when she offers not only pay, but the chance to better the lives of her younger siblings. She is sympathetic to Mrs Dyer, believing her similarly wounded to Jenny herself, so it doesn’t take much to convince her to be a part of her scheme to report on Lilith, the newest actress at the theatre. Jenny is someone I empathised with instantly, and though she isn’t wholly good, knew that she agreed to the deal for her family’s sake rather than her own. Lilith was a character that took me a little to warm up to. She comes across as incredibly entitled and obsessed with the theatre and making sure she outshone everyone else there. She is prickly and entitled, but deep down she is simply a woman who had to fight to get where she was now, and someone who did so without any fear of the consequences.
This is my first book by Purcell, but it’s safe to say it wont be my last. I’ve never quite felt as transported when reading historical gothic novels as I did with The Whispering Muse. Her atmospheric writing style wholly brings the theatre and the characters who inhabit it to life. Her use of the different parts of the book, each part focusing on a different play, was exceptionally done. Each part, and with it, each play seems to perfectly capture the atmosphere and feelings not only of the story but of the characters themselves, and the use of foreshadowing was just *chefs kiss.* I also enjoyed the mythological element. It was spooky without being outright fantasy, but had enough of the element to keep me on my toes, wondering whether the muse, Melpomene, was actually causing Liliths bizarre behaviours, or whether it was her obsession with needing to become a star so bright no one could ever forget her.
Obsession plays a large role in this book, and is shown through multiple lenses. We have Mrs Dyer, obsessed with bringing down Lilith and determined to do whatever it takes to ensure that happens, and Lilith herself who is so incredibly obsessed with not only performing, but ensuring that she goes out and gives the performance of a lifetime every time she steps on the stage, but both of these characters share one, large obsession, which brings them only darkness and danger and death. Purcell shows just how encompassing obsession can be and how, once we loose focus on it, our world can come crashing down around us, making us a mere shell of who we were before. Purcell blends the magical with the mundane brilliantly, ensuring were never quite sure who is behind the tragic goings on at the theatre, and leaving it open enough for our imaginations to run wild.
My one gripe was the ending, there was so much I adored about it. The build up was sublime, and the actual event was so incredibly well done but then it just… ended, and I felt like I needed more. I needed to see life after, what happened, and it just ended a little abruptly for me to feel completely satisfied. That being said, it didn’t detract from my overall love for this book. It was dark, incredibly creepy in parts, shocking and gory in others and wondrously gothic. If you’re looking for a good book to curl up with I can’t recommend this enough, it gripped me from the first page until the last & I will certainly be checking out the authors backlog.
hederahemlock's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5