The Whispering Muse: The most spellbinding gothic novel of the year, packed with passion and suspense

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Hardyment, Christina. "Review: The Corset by Laura Purcell". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460 . Retrieved 11 May 2023. Laura Purcell, a skilful purveyor of gothic tales, has created another darkly twisting narrative in The Whispering Muse' Sunday Times Paull, Emily (7 February 2021). "Book Review: The Shape of Darkness reinforces Laura Purcell as a master of building suspense". The AU Review . Retrieved 11 May 2023. The Whispering Muse isn’t necessarily creepy or scary like The Silent Companions, although there definitely are a few moments, but it’s dark, gothic and unashamedly unsettling. The theatre is the star of the show here. The stage, in the wings and behind the scenes – these set pieces are just creepy and menacing. There’s so much cultural and theatre references. The plays, the muses, the dark magic! Just breathtaking.

The Whispering Muse by Sjón – review | Sjón | The Guardian

ARC provided by Ben at Bloomsbury Books. Thank you for the copy! All quotes used are taken from an ARC and are subject to change upon publication. No one does modern gothic literature quite like Laura Purcell. Just like Laura’s other novels, this too is richly imagined and dark with supernatural elements thrown in for good measure. I know it's early days yet, but it's just possible that The Whispering Muse by Laura Purcell has gone straight from being one of my most highly anticipated reads of 2023, to being one of my favourite reads of the entire year. I absolutely adored this!As I watched her, washed in that red light, I almost believed that Melpomene was on her way. Every beat of the drum was a footstep.

The Whispering Muse - Laura Purcell - Bok (9781526627186) | Bokus The Whispering Muse - Laura Purcell - Bok (9781526627186) | Bokus

At first it is wordless, like crooning over a cradle, then it swells into a song. The singer is a woman. PDF / EPUB File Name: The_Whispering_Muse_-_Laura_Purcell.pdf, The_Whispering_Muse_-_Laura_Purcell.epub Her first novel for Raven Books THE SILENT COMPANIONS won the WHSmith Thumping Good Read Award 2018 and featured in both the Zoe Ball and Radio 2 Book Clubs. Other Gothic novels include THE CORSET (THE POISON THREAD in USA), BONE CHINA and THE SHAPE OF DARKNESS (2020) A gothic tale set in the Victorian theatre. Full of chills, blood and sprinkled with horror. Another take on Faust, a pact with devil and everything it entails. This is a real gothic tale that kept me reading late into the night.Once again, this is an excellent story from Sjón, mixing myth, distorted myth and reality, with some political views thrown in, to give us an excellent tale, beautifully told. Some critics feel that it is not as good as his other novels translated into English but I disagree, as I think this one works very well, whether you know the Jason and the Argonauts story or not. Haraldsson is deliberately not an endearing character but even he changes as a result of his voyage. We get Sjón’s usual myths, in this case two known myths but somewhat retold, we get his surrealistic touch at the end of the book and we get the characters round the captain’s table, who enable us to see Haraldsson in a somewhat different light, quite a lot for a short book. Publishing history 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.