Stop, for a moment, and listen to your surroundings. What do you hear? A whirring fridge, the steady stream of traffic outside your window? The chatter of family members or neighbors? The buzzing song of cicadas and crickets on a warm summer night? Do we ever truly encounter silence? What if we could? What if there was a way to not only muffle but truly mute, the incessant hum of the hustle and bustle and be cocooned in complete and utter silence? Wouldn’t that be perfection? Bridget Collins’ THE SILENCE FACTORY explores this fascinating premise. Henry Latimer, a nineteenth-century audiologist, is immediately charmed by a new client Sir Edward Ashmore-Percy. Edward is no stranger to silence – in fact, his factory sells silk that blankets its clientele in pure quiet – but he cannot seem to find resolve for the one thing he desires: a cure for his daughter’s deafness. What begins as Henry’s quest to help improve Edward’s daughter’s hearing quickly devolves into a dark obsession with Edward, his silk business, and the silk’s origins.
Collins succeeds in transporting readers to a different time and an exotic place. While the story primarily follows Henry’s experiences, it does detail the origins of the silk in journals written by Edward’s great aunt, Sophia. Sophia’s journal entries help propel the story forward, with a constant underpinning of foreboding and dread. Sophia’s character is easily the most interesting one in the book. Given this, the significantly smaller focus on her journal entries may be a disappointment to some readers.
Traditional gothic elements are more subdued in THE SILENCE FACTORY. Some of the more forward hallmarks of a gothic work (like a sense of horror or extreme weather events) seem to be saved up for the novel’s end, which can make this novel feel like a slow burn most of the way through. More overt is the emphasis on Henry’s concerningly deteriorating mental and emotional states. Henry comes across as excruciatingly naive and clueless, which can make for a draining read. This also makes Henry harder to connect to and root for as a main character.
The reader is rewarded with a faster pace and an abundance of shocks and surprises in the last quarter of the novel; however, some may be left with a sense that all plot lines weren’t brought to a satisfactory conclusion. On the whole, THE SILENCE FACTORY does deliver a thought-provoking premise in a captivating atmosphere. If you are in the mood for a feminist historical fiction novel with a gothic and LGBT twist, Bridget Collins’ THE SILENCE FACTORY may just be the next read for you.
From the acclaimed author of the #1 international bestseller The Binding—a captivating story of gothic suspense about a powerful family, the magical and dangerous silk their fortune is built upon, and the exploitative history they are desperately trying to hide.
1820: Sophia Ashmore-Percy reluctantly accompanies her husband James to a remote Greek island, where he searches for rare biological specimens. 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.
Decades later, audiologist Henry Latimer is sent to the home of industrialist Sir Edward Ashmore-Percy and tasked with curing the man’s young daughter, Philomel, of her deafness. But Henry, eager to escape a troubled past, quickly becomes obsessed with the fascinating nature of Sir Edward’s business: spinning silk with a rare and magical breed of spiders. The extraordinary silk shields sound, offering respite from bustling streets and noisy neighbors. The result is instant tranquility, as wearers experience a soothing calmness. Yet, those within earshot of the outward-facing silk are subjected to eerie murmurs that amplify with proximity. Bystanders suffer the consequences of this unnerving phenomenon, manifesting in physical and mental afflictions ranging from headaches and drowsiness to severe cases of madness.
As Henry becomes entangled in the allure of the silk and Sir Edward’s charm, he glimpses a more sinister family history. The closer he ventures into the inner circle of Carthmute House, the more he unravels the horrifying underbelly of the silk business.
With Bridget Collins’s signature, stunning prose, The Silence Factory is an equally enthralling and unsettling gothic story about complicity, desire, and corruption—a novel to lose yourself in.
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