Review: The Naked Light by Bridget Collins
My Five Word TL:DR Review: Didn’t Quite Work For Me
A gothic tale that combines ancient folklore and superstition with the stories of three women post WW1.
On the face of it this book was perfect for me. Elements of old horror, a gothic tale with an old cottage perched above a village, windswept and lonely, a dark menace that is no longer being held at bay and the unsettling atmosphere of a village trying to pull itself together post war. And, this is atmospheric. The writing is beautiful. I could picture the hills and the village, the stifling confines of the vicarage and the petty mindedness of some of the villagers and I genuinely didn’t struggle to read this (because the writing is so good) but, I didn’t really get along with the characters for the most part, it was a very slow burn and the magical realism elements were a little bit thin on the ground.
Set in the fiction village of Haltington, on the Sussex coast, this is a tale of three women.
In the hillside, etched into the grass, is a chalk face, rumour would have you believe that this face protects the village from an ancient menace and the residents of Bone Cottage look after the ‘face’, keeping it visible to the village below. Unfortunately war kills off most of the Bone cottage family and the remaining member dies whilst trying to fulfil her duties. The face eventually begins to disappear, grass and weeds encroaching and taking back their rightful place, the villagers begin to forget about the rumours until an artist called Kit takes up residence in the cottage causing unrest with her alternative style.
Kit wants to be left alone. Traumatised by her work during WW1 she’s running away from everything and everyone she knows, unfortunately the villagers hold a strange fascination for her and two members of the community in particular are intrigued. Florence, a lonely spinster who has come to live with her brother-in-law (the vicar) following the death of his wife, and Florence’s niece Phoebe. The pair develop a fascination for Kit. Florence becomes attracted to her and in fact she and Kit become romantically involved, and Phoebe, out of some sort of jealous instinct spies on the pair often becoming vindictive or malicious. Meanwhile dark forces are gathering strength, unnoticed.
What really worked for me.
As I mentioned above the writing is absolutely wonderful in fact it kept me reading even though the story itself wasn’t particularly working it’s magic. This is such an atmospheric piece. It’s wonderfully gothic and really quite creepy. In fact the folklore elements are deliciously creepy although they’re a little late to make an appearance and quite under explored overall.
What didn’t work for me.
The characters. I don’t know why but I really struggled to connect to any of them and that remained constant throughout the story. So, although I did complete this I didn’t come away loving it.
I thought the magical realism elements were really well done, quite gripping and very creepy when they made an appearance – but by that point they felt a little too little too late.
Overall, I had no problem reading this and I certainly wouldn’t want to put off other readers from picking this up – it just didn’t work it’s magic for me (in spite of the writing and creep factor).
I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.
My rating 3 of 5 stars
The Silence Factory by Bridget Collins
16 May 2024
Filed under Book Reviews
Tags: Book Reviews, Books, Bridget Collins, historical-fiction, The Silence Factory
My Five Word TL:DR Review : My feelings are all over
I will say that Bridget Collins has a lovely way with words and can set a scene really well. On top of that she’s a skilled author when it comes to blending historical settings and magical realism and her stories usually have a central mystery that hooks you and keeps you reading.
The Silence Factory is a period novel told over two timelines, one relayed in diary format by Sophie Ashmore Percy as she trails round the Greek islands with her husband in his relentless pursuit of mythical creatures and the other, set decades later, narrated by a widower called Henry Latimer, an audiologist who becomes wrapped up in the schemes of Sir Edward Ashmore Percy (the great, great? nephew of Sophie) and his relentless pursuit of money.
Sir Edward’s family made their money from lace but Edward has spent the wealth converting the family’s factory and setting up to spin silk instead. Telverton silk is quite remarkable, it contains qualities that seem to nullify noise, however these remarkable traits must be weighed against the strange madness that its production seems to induce, the tremendous production costs and the overall ill effects that Telverton seems to suffer as a result. Edward has over stretched and his situation is now dire, he needs backers. This is where Henry enters the scheme. Henry is employed by his father in law, working out of a shop in London. The two make for a very melancholy scene. One having lost his daughter, the other his wife. There’s an unspeakable sadness until Sir Andrew appears in the shop. Sir Andrew’s daughter is deaf but he believes she can be cured. This is when Henry meets Sir Andrew and seems to become almost instantly beguiled – simply by a kind gesture. To cut a long story short Henry soon finds himself travelling to Telverton to stay at Sir Edward’s mansion and to try and help his daughter. After a rather unexpected outburst by Henry one evening in front of a prospective backer Sir Edward begins to see potential in the young man helping him to market his silk and so begins their strange relationship.
On the face of it this book has everything I love and then some. And, I confess, I was keen to keep reading, intrigued by the mystery. There is the gothic goodness, the whole setting of Telverton in fact plays into this with it’s oppressive feel. There’s the dual timeline and the diary chapters. In fact I loved the chapters where we jumped to Greece. It has such a different feel. This tiny, sun soaked village with its traditions and sparkling waters. Another setting easily brought to life by Collins.
What worked for me. The writing. So eloquent. This is an author that can set a scene that will burst to life in your mind as you read.
The mystery. Although it feels a little that we don’t fully explore the full potential of this particular intrigue it did keep me reading.
There’s an exploration here of the social issues of the time. The conditions that people worked in. The dangers of the factories. The fact that children were scurrying about cleaning the underneath of dangerous equipment. The blatant disparity and dispassion between the haves and the have nots. Also the treatment of women and the clear depiction that whether wealthy or not, most women had few choices and little voice.
Unfortunately, most of the characters didn’t work for me at all. I’m not going to turn this into a character assasination but Henry, his actions just defied belief. I do understand that he was grieving and lonely, but I just couldn’t come to terms with him at all in fact I totally ran out of patience. Edward, well you could understand his motives, greed and power, and he was just your basic arrogant, self-serving, over-priveledged, selfish horror. Although, now I’m talking myself into a corner because as I write this review I can see that the author has written here three men who badly let their wives down and so clearly they’re not supposed to be likable – but, it’s a gamble isn’t it because whilst I love a good baddie, I do find it difficult to read an entire story without having any characters to root for. Okay, Sophie isn’t a bad character, but at the same time her involvement is a little sparse, I would have loved more of her chapters. The governess of Sir Edward’s daughter was an interesting character but her own reticence made it difficult to latch onto her. (Although I loved the addition of the cousin who looked so much like her – that had a WIlkie Collins vibe for me).
Overall, this is an intriguing story. I loved the period setting and the writing is beautiful. I felt the storyline of the spiders and the silk was a little under explored. I enjoyed the highlight on the social aspects and particularly the plight of the females in this story and the unflinching way that the author doesn’t try to change this in some way – yes, she could have given these women more agency, they could have acted more assertively – and yet, in actual fact, no they couldn’t, they were all of them, always conscious of the lack of choices that they really had.
I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.
My rating 3.5 of 5 stars
The Betrayals by Bridget Collins
My Five Word TL:DR Review : Didn’t Quite Work for Me
The Betrayals is a book that I part read and part listened to and I will say before starting this review that I do love the way that Bridget Collins writes. She has a way of instilling her works with so much atmosphere that even though the story wasn’t quite my ‘thing’ I still wanted to continue reading.
This is a novel with a historic feel although I’m not entirely sure the year in which this takes place. We begin by making the acquaintance of Léo Martin, a disgraced politician. Basically Léo had the temerity to disagree with one of the party lines and as a result finds himself demoted to a backsticks position that actually involves a return to his old school. Montverre is an old school academy where bright young things pitch their wits against each other in an old fashioned game known as the Grand Jeu. Léo left the school after a tragedy and his return now sets in train a strange unwinding of the past and some startling revelations along the way.
This is a story with a few POVs. Obviously Léo. Léo has become complacent over the years, used to his own importance and lulled, in fact, into thinking that his opinions matter much more than they do. He’s forgotten to keep his head down and is now facing the outcome of his own overblown self importance. In fairness to Léo he is actually making a stand against a party line that is very harsh and his removal from office gives him time to stand back and see just how extreme things have become. The politics here are not particularly named but there is an almost fascist feel to the place as though things are on the brink of change, tolerance is low and there’s an underlying current of fear and suspicion. We also have Léo’s pov from his days as a student told through the pages of a journal that he wrote at the time and so from this you would be right in thinking that the story does jump back and forth in order for us to discover what happened way back when. The third pov is Magister Ludi – this is the highest office that can be held at Montverre and is currently held by a woman called Claire Dryden. As the story unfolds it becomes apparent that this shocking admission of a female into a very male centred world and a much sought after position came about through some sleight of hand and it would be an understatement to say that not all the old bastions within the Academy are happy with the ways things have panned out. Finally, a character known as the Rat – a very unusual perspective and one that I won’t elaborate on here for fear of spoilers.
So, what I liked about this first. I loved the writing. As I mentioned above Collins is really amazing at setting the tone and The Betrayals is brimming over with atmosphere. On top of that I am a little bit of a sucker for any story that’s set within the walls of a school or other learning establishment and the one here is a grand old building with plenty of dusty corridors, dark spaces and secret histories. There is also a lovely slow reveal of past secrets that went in a direction that was surprisingly and happily unexpected.
What didn’t work too well for me was a combination of wanting more clarity on the grand jeu and what the school was actually about and an overall feeling of not only missing something fundamental along the way but also that the plot didn’t really live up to it’s promise somehow. I’m not really phrasing that very well but for me it felt like there was going to be a lot more substance to this than the actual outcome left me feeling. Again, I think this is probably down to me not picking up an underlying message or perhaps expecting there to be more to this than was actually intended.
Overall, although this one didn’t totally win me over I would still not hesitate to pick up more books by this author. She has a style of writing that really works for me and so even though the content for this one didn’t work it’s magic I remain only too happy to read more books by her in the future.
I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publishers, for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.
Mr Rating 3 of 5 stars
The Binding by Bridget Collins
The Binding is a book that I’d been looking forward to picking up for quite some time. It has an intriguing description that tells us this is “An unforgettable novel of enchantment, mystery, memory, and forbidden love, The Binding is a beautiful homage to the allure and life-changing power of books—and a reminder to us all that knowledge can be its own kind of magic.” I really enjoyed this for the most part. It’s a beautifully rendered love story with a historic backdrop and a low fantasy feel.
As the story sets off we make the acquaintance of Emmett a young man who works the land on his family’s farm. We soon learn that Emmet has been unwell, he seems unable to complete his regular duties and is burdened with feelings of guilt and self-doubt. Returning home from a day in the fields Emmett hears his parents arguing about a letter they’ve just received – a letter that summons Emmett to become an apprentice book binder. Books are forbidden and the local binder is thought to be a witch – and yet, Emmett’s parents submit to the request and he’s taken off to begin his apprenticeship. The first part of the story is really well done. I found myself easily pulled into the pages and the way of life. There’s enough description of the time and place to create a vivid picture and the entire first part is loaded with tension and mystery. There is a good deal of significant looks, brimming with meaning, and whispered conversations and just as I was about to explode with the mystery of it all we moved into the second part.
To be honest, it’s difficult to continue the review after this point without giving away spoilers. Basically the second section of the book takes us back to an earlier period and shines a light on all the secrecy alluded to in the first part. I loved these chapters. They had a wild unkempt feeling that put me in mind of Wuthering Heights. I could envisage the farm and the way of life, the secrets, the forbidden meetings. Obviously I could see in which direction things were going to go but it all added to the tension and fear for the characters themselves. Very evocative indeed.
The third section is the part that I struggled with a little and I’m not sure I can completely put my finger on why that is. These chapters take on a very dark and gothic feel, almost Machiavellian in the scheming and intrigue and packed with some pretty nasty characters. I mean, in some respects I can see what the author was aiming for here and I absolutely love the idea of it. The sense of despair, of things being too far out of control. The difference in tempo moving the story out of the country and into the city, the sense of grime, the disparity between the rich and the poor, the exploitation. It felt almost Dickensian in contrast to the Bronte feel of the first two parts. I guess, for me, it felt a little jarring and maybe a little over the top in terms of what was going on. I think it could have been calmed down somewhat whereas as it was it felt a little scattered and chaotic. I think if a little of the busyness had been stripped from this final third this could well have been a perfect read for me.
I can’t tell you too much more about the plot. The central concept here is one of memories and the power they hold over a person. It’s not something I’ve really ever considered before and this story definitely gave me some food for thought.
I really enjoyed Collins writing, I thought she had a lovely way with words and I enjoyed the historical feel. I would say that the fantasy and magic behind the whole aspect of ‘book binding’ is very light and I wouldn’t say that I had a really strong understanding of the binding or how it works. In fact, I would say that you probably just need to go with it and don’t look too hard for explanations.
I think given the nature of how this story is written readers will likely have very different experiences when they read this. I wouldn’t be surprised if some readers love the third part and find the opening chapters a little too drawn out. Overall, I had a good time with this. I didn’t love the concluding chapters as much as I’d have liked but I found the first two parts of this very intriguing indeed and I confess that I read the whole story in two sittings I was so gripped.
I received a copy through Edelweiss, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.
Books and travelling with Lynn 