Okay, let's start with the main character, Jenny. She is just such a delight. It may feel at first like a familiar story, a Victorian orphan having to work in service to look after her younger siblings, including a handicapped brother, Jenny has lost her position and fallen on hard times after her older brother ran off with anything of value he could get his hands on. She does what she needs to do to look after her family, with such a fiercely protective instinct. But what I love most about Jenny is her attitude. She takes absolutely no shit off anybody and it is such a joy to watch. She's sarcastic, cutting, mean even, but somehow never comes across as an unpleasant or unsympathetic character. She's just someone who stands up for herself and tells people what she thinks, and for someone in her position in society, with so much at risk, that comes across as incredibly brave and bold. It also doesn't feel anachronistic, and that may be due in part to the theatre setting, typically outside of societal norms, and also because she's very clever about it. She knows when to toe the line, and is often careful about what she says to Mrs Drury in particular, when she holds power over her, but also knows when she can get away with flashing her attitude. Towards the end, Sjón gets fed up with maintaining a Pooteresque tone for Haraldsson, and the former fish inspector relates an eerily vivid account of Caeneus in bird form, scavenging for putrid meat near the decaying ruins of the Argo. It is here that the dehumanised mate meets "the most wretched of vagabonds: a bald, haggard, pinch-bellied, shrunken-limbed old man" who, Caeneus realises with a spasm of grief, is all that remains of the once-magnificent Jason. People always said there was a fine line between genius and madness. Lilith had been walking it like a tightrope for too long. Perhaps I'd pushed her off the edge.”

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

That is how an alliance was made between the ancient hero Caeneus and the Icelandic seaman Hrafn Valdimarsson, how their voices, their fates, were joined to fight the intolerable drone of my great-grandfather. But even great men like those two need an amazing tool to help them to tell their tale: a talkative, rotten chip of wood that came from the great ship Argo itself. At the end of “The Whispering Muse,” the old man does indeed learn a lesson, but the cost to his rival storyteller is dear. Deliciously creepy, riveting and full of heart with compelling characters and brilliant twists. The theatrical setting and use of the tragedies on stage that are woven expertly into the unfolding story is glitteringly dark and mesmerising' Jennifer Saint, Sunday Times bestselling author of Ariadne and Elektra

The threat and presence of Melpomene – well I didn’t know much about this but I did wait until after the novel to research it and wow, so much to learn and investigate. I feel Laura must have had some fun researching all of this. Fabulous characters, twists and turns aplenty. Deliciously dark and very satisfying' REBECCA NETLEY 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. I also loved the way the supernatural was presented as something that could be real, or could be an aspect of our characters losing their minds and losing the plot. There was nothing that definitively said "The supernatural elements are real" or "They're all just figments of their imagination" and that uncertainty was quite delicious. The wife of the owner of London’s Mercury Theatre offers Jennifer money and a job as a dresser in exchange for a bit of spying on the lead actress.

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

Set at the Mercury Theatre in Victorian London, Miss Jennifer Wilcox accepts a job offer from Mrs Dyer, the wife of the Mercury's owner. Fallen on hard times - the cause of which is revealed later - Jennifer must provide for her family and despite being brought low by her circumstances, eagerly accepts the position of dresser. Jennifer will need to make and mend all of the costumes, style hair and organise the accessories for the leading actress at the Mercury. I love that the story is so immersive, which is down to a clever plot but more importantly believable characters that evolve over the course of the novel. None of the characters are sugary sweet, they all have an agenda which is tested in different ways as the cost of loyalty is tested. It is said that the lead actress Lilith has made a pact with Melpomene, the tragic muse of Greek mythology, to become the greatest actress to ever grace the stage. Suspicious of Lilith, the jealous wife of the theatre owner sends dresser Jenny to spy on her.When the principal actress, Lilith, is gifted a cursed timepiece once belonging to a famous actor who died a grisly death on stage, her performances seem to take on a new level of energy that leaves her in a state of deterioration as the season progresses. Jenny, who is no fan of Lilith, can’t help but begin to feel concern, that slowly gives way to dread, as more and more, it seems as though the timepiece is possessed of a power that reaches beyond Lilith’s grasp.

The Whispering Muse by Laura Purcell Book Review: The Whispering Muse by Laura Purcell

The Whispering Muse is everything that Gothic horror should be. It’s haunting, eerie, and compulsive. A cautionary tale th 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. A tremor shook Lilith’s frame. Her eyes flew open, fixed and staring at the gallery. The audience looked over their shoulders. Did she see something we couldn’t?” 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.

The book is constructed around a series of plays, each one forming an "Act" of the novel. I'm sure there's some very in depth analysis that could be done around the choice of plays and how they drive the plot of the story, but for me they just felt like they fit it really well. The different tragedies staged in the Mercury showed us different aspects of our stars as things grew progressively more perilous and frightening. Atmospheric, gripping, absorbing – The Whispering Muse is another Gothic triumph from Laura Purcell. It's deliciously creepy, riveting and full of heart with compelling characters and brilliant twists. The theatrical setting and use of the tragedies on stage that are woven expertly into the unfolding story is glitteringly dark and mesmerising’ JENNIFER SAINT 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! Deliciously creepy, riveting and full of heart with compelling characters and brilliant twists ... glitteringly dark and mesmerising' Jennifer Saint, Sunday Times bestselling author of Ariadne and Elektra