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

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As the curtains open on this disturbing Purcell play, your sense should be twitching as every single one is going to be Laura Purcell interview “I had a few nightmares about finding silent companions standing outside my house!” 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. 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.

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

Set in Victorian England we are introduced to the world of theatre and all the superstitions it holds. After her elder brother abandons them our protagonist Jenny is struggling to provide for her younger siblings. She is desperate and wants to create a better life for them all so when Mrs Dyer makes her a generous offer, Jenny finds it hard to say no.

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I love this latest book from an extremely talented author, sure, there more blood than spook but that absolutely suits the dramas we witness. I love the journeys through the various plays too as they often mirror the leading characters desires and intents. It’s an absorbing and compelling read from start to finish. Highly recommended. My great-grandfather died in 1959, having completed his magnum opus, “ Síldarsaga Íslands” (“The History of Herring Fishing in Iceland”). It is said that Hrafn Valdimarsson spent his last years in Greenwich Village. Caeneus is eternal and flying around the world on his seagull’s wings.

The Whispering Muse by Laura Purcell | Waterstones

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. 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.

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Laura Purcell excels in the territory she has claimed as her own, the dark, disturbing and the tragic in this, with her chilling, atmospheric Victorian gothic storytelling with its elements of horror, with its blood and gore, as she slowly immerses the reader in the drama laden world of the characters that inhabit the Mercury Theatre in London's West End. The narrative is structured around 5 plays that echo the themes and issues of the characters, whilst simultaneously driving the storylines onwards. It soon becomes apparent that it is no accident that the plays include Dr Faustus and Macbeth. Jenny Wilcox is a desperate woman, drowning in a precarious situation exacerbated by her brother Greg, leaving her solely responsible for her family. So when she is made a job offer that she cannot refuse, she accepts, the pay is generous, there is a house and includes much needed essential medical treatment for a sibling, but will she live to regret her decision? The muse whispers into the ear of Caeneus, once an argonaut questing for the golden fleece, now second mate on a 1940s Danish merchant vessel schlepping paper pulp to Turkey. Each evening at dinnertime he tells tales of his 3,000-year-old experiences, prompted by the voice inside a rotten fragment of the Argo's hull, which he holds to his ear like a telephone receiver. Long-term fans of Sjón, the Icelandic bard whose projects have included lyrics for Björk, volumes of surrealist poetry and several prizewinning novels, will recognise this trademark interweaving of myth and postmodern playfulness. 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. Each story has its particular charm. In the first, he describes how happy and honored his countrymen were to see him again after all his years away; in the second, he is captivated by the traditional costumes and rhymed poetry of the Setes Valley people, their pale skin color, ruddy cheeks, and fine body postures; and, in the third, he is more occupied with the inside of the ship than anything that happens outside it—even when he steps ashore, in Morocco, and visits one of its Grand Bazaars, the narration falls flat compared to his enthusiastic descriptions of his cabin. It was this third story that caught my eye as possible material. Its “anti-narration” had the flavor of modernist writing in its main character’s insistent refusal to engage with what is supposed to be noteworthy in a story. Yet it wasn’t enough to sustain a whole novel.