Rich in atmosphere and character, this Gothic tale has touches of Sarah Waters' Affinity and Margaret Atwood's Alias Grace, tinged with the uncanny elements that made the Silent Companions so memorable. The Corset is brilliantly compelling and kept me guessing to the end.

oh my god

A real treat for a blustery October evening.

Um, wow. Probably the best fiction I've read in the past two or three years. I read 'The Silent Companions' by Laura Purcell a few weeks ago and whilst it was okay, pretty good, it didn't truly draw me in, or make me really care about the characters. THIS book though, showed a real improvement in pacing, plot, character development and narrative voices. Right from the get-go, you're drawn into a dark, visceral tale of life in the impoverished slums of Victorian England - and this is juxtaposed against the life of a wealthy, middle class heiress and all the expectations her station places upon her. The characters are both likable AND believable; which is no mean feat when you remember that the literary world has swallowed the great con of intersectional feminism, thus requiring all female characters to have unrealistic levels of kick-ass talents/skills etc (often to the detriment of the overall story). But I believed that the characters in this book could exist. Some are a tad more 'eccentric' shall we say, than others, but Purcell does a really good job of deftly weaving just the right amount of realistic setting, complimentary attention to detail, well researched world building and an exciting 'race-against-time' plot, all together with some beautifully drawn, vivid characters. This was one of my Halloween reads this year and I'm so glad I managed to get it in time. It was exactly the kind of book I was looking for. In some places it is gloriously gruesome and deeply twisted - just the way I like it - yet in other parts, even I was moved by the plight of certain characters as life seemed determined to throw nothing but obstacles in their path to obtain even the most basic human needs. There was just the right amount of foreshadowing to enable me to see that there were multiple possibilities to the heart of the tale - but I wasn't able to figure it out myself until I was about just over 80% through the book. And don't worry, I'm not giving anything away by saying that, because there are also lots of red herrings that will have you thinking all manner of things before you reach the fantastic conclusion. I won't even say how the ending made me feel. But it was quite powerfully delivered. It left an impression on me for a couple of days after I finished it. I want to go and read it again, now, to see what I might have missed in the way of clues and whatnot, but I have so many books on my TBR...it'd be silly to waste any of my recently returned enthusiasm on a reread of something still so fresh in my mind. I absolutely loved this book. I loved everything about it. I loved the concept at the heart of it. I loved the period it was set in and the grim 'n gritty realism that the author managed to convey without making the reader too depressed to continue. I loved the spirit of both the main female characters - something that doesn't always happen, because I can't so much as stand the sniff of a feminist bent on a fictional character - and actually found myself really rooting for both of them. I love how evocative the description is, throughout the book; whether the author is trying to make you really see in your mind's eye, the flea-bitten, dirty, desperation of hoi-polloi, or the exquisite and luxurious fabrics, furnishings and frippery of the wealthier classes. I loved that Phrenology was still in its own infancy as a "science" throughout the story, because the author had obviously done her homework and managed to make it sound like the latest tool for psychological evaluation (which it was at the time) and not the thoroughly debunked vintage curiosity that we view it as today. If you've read anything else by Laura Purcell, but weren't blown away by it...please, do yourself a favour and give this book a chance, because it's a real improvement on her previous book (which wasn't bad, it just wasn't awesome.) 'The Corset', is everything I had hoped that 'The Silent Companions' would be. Gorgeously Gothic, instantly immersive, very hard to put down, believably constructed, beautifully written, amazingly researched. What else do I have to do in order to convince you to read it? Go buy it now. You won't be disappointed. (And if you're reading this in late November 2018, it's currently on offer for less than £1.50 on Amazon.co.uk right now [Kindle version] so you have absolutely no reason not to give it a go.

Description Summary: Haunting, foul, and dark, Lauren Purcell presents a disturbing tale of wickedness, crime, and tragedy set on the backdrop of the Victorian Era. Think The Alienist but with a female lead. Or a gothic darker version of Agatha Christie. Score: 4.5/5 This is the novel that will unsettle you. The one where you feel the chill in your bones even though it isn't cold. The one that constricts your heart and send pricks of goosebumps up your arms. I really enjoyed this. I enjoyed the twists and turns this took, the intricacy of the plot and the time the author took to construct the story. In the end you're left even more perplexed as everything is unraveled and the sinister truths revealed, leaving you hanging with ribbons and ropes that tie your brain up in a frenzy. Book Summary: Dorothea Truelove is unlike most women of her status and wealth. Instead of frittering about stuffy social gatherings and entertaining snobby elites, she spends most of her time pursuing her passion of phrenology and doing charitable work in women prisons though her father wishes she was already wed to "one of the good men in society". Despite the domestic strangle at home, Dorothea's work would lead her to Ruth Butterham. Unlike Dorothea, Ruth has spent her life in hardship growing up poor and miserable. She is under trial for the death of the master seamstress she works under, to whom she's confessed murdering. Fascinated and intrigued by Ruth's backstory, the two women kindle an unlikely friendship. As the secrets begin to unravel and the puzzles are slowly coming together, what Dorothea realizes is something far sinister in the works. And she is set in a greater predicament with herself when she begins to doubt Ruth's tales, especially with the girl attributing supernatural forces to the dark occurrences that have surrounded her life. Could it be true? Is she a murderess, a mad woman, or something far deadlier? On a another level, Dorothea battles out her secret love to police officer David all the while her father is eager to set her up with wealthy socialite Sir Thomas. Ultimately there is more to met the eye when it comes to Sir Thomas, and what he confides in her will shake her to the core and make her realize that there are more similarities between her case and Ruth's than she thought. End of Summary. Purcell has perfected the atmosphere of gritty reality and chilling mystery all with the air of the supernatural without it being all over the place. I actually liked how none of the characters are actually "good", and that each had a disturbing fact or secret underneath. This was written in a way that it alternated between Dorothea's POV and Ruth's POV. I loved how the POVs where continually switched throughout; it made you constantly be in the loop of what the other woman is thinking. I also liked how Ruth's story is being told; it's as if you're Dorothea listening to Ruth telling her tale in that cold prison cell. I know how Mrs.Metyard is painted as the main villain, but Billy psychically uneases me. I mean he just feels wrong, like confectionary that is too sweet to the point its sickening. The only thing that pushed the score down is that the ending was kind of abrupt and a little bit weird? I wanted more of an epic showdown between Dorothea and her father. And I badly wanted her to meet Billy. Do I recommend? A big yes, it's a definite don't miss.

Not as eerily good as 'The Silent Companions', but just as twisted and gruesome, even more so because of the fact that the horrors at the heart of the novel have been inflicted by the premeditating evil of the human mind and the brutal rage of the human hand. Despite the faint supernatural elements interwoven in the pages, what stays in mind after reading this book is the morbidity and sickness of human nature and the suffering that said nature inflicts on the world. Veiled by the dreary Gothic atmosphere of Victorian England, the book features two narrators, a murderess aged 16 and a wealthy heiress with a macabre interest in prison and prison reforms. One of the narrators is deemed unreliable from the start, yet as the story unfolds, the truth is glimpsed and our own senses come into play: whatever is the truth, can anyone be trusted? The author skilfully presents the picture of 19th century England: poverty, death, child labour, plagues, dirt and torture, all neglected by the wealthy who deem their job to only throw a glance of pity and call it a day. The novel is filled with this duality of worlds, which makes it that much more interesting of a read. There are a few plot twsits here and there, which I, an avid Gothic reader familiar with the turns of gothic literature, had predicted from the start, but that didn't supplant my satisfaction in reading this book. Overall, a memorable book worth putting on your to-be-read lists.