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Bone China

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Bone China

By: Laura Purcell
Narrated by: Laura Kirman
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About this listen

Bloomsbury presents Bone China by Laura Purcell, read by Laura Kirman.

'Du Maurier-tastic' GUARDIAN

'Deliciously sinister' HEAT

'A clever, creepy read' SUNDAY EXPRESS

Consumption has ravaged Louise Pinecroft’s family, leaving her and her father alone and heartbroken.

But Dr Pinecroft has plans for a revolutionary experiment: convinced that sea air will prove to be the cure his wife and children needed, he arranges to house a group of prisoners suffering from the same disease in the cliffs beneath his new Cornish home.

Forty years later, Hester Why arrives at Morvoren House to take up a position as nurse to the now partially paralysed and almost entirely mute Miss Pinecroft. Hester has fled to Cornwall to try and escape her past, but surrounded by superstitious staff enacting bizarre rituals, she soon discovers that her new home may be just as dangerous as her last…

©2019 Laura Purcell (P)2019 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc Fantasy Fiction Genre Fiction Gothic Historical Horror Magic Medical Mystery Regency Regency Romance Supernatural Suspense Thriller & Suspense Women's Fiction Scary Paranormal Romance Heartfelt
All stars
Most relevant
Original and interesting. Couldn't stop listening. Loved all the layers and different characters and the blurring between reality and dreams.

gripping

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Laura Purcell is fast becoming my favourite author. This story is breathtaking in its scope and emotions even though it’s set in basically two locations. The reading was immaculate, I loved this so much.

Incredible

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Purcell's complex characters, niche storylines and historical accuracy always deliver, however I had been expecting a sinister and delicious plotline to unfold following the opening chapters which featured the aged and paralysed Miss Pinecroft keeping vigil in a bone cold room of china: the novel, however took a different turn.

The bulk of the tension took place in the parallel timeline, which I had not expected, and where I had been hoping for a delicious trot around a haunted mansion (having thoroughly enjoyed Silent Companions), I found that the tightly coiled tension climaxed into into an emotionally intense and sharply tragic biographical account of the ravaging effects of disease, grief and ultimately insanity.

I found the ending ambiguous and walked away feeling quite emotionally steamrolled and mildly depressed.

Perhaps my expectations were to blame; Bone China demonstrates the impressively adept dovetailing of character arc, timeline and location that mark Purcell's work, however, I would have expected to find this book in a different genre: moving between medical horror, heartwrenching tragedy and eerie folklore.

All in all, I can't fault the writing. I had just hoped for a different journey.

Less scary than I hoped. Quite emotionally intense

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The lead character was irritating. The story quite slow. Performance not the problem. Just could not get into the book at all.

Boring character

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In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.