So I wouldn't normally go for 'gothic' fiction. I didn't actually think it was my thing. That is, until this! I absolutely LOVED listening to this book. It's funny, I often say I don't visualise much when I'm reading a book - but when I'm listening, I really do put what I'm hearing into a visual interpretation in my head.

This book. Scene setting, suspense and build up was wonderful. I really enjoyed the journey of this book. The destination. Not so much. The ending was a little lazy in my opinion, albeit not what I expected. Probably because I was expecting something far more complex.

That said, the ending itself didn't ruin the enjoyment of the book hugely and I would still recommend it. Really great listen.

I’ve not ready many gothic novels, so I started of rather unsteady, characters came together quickly the numbers of murders occurred to keep me engaged. This story was spooky and eery, Agnes the protagonist came across as a delicate meek carer to what’s left of her family, a woman having to exist at the benevolence of a man, her sister’s husband; yet Agnes contrary to expectations is fearless and maintains a semblance of independence too, her interaction with Pearl unseated me often in describing what Pearl does and her smell was vividly brought to life. The final plot end was completed unexpected. It was an engrossing thriller.

This book was amazing! brilliantly written, gently suspenseful. The narration was absolutely perfect, the book came alive whilst I was listening to it and the twist at the end was simply awesome

A spooky story from Laura Purcell is always delightful! I enjoyed the setting in Bath, and the occupation of the protagonist, you don's get a lot of stories about shadow cutters! The interweavement of Agnes and Pearl was lovely, lots of interesting elements there. Will 100% recommend to my customers!

I've really enjoyed all of Laura Purcell's previous books so was keen to read her latest. Although I'm not usually a fan of audio books as I prefer to read them myself, I have to say the narrator of this one is excellent. Agnes Darken lives with her mother and young nephew Cedric who is an orphan. She works as a silhouette artist which provides a meagre income. When Agnes's clients are found dead she is worried that her business will be harmed and fears that someone is targeting her. She makes contact with Pearl who is a very young medium who lives with her older sister Myrtle. Agnes is hoping Pearl will be able to contact the victims to ascertain the name of the murderer..

This is an atmospheric and chilling tale with plenty of twists and turns and an unexpected ending.

The copy, the cover and the title are all very tempting, a very well put together package! The book sounds as if I would enjoy it throughly, gothic and horror being my thing, but sadly I did not. This has been the case with Purcell for me in the past — the books sounds perfect but there is something on the way the author plots the story that grates on me. Her female characters tend to be extremely hard to like/care for and the endings leave me with a weird sense of having been cheated. They are often not at all what I expected and often way less satisfying than I had hoped. I don’t need a happy ending for all characters, but for some, sometimes? Her characters also don’t develop or grow as much as one would have liked, they are annoying and quite flat to start with and often even more annoying once the reader finds out what has made them such. Give me a plucky, complicated and flawed character any day, as long as they have something to keep the reader interested a d a bit of genuine warmth somewhere. That is clearly lacking here.

On the bright side, the narrator and narration are both excellent and it was an enjoyable listen in that respect.

If you enjoyed the other Purcell titles you’ll love this, but if you did not, then give this one a miss.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for gifting me this audio in exchange for a review.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this tale as I don’t know the author and gothic mysteries aren’t books I usually go for. But the blurb was intriguing. Turns out it’s a really engaging mystery, beautifully written and with excellent narration.

It’s an unusual plot with the central character being a female caricaturist who cuts miniatures of her subjects. That was quite an interesting backdrop for the plot, along with the Bath setting. It’s genteel in that the plot moves along at a fairly leisurely pace and it’s not packed with action. But, it’s fully surprises and the characters are well depicted and varied. I had no idea where the story was going next and was caught out by the ending. I enjoyed it.

My thanks to the publisher for a review audio copy via Netgalley.

I love a good, gothic historical mystery and this novel fits the bill perfectly. Excellently narrated, it was atmospheric, creepy, and suspense-filled.

I was convinced that I had the story figured out from early on but I was completely wrong! The conclusion really took me by surprise and left me with a book hangover!

A thrilling read from start to finish.

Audio ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Loved the narrator. Very pleasant voice and really captured all the characters and the general flow of the narrative.

I liked this a lot more than the Silent Companions which didn't work for me at all. That said, I think in many ways Purcell's brand of reimagined gothic novel might not be for me. Her prose is brilliant, often containing stark and beautiful imagery whilst remaining clear and unsentimental. She writes settings in time periods I enjoy and know a lot about (the latter is perhaps less good since I frequently disagree with her.) I think my problem is that I inevitably find her female MCs flimsy. Not in terms of characterisation but just generally as people. I'm not interested in a constant parade of women who are so vulnerable and unlikely to think or tackle issues for themselves. In this instance Agnes' constant desire for someone to protect her was incredibly grating. Nor is it representative of Victorian women as a whole. Very few could could afford to be that delicate and retiring. My second issue is that Purcell always seems to do something odd with the ending. Don't expect a bittersweet or happy resolution where the character has been allowed to grow. You won't get one. Character's may discover more answers but never really grow as people in her books. It's not a deal breaker for me but it does mean you really have to sell the ending. This unfortunately doesn't.

Anyway, the story is that Agnes Darken, a shade artist (she creates silhouette portraits) is a survivor of a hideous accident some 14 yrs previously. Her sister died during that accident and since then, her brother-in-law and she have been relying on each other. Mysterious events cause Agnes to seek out a pair of sisters, one of whom is a spirit medium. From there Agnes' entire world begins to unravel. It was a fast paced and engaging story, and the structure was good. I mostly enjoyed it and while I sighed and rolled my eyes at the end, it did at least make a certain amount of sense, even if showing Agnes happy and triumphant would have been more of subversion of gothic tropes.

Overall an enjoyable gothic Victorian tale with strong supernatural leanings. If the things I mentioned don't bother you, have at it. (Personally, I think Julie Cohen's Spirited covered a similar story much better.)

Having pre-ordered the hardcopy version of this book I was excited to see how the audiobook would also come across as I can find it hit and miss for me depending on the narrator.

I have to say I was really impressed with the narrator and made the listening experience enjoyable. Now on to the story itself, as per Laura Purcell's previous books this is a victorian gothic thriller with plenty of twists and turns to keep you guessing from start to finish. I love Laura's style of writing and always know I am in for a good read with great descriptions and plot which sticks true to the traditional genre of gothic horror.

5/5 stars for both the story and audio.

What a delight!!

I absolutely loved this beautifully dark and gothic novel!

When struggling Bath silhouette artist Agnes Darken sees her clients murdered one after the other, she starts fearing for herself and her nephew and mother' safety. Not entirely trusting the rational approach of Simon, doctor and widower of Agnes' sister, Constance, Agnes seeks the assistance of Pearl, a very frail girl who happens to have terrifying visions and to communicate with the dead. She does not believe in coincidences and is determined to find out what happened and protect her loved ones.
Pearl is also struggling with her own demons, her authoritative and mesmeriser sister, and her dying father, and hopes Agnes can help her make contact with her deceased mother: Florence, another enigmatic medium.

The writing is sublime and the atmosphere so creepy. A murder mystery accompanied with occult events, full of unexpected and wonderful twists and turns. I was completely taken aback by the end!

A true success from Laura Purcell and I cannot wait to read (or listen to) more of her work.

Thank you NetGalley and Bloomsbury UK Audio for granting me access to this audiobook.

What a beautiful book cover! Agnes Darken makes her living as a silhouette artist. Her skill is in lessening demand with the newly popular daguerreotype and photography. She is of a fragile constitution but needs to work to care for her mother and nephew. The murders of two clients are too much of a coincidence and terrified that the link, when known, will reduce her customers further, she searches for the murderer herself. She meets with Pearl, a young girl who reluctantly holds seances to help her with her search. Pearl is an interesting character too. There is a lot packed into this evocative, dark and twisty murder mystery. I look forward to reading more books by this author. I listened to this as an audio book and I really enjoyed the narration by Sophie Aldred. Thank you to Laura Purcell, Net Galley and Bloomsbury UK Audio for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

After silhouette artist Agnes Darken learns that her last customer was murdered, she becomes determined to uncover the killer. This draws her to attempt to contact the dead through Pearl, an 11 year old medium who lives with her mesmerist half-sister and has never left her home. What follows is a complex and absorbing gothic mystery which is rich in character and plot and has enough twists and turns to keep a reader gripped late into the night.

For the most part, the narrator does a good job reading the story, particular on the conversational sections, and overall I found it a very engaging story.

A copy of this title was provided by netgalley in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

Content warnings: Terminal sickness, murder, accidental deaths, blood, iffy portrayals of mental illness, mentions of animal cruelty, mentions of surgical procedures.

My Rating: 4 Books out of 5

Highlights:
Brilliantly atmospheric
It’s set in Bath which is a great place
I kept staring into space thinking oh NO
Spiritualism is just fascinating and the seances were just fantastic
Morpheus the pug.

“Dirt bleeds into the river, into the sky. The soul of Bath has left, and its body is decaying.”

Ooh boy this book, there is a lot going on in this book. Part murder mystery, part ghost story, The Shape of Darkness follows Agnes, a silhouette artist whose trade is dying off in the wake of the photograph, and Pearl, an eleven year old spirit medium desperate for one of the spirits she contacts to be that of her dead mother. Set in Victorian Bath, a city I’m somewhat familiar with (my best friend attended university there so I mainly know where Wetherspoon’s and an amazing burrito place were about five years ago, my knowledge isn’t greatly applicable to the Victorian era) this novel has a gloomy, dirty atmosphere to it - this is the Bath of the Victorian poor, the penniless living amongst the enormous and lavish houses the city is known for. Bodies are fished from the river, found in darkened alleyways, and all of them seem linked to Agnes and her failing business.

The narration of this audiobook was worth a star all of its own on the rating, Sophie Aldred did a brilliant job and her way of telling the story really helped me enjoy it and, I feel, get the most out of it. She did a fantastic job with all the characters, and was able to maintain the tension throughout. Her narration certainly did a service to Agnes, who I may otherwise have had trouble with purely on account of the number of times she swoons.

To clarify, she’s a woman in a corset who has suffered a respiratory condition but still.

There were quite a few twists and turns in this book, a few of which I did see coming and a few of which caught me entirely by surprise. I loved the ambiguity around the supernatural elements, that sensation of wanting to believe - because it makes a very interesting story if even the dead are having their say - and also wanting to stick to the rules of logic. After all, not all of the dead were nice people - Agnes’s sister Constance, for example, seems like an abhorrent woman who would crawl up from the pits of hell just to be awful a few moments more. They can’t all be Casper, it seems.

There were a few things that kept it from the coveted 5/5 rating for me. There were a couple of coincidental occurrences that felt a bit too coincidental - people all being in the same place at the same time, related, etc - but the story was as such that I was willing, to an extent, to suspend my disbelief and just enjoy the ride. The real issue for me was a certain issue to do with mental illness. Now, I maintain what attempts to be a largely spoiler free blog, so I won’t go into details, but there is some ambiguity between ghosts being at fault for certain events or a ‘badness in the blood’ and as someone who has experienced mental health issues (to a much lesser degree than is used here) in an age where they are better understood than they were in the great age of smelling salts and madhouses, I just wasn’t sure about the way it was dealt with or portrayed insofar as accuracy is concerned. Now for me, the inclusion of this wasn’t distressing, I was still able to enjoy the book and honestly it was so good overall, but I understand if those better acquainted with these issues find fault in this story and those like it.

Overall this book was thoroughly enjoyable for me, I finished the audiobook in two days and have already recommended it to a friend. I found the discussions around Agnes’s trade and that of the spiritualists to be so interesting, and felt that it was just a well-paced and wonderfully crafted read all in all. I do highly recommend the audiobook, Sophie Aldred really did a stellar job. I’d definitely be interested in reading more of Laura Purcell’s work and I’m so grateful to netgalley and the publisher for allowing me the opportunity to read this one!

I am never sure if Victorian gothic thriller is my type of book. I am always drawn to them but never fully satisfied. This is book is an exception though! A bit of a slow build up but this book was very good. It did feel to me that it took a little while to become captivating but the ending was very good, very tense, no spoilers! If you like gothic thriller then you will love this.

The Shape of Darkness is a story of mystery suspense and atmospheric detail set in bath during the Victorian period. I quickly found myself invested in the lives of Agnes and those around her as the story unfolded.

Agnes is an artist recovering from an illness which has left her frail but determined to provide food warmth and shelter for her family, she has support from Simon her long time friend who is also her physician, he is loyal attentive and totally devoted to her wellbeing.
Agnes becomes convinced that someone is targeting her customers as one by one they turn up dead shortly after having an appointment with her, she seeks help from Myrtle and her sister Penny a spiritualist ,Myrtle is complex resourceful and manipulates her younger sister penny into performing séance's for those who have recently lost loved ones in order to earn a living for them both and Penny's ailing father.
As the story unfolds and the mystery deepens we learn more about Agnes life before she became ill ,the mysterious Montague and how she becomes the sole carer for her mother and nephew.

I highly recommend that you set some time aside for this book because once you start listening to Sophie Aldred narrate the shape of darkness you wont be able to stop.

Thankyou to netgalley and Laura Purcell for allowing me the privilege of reading this advanced copy.

I really enjoy Laura Purcell, she's my go to for Victorian gothic fiction. I enjoy her macabre undertones and this one has a fantastic ending. I was genuinely guessing until the very end. Time will tell if this one sticks with me, but I feel her ambition and unraveling mystery perfectly aligned in this.

I thought this was a really well narrated audio book.

I enjoyed The Shape of Darkness. It had some interesting and well developed characters,Agnes and Pearl.

Set in Victorian Bath,fast paced and with enough twists and turns to keep me entertained the whole way through.

I loved how it had murder,spirits and just enough gothic hints, but also dealt with more substantial topics such as being a single woman in the 19th century and poverty.

The audio version was fantastic quality and the narrator fantastic.

I would recommend for any fans of gothic novels.

It has been an awfully long time since I have read a book with such atmosphere and feeling of ever present foreboding. I was gripped from start to finish and I feel the resonance of the tale now that it is finished.

A struggling silhouette artist in Victorian Bath seeks out a renowned child spirit medium in order to speak to the dead – and to try and identify their killers.

Another wonderfully creepy gothic story from Laura Purcell, I will read anything from the author at this point, their writing style is so haunting and sets the tone of 19th century Bath beautifully. I listened to the audiobook and really enjoyed the narration by Sophie Aldred.