I feel like I'm being stingy here and there were things I really enjoyed about this book but one fatal flaw means I can't rate it any higher.

I HATED William. He was so weak and pathetic. And not a nice person. Apparently we can forgive that because he has a nice voice and sings to dead people. I hated what she did with him. He had some beautiful characteristics but the boy and man she turned him into was mean and weak. The boy that was written in these pages wouldn't't have gone to Aberfan in the first place.

And the weight that he carries - that makes him so small - it isn't Aberfan in the first instance, though it becomes an easy excuse for his unpleasantness. It's a ridiculous non-event that wouldn't even make it into the top ten of most people's awful experiences (the 'drama' at the chapel).

He solves the issue with his mum in half a page. And I get the nuances - and some of that exploration is great, and really beautifully dealt with - grief, and spite and jealousy - but the main events in this book don't carry the weight of those things. Most of the issues I had with William could have been nullified if there was more made of his grief - but it's not there. His issues seem to stem entirely from embarrassment and shame.

I struggle with books where bad things happen because people don't deal with them, especially if there's no real unpicking of that. This novel dealt briefly with his mum's grief - though it appeared to make apologies for her homophobia - but didn't delve into it in a meaningful way. Just jealousy.

I also found the treatment of the homeless people rather questionable - described insensitively, not explored in any way other than as a foil for William's recovery, and a reminder of how wholesome Martin is (and he was, I enjoyed him).

The parts that dealt with Aberfan were well written, I cried within the first few paragraphs. I RARELY cry when reading. But it lost its way for me after that.

After a slew of pretty poor romantasy reads, I was thinking that maybe my foray into the genre was going to be a short one.

And then I read this one. I could not put this down. I would say that while the relationship between them is central to this book, it is by far not the only facet here and it's not full of romance and sex. And that is the sort of thing I am here for!

I loved Oraya. And I loved the relationship between her and Raihn. The world building in this was great, I felt it could have been developed a bit more, I'm interested in the history and the politics of it all and I feel there were questions that needed answering but I think the balance here was largely good and it wasn't info dumped on you, it was weaved into the story well.

I really loved the mirroring of Nyaxia's journey to find Alarus and the foreshadowing between Oraya and Raihn.

The complexities of their self-loathing were fantastic.

I felt the end was a *bit* rushed. But it did kind of give an out of control feeling, a plot that was running away with itself before anyone could really think about it which, given the circumstances, is entirely appropriate. I felt deflated at the end, the wind blown out of my sails after being carried along with it all - I am excited and nervous to see how it develops into the next book!

The Whispering Muse is a Victorian Gothic and it delivers in spades. I love an eeire tale and this one is full of uncanny details.

The theatrical setting is just perfect, and Purcell really captures the spirit of the stage. The Mercury is as much a character as Jenny or Lilith and the theatre world comes with such a delicious collection of myths and superstitions that it is the perfect subject for a creepy gothic tale.

It started a little slow for me, and initially Jenny annoyed the hell out of me - but her development from naive and judgemental, to the bargains and deals that she has to navigate, and her final dawning realisations are a fun journey to travel. As the story progressed I became more and more invested and intrigued with just how this was all going to turn out.

The use of the plays and quotes to foreshadow were good fun to pick out and were a nice device within which to stage everything.

I loved Lilith, and I enjoyed the developing relationship between her and Jenny, and how their relationship changed Jenny and brought out the better side of her. I enjoyed the gradual friendship between them and some of their scenes together were my favourite parts to read.

There is a strong cast of supporting characters - Mr and Mrs Dyer each winning prizes for their destructive self obsessive drives, and Anthony, Silas and Felix provide solid theatre folk fodder. Oscar is perhaps a little limp for my tastes but perfect for Jenny.

All in all, a solid creepy gothic story. I've enjoyed my first novel by Laura Purcell and I think I will look up some more.

This was an intriguing starter.

I initially thought I wouldn't like the concept of the mirror world - it felt kind of lazy and there were bits that felt silly - Faebook for instance. But actually I liked most of it.

I'm a sucker for a school setting - since the days of The Naughtiest Girl, up through Harry Potter and to this, school settings are fun.

I liked the twins. Interestingly, I found them easier to distinguish early on, as the book progressed I felt they started to sound more like each other and they were only distinguished in terms of what Heir they were associated with. But overall I enjoyed their perspective and I was rooting for them.

As far as the heirs went - I'm not adverse to a bit of a bully romance - I've never grown out of the 'being horrible to someone you like' mode of affection. But I'm not feeling the love for any of them yet - they all sound kind of Jock/Preppy American on the scale of attractiveness which really isn't my thing.

I am absolutely intrigued to see how this develops so despite my moderate scoring I am absolutely going to keep going with this. The world building, the history and the plot has a lot of potential.

This is a 2.5 rounded up to a 3 because for some reason I CAN'T STOP READING THIS.

I think the author's ploy is to have two books where literally *nothing* happens but just enough to keep you intrigued. I think book 3 will be just the same but I'm probably going to give it a go *just in case*

The writing remains poor. The FMC remains annoyingly passive and pathetic but there is a little bit of development but not enough.

I don't know why I keep reading it. It's like drinking lambrini.

This is likely to be up there with my favourites this year.

A wonderful novel about loss and grief. It handles the subject of mental breakdown in several different ways and all are nunanced and thoughtfully explored. There was a cast of great characters and while I wanted to shake some of them several times throughout, all were written beautifully and with complexity that was refreshing.

I'll be searching out the rest of the novels from Ruth Ozeki.

I am finding this *really* hard to rate but I think it's a 4* for me.

The plot isn't really plotting here. I mean there's a slow moving, esoteric kind of meandering sort of plot which picks up around about 70% in.

This could usually be a problem. Combine it with utterly despicable characters for a large proportion of the book, and we're heading into a losing read for me.

But. First, the philosophy pulled me in. I have a lot of problems with much Dark Academia that the actual point of study, the practical purpose of study, or the details of what is being studied, is vague and hinted at or not fully realised. More vibe than actual academics. That's not a problem here. Obviously the magic is made up, but its application to actual philosophy is perfect. I felt lost frequently and I think a reread will be fruitful to pull out the nuances of choice, fate, time and space etc.

Early on I was dismissive of the characters, but their development was incredible. I hated all of them for much of this novel but I was pulled into their orbit. They were all complex and nuanced and I was completely invested in all of their stories by the end.

I can't give it 5* - there were periods where I was totally lost, and periods that were too slow, too grandiose, dragging and alienating me.

But it rescued itself and I am absolutely going to read the next one.

I've given this 181 pages but I think I'm going to stop.

I loved When the Moon Hatched and it feels like the writing style improved between this one and that one. It has the same kind of overly descriptive, florid sort of language but it felt better controlled in WTMH. It's feeling OTT in this one.

I'm not especially enjoying the main character, Orlaith. She's a bit annoying. I know she's young and immature and not left her castle, but the more this goes on the less I'm liking her.

I am feeling kind of uncomfortable with the lusting after Rhordyn, it's not a relationship I can get behind in any romantic sense, any kind of sexual feeling she has for him is kind of icky to me.

I'm vaguely intrigued about what is going on but I can't keep going at this glacial pace, especially when it appears from other reviews that I'm still not going to find anything out in this book.

So, I'm done, ta.

What a disappointment.

This story could have been SO good. The world building had SO MUCH potential. But it turned out to be a classic case of show, don't tell and any potential was spoiled by the writing.

Bland characters. More similes than you can shake a stick at. And half of them didn't make any sense. Sometimes you can just use the word RED. I rolled my eyes every time something was crimson or vermilion. I also don't need to know how everything smelled constantly. It was supposed to feel tactile I think but it just came over as repetitive.

And it kind of typifies my problem with so much fantasy - the bloody special snowflake effect. Xianying is an utter idiot. She has no arc, no development. No experience in the world but amazing at everything. But filled with doubt. At least it's a female perspective and I don't get pages of soliloquies to boobs. But instead having to read over and over about her complete lack of self awareness. I almost threw the book across the room at her suddenly realising she still loved Liwei. No shit Sherlock.

I kind of wanted to see how the plot played out but I skimmed half of it. This book could have been half the length. It focused on the least interesting parts of the story - the love angle. When the quests and the action could have been more. It was really slow.

So yeah. Two stars for the potential. I doubt very much I'll be reading the next ones.

This had all the solid elements that make up the best gothic creepfests:

Creepy kid ☑️
Remote setting ☑️
Insular villagers ☑️
Strangely detached characters ☑️
Folklore myths ☑️

This was really atmospheric and fed into all those local mythical ghost stories that all kids pick up when they live on or near a moor