As I'd never read anything by Bridget Collins before, I didn't really know what to expect from this one. I kind of went in blind but was expecting something similar to traditional gothic romances. I wanted a creepy house, mysterious figures and hidden secrets. Having read it, I can say that I went in with the wrong expectations. It's not that I didn't like this book but it didn't do what I hoped it would. So, that's my problem and not the book's. It just meant that I ended up being disappointed with the story. I was hoping for something creepy and it was just a bit tame. Yes, there was some weird spider stuff going on but nothing that really got the blood pumping. It was an interesting historical novel but nothing as gothic as I was looking for. The back of the book promised "gothic suspense" but what we got was a long build-up with a few rushed revelations near the end.

I don't think it helped that the book played out in a dual narrative. In 1820, Sophia Ashmore-Percy accompanied her husband on his quest to search for a rare type of spider. While there, she finds herself on a different journey of discovery. Decades later, we meet Henry Latimer, an audiologist who is invited to the house of the industrialist Sir Edward Ashmore-Percy. Henry is challenged to cure Sir Edward's daughter of her deafness but quickly becomes caught up in his business. A business that links to Sophia and those spiders. Their silk can be used to block out the noise of the world and create havens of tranquillity. Henry becomes obsessed with the silk and quickly falls for Sir Edward's charms. But what dark family secrets are also being hidden?

The problem with this structure is that it really destroys the pacing. It loses suspense because you're forever being dragged back into the past. I would have preferred it if the Henry story had fully played out so the tension could build up. It also meant that neither strand was totally developed. Quite a few aspects were half-heartedly introduced and not explored. They were introduced but then didn't really go anywhere. Several things were introduced at the end and then tied up really quickly. In my opinion, the narrative was pretty forgettable and all of the interesting bits were pushed to the side. I would also say that there was a lack of character development. I don't think any of the characters really had much depth and I would have loved spending more time getting to know them. It made it difficult to care about any of them or what happened to them. Something that also didn't help with the suspense.

This book didn't feel cohesive. It was almost like two stories were stitched together and then linked by a few spiders. There's a lot going on and the book was so long. I know that traditional gothic romances were long and it was probably playing up to that. However, even Ann Radcliffe managed to add some suspense in between her lengthy descriptions of trees. Length isn't really a problem if there's something to justify it but I don't think there was here. The story wasn't that exciting, the characters weren't particularly interesting and it didn't really do anything that unique. There were interesting elements to this story that I wish had been developed further. I do think that the writing was beautiful at points and agree that Bridget Collins is talented. I just don't think this can be the best example of that.