4.12.18

BOOK REVIEW: The Corset by Laura Purcell

Dorothea and Ruth.
Prison visitor and prisoner.
Powerful and powerless.
Dorothea Truelove is young, wealthy and beautiful. Ruth Butterham is young, poor and awaiting trial for murder.
When Dorothea's charitable work leads her to Oakgate Prison, she is delighted to have the chance to explore her fascination with phrenology and test her hypothesis that the shape of a person's skull can cast a light on their darkest crimes. But when she meets teenage seamstress Ruth, she is faced with another theory: that it is possible to kill with a needle and thread. For Ruth attributes her crimes to a supernatural power inherent in her stitches. The story Ruth has to tell of her deadly creations- of bitterness and betrayal, of death and dresses- will shake Dorothea's belief in rationality and the power of redemption.
Can Ruth be trusted?
Is she mad or a murderer?

Publisher: Raven Books
Pages: 394

I was such a huge fan of The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell and I was so excited when I heard about her new book The Corset. I was also a little worried as I wasn't sure if she would be able to follow such a fantastic debut but I needn't have worried as The Corset is excellent.
Dorothea and Ruth are our focus. Two women from very different walks of life but with a very similar determined and focused nature. Ruth is an inmate of Oakgate Prison where she is on trial for the murder of her mistress Kate Metyard. Ruth does not deny the charge, she goes so far to say that she has killed others too. Yet she says she killed them all through her powers as a seamstress. She tells Dorothea how she sowed such misery and despair into these ladies garments that she killed them. Dorothea has never met anyone like Ruth before, is she mad, evil or both?
Dorothea is fascinated by phrenology which is the belief that the shape of your skull determines personality traits and so on. Ruth is a challenge for Dorothea as she does not have the skull of a murderer. Dorothea has so many questions for this tragic creature, despite what she says she has done, Dorothea is determined to help her.
Laura Purcell shows herself yet again as a master of suspense and tension. This book creeps up on you and before you know it you are soon wrapped up in the story and the dark tragic world that Purcell has created. Ruth has had such a tragic existence, each time you think she might get a break, something comes along and knocks her back down. Ruth is the embodiment of the female lower classes in the Victorian era. These women were so vulnerable and powerless, often taken advantage of and abused. Dorothea on the other hand is still in a vulnerable position but her wealth and social position does buy her a little more power, she is able to take more control of her own destiny.
I cannot recommend The Corset enough, it is one of my favourite reads of 2018. Laura Purcell weaves such rich details and imagery into her books which makes them very difficult to put down, I can guarantee that you will be thinking about them long after the last page.

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