A woeful tale of Consumption, china sets and fleeing your past. Bone China is set across two close timelines; Hester Why and Louise Pinecroft and comes together to end in one step away from a cliff.
The past timeline sees how Louise Pinecroft came to Movoren House and we learn how the majority of her family was devoured by Consumption leaving herself and her physician father behind.
The second timeline shows us Hester Why and her reasons for fleeing her previous employment. This is when Hester and Louise’s stories become one. With chapters alternating between Hester and Louise’s pasts and their joined present, we get a story of folklore and superstition.
Bone China is the third of Laura Purcell’s novels and, personally, the one that’s lacking. Despite it being well written and the timeline set out clearly, the ending was somewhat “thinner” and felt watered down compared to Purcell’s previous two novels-something I have found in a few Stephen King novels; almost as if the author got bored of the character and/or plot and shrugged off all previous hard work and efforts in order to break away from the book and their boredom. Which is sad for me as a reader because I know Purcell has this incredible gift to transport her readers in to the pages and feel a bit short-changed.
Purcell’s new novel, The Shape of Darkness, will be released in January 2021 and I’m excited for its release BUT I do worry maybe this novel will have another weak ending, so I can only hope that Purcell had too much energy for a big finish in Bone China and placed it in to her latest work.
Morelli’s Reads 