The Corset Review

Hello!

If you have come over here from my Instagram, you will probably know how obsessed I am with Laura Purcell’s books! I read the Silent Companions last summer and loved it so so much! And last week, Bloomsbury were kind enough to send me a copy of ‘The Corset’!

I will try to avoid posting any spoilers, as Laura Purcell’s books are definitely ones you need to read knowing as little about what happens as possible! However, if anything is mentioned, I will make it extremely obvious so you can choose to stop reading!

Anyway, without further ado, my first proper book review!

‘The Corset’ by Laura Purcell

Is prisoner Ruth Butterham mad or a murderer? Victim or villain?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 finds herself drawn to Ruth, a teenage seamstress – and self-confessed murderess – who nurses a dark and uncanny secret. A secret that is leading her straight to the gallows. As Ruth reveals her disturbing past to Dorothea, the fates of these two women entwine, and with every revelation, a new layer of doubt is cast… Can Ruth be trusted? Is she mad, or a murderer?

From the very first pages, I was completely drawn into Ruth and Dorothea’s respective worlds! Both young women lead very distant, yet strangely interwoven lives. Ruth is a prisoner in a newly built penitentiary, locked up for a weirdly mysterious crime, and Dorothea is a frequent visitor who is fascinated with reading people’s skulls.

Over the course of the book, we are told Ruth’s story from her perspective, as though we are Dorothea, listening to her tell it whilst visiting her in her cell. We are also told Dorothea’s story, about her personal life and struggles. I really enjoyed seeing the two different women’s perspective, reading about Dorothea’s struggle to believe Ruth’s story whilst also dealing with her own problems and how they begun to become intertwined throughout the book!

Up until the ‘big reveal’ at the end, I literally had no idea how the book was going to end! Without spoiling too much, the people that turned out to be the bad guys didn’t give anything away! The way the story was written really made me trust these people, and made me feel almost as foolish as Ruth did when she found out!!

There really wasn’t anything I didn’t like about this book, however I will warn you that there a quite a few scenes that are pretty gory! So if you aren’t a fan of reading about scenes like that, this may not be the book for you!!

The Corset is definitely a book I would recommend if you like Laura Purcell’s other book ‘The Silent Companions’ or anything with a little bit of mystery!! I rate it 5/5 stars!!

Thank you to Bloomsbury for sending me a copy of this amazing book!!

Elizabeth