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A review by burtini
The Quiet Stillness of Empty Houses by L.V. Russell
5.0
I don’t want to talk too much about the plot too much here because the beauty is in how it unravels, but The Quiet Stillness tells the story of Theodora who leaves her grandmother and their crumbling house, to travel to Broken Oak to be governess to Ottoline Thorne. However there’s an unnerving silence to the house, with only Ms Rivers as staff, Ottoline’s stepmother away at the seaside for the sea air and Ottoline’s father, Cassias, often taking ill, it is at night that Theodora starts hearing footsteps outside her door, a wet trail in their wake, and she’s drawn to the attic she’s forbidden to go near.
This is a hugely atmospheric book, the Broken Oak is in it’s way a character, you can feel yourself there, sense the suffocating silence and misery of the house, the sensory use of the candles and the floorboards creating an added element of suspense.
Theodora is a great character, she’s pretty feminist and outspoken, her interactions with the young Ottoline are charming as she helps raise another strong willed young woman and acts like a mother figure to her, and there is a great theme in the book about that independence and free spirit of women, with a ratio of 3 female characters to 1 male there’s no power imbalance in this book which has its own charm.
There’s also a charming romance between Cassias and Theodora, again with no power imbalance, like her relationship with Ottoline, Theodora’s relationship with Cassias is about mutual healing and nurturing and it’s both empowering and delicate in how it’s portrayed.
That said the true beauty in this book is in its mystery - is Cassias’ wife really at the seaside? Why have all the staff gone? What is in the attic? And on paper this formula has been done before, I’ve read quite a few gothic ghostly books that have the mysterious footsteps outside the door and the attic etc, but the twists in this book, the suspenseful writing, the likeable characters, it adds something extra to this book. I’ll admit at one point, and once you’ve read the book you can probably guess where, I actually swore at the book in surprise at a reveal, I was so invested and thrown.
This is a short book, under 200 pages, and yet it achieves so much so confidently and I loved it so much for its brilliance.
Thank you NetGalley for the review copy in exchange for an honest review.
This is a hugely atmospheric book, the Broken Oak is in it’s way a character, you can feel yourself there, sense the suffocating silence and misery of the house, the sensory use of the candles and the floorboards creating an added element of suspense.
Theodora is a great character, she’s pretty feminist and outspoken, her interactions with the young Ottoline are charming as she helps raise another strong willed young woman and acts like a mother figure to her, and there is a great theme in the book about that independence and free spirit of women, with a ratio of 3 female characters to 1 male there’s no power imbalance in this book which has its own charm.
There’s also a charming romance between Cassias and Theodora, again with no power imbalance, like her relationship with Ottoline, Theodora’s relationship with Cassias is about mutual healing and nurturing and it’s both empowering and delicate in how it’s portrayed.
That said the true beauty in this book is in its mystery - is Cassias’ wife really at the seaside? Why have all the staff gone? What is in the attic? And on paper this formula has been done before, I’ve read quite a few gothic ghostly books that have the mysterious footsteps outside the door and the attic etc, but the twists in this book, the suspenseful writing, the likeable characters, it adds something extra to this book. I’ll admit at one point, and once you’ve read the book you can probably guess where, I actually swore at the book in surprise at a reveal, I was so invested and thrown.
This is a short book, under 200 pages, and yet it achieves so much so confidently and I loved it so much for its brilliance.
Thank you NetGalley for the review copy in exchange for an honest review.