The Silence Project by Carole Hailey

Hello and Welcome back to my blog. I hope everyone has had a great start to 2023.

Today I have a review for The Silence Project by Carole Hailey. A massive thanks to Anne Cater at Random Things Tours for providing me a copy of this book to read and review.

Blurb

Monster. Martyr. Mother.

On Emilia Morris’s thirteenth birthday, her mother Rachel moves into a tent at the bottom of their garden. From that day on, she never says another word. Inspired by her vow of silence, other women join her and together they build the Community. Eight years later, Rachel and thousands of her followers around the world burn themselves to death.

In the aftermath of what comes to be known as the Event, the Community’s global influence quickly grows. As a result, the whole world has an opinion about Rachel – whether they see her as a callous monster or a heroic martyr – but Emilia has never voiced hers publicly. Until now.

When she publishes her own account of her mother’s life in a memoir called The Silence Project, Emilia also decides to reveal just how sinister the Community has become. In the process, she steps out of Rachel’s shadow once and for all, so that her own voice may finally be heard.

Review

I was instantly drawn into this book after reading the blurb. Not my usual genre but sometimes stepping out of our comfort zone provides something unexpectedly great and The Silence Project proved to be just that.

Written as a first person account from Emilia who is telling the world about her mother, a story as much belonging to herself as it does Rachel of Chalkham. The format was great, a blend of fiction and fact. Listing events that happened in real life and the way they are used to amplify the overall plot and story.

There were moments where I found myself really feeling for Emilia, feeling her anger, sorrow and frustrations. Feeling how she must have felt having a mother who pretty much abandoned her in the ways she was needed the most.

The idea of The Silence Project and Community is one which is quite scary. The image of a world which would have this sort of organisation doing what it does wouldn’t be one for the better.

All in all, I found Carole’s writing captivating, interesting, and intriguing.

I would highly recommend this book to a lover of reading, regardless of their preferred genre.

About The Author

Carole Hailey completed the six-month Guardian/UEA novel writing course taught by Bernardine Evaristo, who imbued Carole with such a love for writing fiction that she abandoned her career in law to undertake an MA in Creative Writing at Goldsmiths, followed by a PhD in Creative Writing at Swansea University. Carole was a London Library Emerging Writer 2020/21.

The Silence Project is her first published novel and was shortlisted for the Bridport Prize Peggy Chapman-Andrews First Novel Award 2020 and highly commended by the judges. She lives in Wales with her husband and two rescue dogs.

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