The Silence by Daisy Pearce

I finished this book a month before I settled down to write a review on it.  What's disturbing is I could remember nothing at all about the book from the title alone, it wasn't until I read the publisher's blurb that I remembered which book it was, and then immediately wish I hadn't.  The blurb makes it sound like a Whatever Happened to Baby Jane updated for the 21st Century and with a romantic relationship twist instead of a sibling twist.  In fact, there are some parallels to the classic Crawford and Davis movie:

Stella spent her childhood as a television star in a sitcom that centred around her character of Katie Marigold.  A role that involved her wearing flouncy, girly dresses and lisping "attractively" (being a child of the 1970s Katie Marigold sounds terribly Violet Elizabeth Bott).  Very reminiscent of Baby Jane's stage persona.

Stella's mother was a controlling harridan who constantly pushed for her daughter to have the most lines, the best of everything at the expense of her being to have friendships with the other children in the cast or any real respect from anyone.

Instead of our former child star being the "villain" of the piece she becomes the victim but the techniques used to isolate and denigrate Stella are very similar to Jane's treatment of Blanche.  Only this time it is her "boyfriend" doling out the treatment instead of a family member.

The real problem I had with this book is that it felt so very, very contrived.  From the second time Stella meets up with Marco you know where this is going to end up.  Even worse what is supposed to be a shocking revelation about Marco right at the end of the book comes as no surprise to the reader as it is flagged up so many times in the preceeding chapters.  It really doesn't help that Stella seems so happy to be cast in the role of victim and doormat; she allows everyone to walk all over her and she seems to set out a welcome mat for people to use her.  There is little nuance to her character and her supposed descent in to madness just didn't work on the page.

There are some nice set pieces, sadly they don't really fit with the rest of the book.  You have the almost Rebecca-esque scenes in the Cornish Cottage juxtaposed against the London scenes.  Okay, change of location doesn't have to be bad.  However, in this case they feel like two separate storylines somehow convinced to co-exist and they do so more unhappily than Joanna and Marco.  Some of the early London chapters are a good read and nicely set the scene but once she meets Marco they deteriorate rapidly.  The Cornish section starts off week and once you realise the absurd turn the author has taken with the tale it becomes more enjoyable to read when you get to the last 3 or 4 chapters.

On the whole I would advocate avoiding this one as it feels like a pre-first draft rather than a finished tale.  My notebook states 2 Stars and I think I gave one of those just for the sheer incredulity I felt that a mash up of two classics could actually mess it up so badly.  A month after finishing the book and on reflection I would have given this 1 Star only but I will stick with my overly generous 2 Stars.