Title: The Silence Project
Author: Carole Hailey
Publisher: Atlantic Books, Corvus
Release Date: 9th February 2023
BLURB from Goodreads
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 totally admit the first thing that drew my attention to this book was the powerful cover. The grey background with the flames surrounding the female with the tape over her mouth. To me the grey featuring of the cover and then the female being grey too, represents the plain notebooks that Emilia’s mother kept and the “ordinary” that she felt herself to be. Emilia’s mother ended up represented the many but to begin with she was a remarkably “ordinary” “normal” young woman.
The main characters are two equally strong women, Rachel and her daughter Emilia. Rachel who was a bit of a hippy, wanderer who ended up pregnant and needing some stability for her baby and herself. It is her correspondence with Nick’s mother and Nick’s mothers matchmaking that see’s Rachel turn up at his pub with baby Emilia needing somewhere to stay. Nick always harboured feelings for Rachel so they soon become a small happy enough family. Nick is the only father Emilia knows and treats her as his own. Rachel had always been her “own person” perhaps some would say a little “odd” even so people, including Nick, his mother and Emilia don’t bat much of an eyelid when she sets up a tent at the bottom of their garden and literally stops speaking, though her timing is poor to say the least as she does this on her daughter’s 13th birthday. It soon becomes apparent that this isn’t a passing fad for Rachel and whilst she lives in her own little silent world. It is Nick mother that steps up into the day-to-day motherly duties for Emilia. Nick continues to run the family pub as best he can. Rachel’s antics soon draw attention from others and so begins what turns out to be quite a cult-like movement. The self- enforced silence of herself and her followers is only the beginning, soon there are protests and then eventually the “event” where Rachel and some of her most dedicated followers set themselves alight!
The whole story is told in a diary like format and in the voice and from the point of view of Emilia Morris. It goes into how she felt and was affected by her Rachel’s actions. The harassment, and abuse Emilia and Nick endured before and after the “event.” As well as how “friends” reacted to what was happening around Emilia. The book is covers the equally fascinating and horrific act committed by Rachel and some of her most zealot followers. The book also covers the time frame after the “event” and during the “writing of the book” where Emilia is trying to make a life for herself from within her mothers shadow, whilst at the same time trying to make sense of why her mother chose to live and die the way she did. Emilia is trying to understand why her mothers final act was so desperate and destructive. Whilst trying to understand her own mother, Emilia actually continues working for the movement her mother began. Though I think perhaps the movement Rachel originally had in mind, if there was any planning behind her actions other than her being guided by her instincts does veer away from the direction Rachel intended.
Emilia calls her book about her mother “The Silence Project” and really does face a lot of harsh backlash and even death threats for daring to write about the great Rachel of Chalkham. Everyone seems to have their own theories of why Rachel “created” the group of like-minded people as well as why she set herself alight. The zealots and followers don’t like the fact Emilia is using Rachels own diaries and words for her book. Nick openly admits to his beloved step daughter that he wishes she wasn’t writing it, that he worries for her safety and sanity. Emilia’s replies to people are that many books have been written about “Rachel of Chalkham” so why shouldn’t Rachels own daughter release one, and she points out that her book is not just about Rachel, it is about her own life with and around Rachel.
On the whole I really enjoyed reading this book and Emilia writing her book about her mother Rachel. As a former employee of WHSmiths I loved the reference to the WHS notebook standing the test of time well, complete with grass stain on back, mug stains on front , only detached from 4 of its wire rings! I thoroughly enjoyed the other current/recently pop culture references. The book is quite 'on the ball' with current politics too. A Prime Minister not voted for by the people, and the reference to Politicians 'so in love with their own voices, they can no longer hear ours'
I adored and laughed out loud at the 'Life lessons list' including but not limited to the list entries of, Always wear pants with a cotton gusset. Lifes too short for dry clean blouses. Keep your body fit and your mind will follow. I was also pleasantly surprised by the mention of Pontefract in the book which is just a couple of miles from where I currently live!
My immediate thoughts upon finishing the book were “What an unusual, unique and compulsive read.” Though I must admit there were occasions during reading the book that I became impatient for the book to move on a little faster than it was doing.
Summing up, I found the book really interesting, with its unique plot that certainly draws you in and holds on to you making you want to make some sort of sense of why main character Rachel did what she did! I did find it difficult to rate this book out of 5, as I dearly wanted to give it 5/5 but there were the odd occasions, I became a little impatient/exasperated at parts of it so ended up going with a 4/5. Having said that do not let my 4/5 rating put you off reading the book just let it prepare you, encourage you to stick with reading the book if you are finding it slower than your favoured pace. I will be looking out for other books by this author in the future too!
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