Sleep, Pale Sister cover art

Sleep, Pale Sister

a consuming Gothic tale set in 19th century London from the bestselling author of Chocolat

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Sleep, Pale Sister

By: Joanne Harris
Narrated by: Steven Pacey
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About this listen

Readers of Kate Atkinson, Kate Mosse, Stacey Halls and Eve Chase will love this powerful, atmospheric and blackly gothic depiction of Victorian artistic life from international multi-million copy seller Joanne Harris. Death, love, obsession, sex, murder and magic combine to make a compelling and haunting read...

'A hauntingly evocative laudanum-dream of a novel' -- Time Out
'A very compulsive read' -- ***** Reader review
'Tremendous' -- ***** Reader review
'Real gothic page turner' -- ***** Reader review
'A truly dark, ghostly and powerful read' -- ***** Reader review
'The tension is gripping and kept going to the very end. I read it in one sitting!' -- ***** Reader review
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Henry Chester, a domineering and puritanical Victorian artist, is in search of the perfect model. In nine-year-old Effie he finds her.

Ten years later, lovely, childlike and sedated, Effie seems the ideal wife. But something inside her is about to awaken.

Drawn into a dangerous underworld of prostitution, murder and blackmail, she must finally plan her revenge...

 Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Literary Fiction Magical Realism Mystery Psychological Victorian

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Critic reviews

'A hauntingly evocative laudanum-dream of a novel' (Christopher Fowler)
All stars
Most relevant

Where does Sleep, Pale Sister rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

fantastic, in the top 10, but as always Joanne Harris can shock you

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

yes, just wanted to keep listening, it was enthralling , dark but enthralling

Wow!!!!

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Talented author. No one wins in this story. I thought too it was a difficult piece for the narrator. He did 100% well. Narrator was a good choice to read this difficult piece. I would like to see authors like D Harkness read some of this author's works to get a feel of what real story writing is about. This story is a bit occult, a bit cliff-hanger, a bit insight into how women could be seen as belongings, & a bit about the predatory nature of the psyche in all of us (male or female).

Brilliant; but macabre.

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I really enjoy Joanne Harris’ mixture of magic and reality and this was a very good example of both. Steven Pacey’s narration was superb as ever. There really isn’t a better narrator out there!

Another really good Joanne Harris

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It wasn’t a story that I enjoyed, it was pretty unpleasant to say the least. What I found most confusing though was that I really wished the chapters were named for the character ‘talking’ rather than just the chapter number. Often took me a while to decide who it was! That said, I still enjoy the ghostly, spiritual side of her stories and the hint of magic.

Not my favourite Joanne Harris by a long way!

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A brilliant story.
I couldn't put it down.

Joanne Harris is such an imaginative writer and her use of language is magical.

The narration was good but I felt the dealing with the different characters voices could have been better.

But overall I would thoroughly recommend this book.

Unforgettable!

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