Cover Image: The Silent Companions

The Silent Companions

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Member Reviews

To start with, this book had a very intriguing story and as it went on, it also had its fair share of creepy moments. However, the final 100 pages felt like a bit of a drag, which dampened my enjoyment overall.

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SO creepy and gripping. I found myself turning the lamp on as I was reading this gothic novel. I like Laura Purcell's writing so I was really please to finally be able to read The Silent Companions.

Just so atmospheric and spooky, a tale of madness and family curses. Claustrophobic, maddening and a horrible ending that will stay with you forever.

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The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell is a historical spooky thriller.  Elsie is newly married and newly widowed, pregnant, and in her late husband's country estate with a relative of his family.  No one seems to be especially pleased to see her, and then there are some odd things happening.  

They discover some strange wooden figures, and a diary from two hundred years before, all of which suggests something bad happened.

A gothic tale, with settings including a mental asylum, this was an unsettling and thrilling read.

The Silent Companions was published on 5th October 2017 and is available from Amazon, Waterstones and Bookshop.org.

You can follow Laura Purcell on Twitter and her website.

I was given this book in exchange for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to Bloomsbury Books.

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Menacing, Atmospheric..
Newly married Elsie is sent to see out her pregnancy at her husband’s crumbling country house estate - The Bridge - but what exactly lies within these ancient walls? Menacing, atmospheric Gothic tale with some deftly drawn characters and a nose for the creepy and intriguing.

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Laura Purcell is on my list of authors who I will automatically read. She creates a tension that is menacing, believable, otherworldly & could, with little assistance, come to exist in our modern life. That's the genius of her work. We, for all our modernity, are all scared of something when the llights are off. God knows, if you've ever had a cockroach or a mouse snooping in your bedroom in the middle of the night, you understand.

There are so many threads being woven by this story, it needs a strong mind to keep them from knotting. We don't know who to trust, or what to believe is real. Such is the quality of writing that I had moments where I could fully imagine the room as though I stood in it. That's also not the first time I've said that about Purcell's writing.

#TheSilentCompanions is the perfect read for mid winter when the days are short and cold and the quality of light casts clever shadows. That's not to say you should wait for midwinter though.

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Sorry but this title did not work for me The premise sounded interesting but the writing did not flow. I wanted to enjoy this but in the end I gave up

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This is an unusual book about a haunting which would be great to read in the Winter months. Told from three different angles it certainly had lots of creepy atmosphere with things going bump in the night. I definitely wouldn’t have stayed in this mansion! I hadn’t heard of ‘silent companions’ before reading this book so I have also enjoyed researching them. Thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing/Raven Books for letting me read and review this book.

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I really looked forward to this spooky tale but this story just wasn't for me. I failed to connect with the book. I found it really slow and dragged out and I am afraid this one beat me and I never made it to the end.

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Unfortunately I had to DNF this one. I really struggled to get into it and struggled with the format.

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Huge thanks to Raven Books and NetGalley for the digital e-ARC of The Silent Companions in return for an honest review.

I ended up reading this book through a combination of ebook and audiobook because I love the way Purcell’s books are brought to life on audio. I listened to The Corset by Purcell on audio last year and absolutely loved it, so I was keen to get the same experience with this one!

Honestly I’m so glad I made the decision to listen to this one in the Autumn, it is a perfect gothic novel which had all the spooky vibes I am looking for during this season!

This novel follows Elsie, who is recently widowed and moves into her new house, which her late husband inherited from his family. But with resentful servants, and outright rude villagers, Elsie is certainly not charmed by her new grand house in the country. When she discovers a locked room, and the wooden painted figures within it, her life becomes more and more unsettled.

This novel is so so creepy. I was so spooked at times, and I’m very glad I only read it during my commute during the day, I don’t think I could’ve coped reading it at night!!

The novel jumps narratives between a mental hospital, and flashbacks to the 1630s when the Silent Companions were first introduced to the house, and Elsie’s life in the house. This split timeline works brilliantly in the novel. As readers we are never given time to get comfortable in any setting, and the sense of unease and unanswered questions is furthered by this jumping narrative.

Overall I loved The Silent Companions a lot. It is a wonderful gothic novel, with some seriously spooky statues, perfect for this spooky season!

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If I'm being completely honest, I am not a fan of the horror genre, but the cover from The Silent Companions is so gorgeous that I couldn't help reading it. Luckily for me the book ended up being far less creepy than anticipated - but then on the flip side of the coin, that was disappointing. Possessed lifelike cardboard cut outs of people you know going all Weeping Angel on you? That is scary as hell. But this story was so underdeveloped that there wasn't a chance for it to be creepy. I wasn't invested in the minimally developed characters, both story lines were too rushed to really make any sense, and it was all over before it began, really. Also, the ending was predictable and anticlimactic. This book is the definition of a candle fizzling out.

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I absolutely loved this creepy, gothic novel. There is a lot of mystery surrounding Elsie's past and what happened to her companion Sarah which just added to the deliciously menacing feel of the novel.

There are a lot of layers to this spooky story and it would definitely benefit from a second reading.

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Content Warnings: Suicide, murder, paranormal activity, death, miscarriage, mental health.

So far this year, I’ve been finding most books mediocre at best. It’s been difficult to find the right book for me, but I think The Silent Companions might make it into my top 10 books of 2020. Purcell’s novel is definitely one for fans of Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw, Ruth Ware’s The Turn of the Key, and Doctor Who.

The so-called Companions in the novel are eerily similar to both Doctor Who‘s Weeping Angels and the Wood Creatures from the Christmas episode, The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe. That heightened sense of familiarity really encouraged an appreciation for the creepy companions. There were definitely moments where I thought they were a little flat as antagonists, perhaps in expectation of more sinister actions than just eye movements. Still, they were well-crafted and the concept itself was well thought out.

I did think around the halfway point that The Silent Companions bears heavy similarity to Anita Frank’s The Lost Ones, which was published a year later. Purcell’s novel does have the extra added element of the companions, whereas Frank’s novel used ghosts and spirits as the antagonists, so there is a slight difference. Nonetheless, both novels seem formulaic of each other: people move into a huge manor house that is haunted by something supernatural that needs discovery, there’s a discussion of an exorcism, the protagonist is declared insane etc. I’m not saying that one has been copied from the other — I’m saying if you liked one, then you’re likely to enjoy the other.

The ending had me smiling. Not because it was a nice, happy ending, or because there was a sudden change in genre. The feeling I had while reading this ending was similar to the feeling I had when I read Ragnar Jónasson’s The Darkness. The novel leaves you with a sense of predictive intelligence yet also a feeling of dread. You want to know what’s going to happen next, but you also don’t want the open-endedness of the novel to be ruined. This is my plea to Laura Purcell: please don’t write a sequel. This novel ended perfectly.

If you’re wondering why I didn’t give it the full 5 stars, it’s pretty simple. As I say in most of my reviews, I really do not like epistolary novels. The Silent Companions is told in a series of diary entries and letters written to a psychologist. As usual, I don’t understand the grammatical logistics of novels written in epistolary form, so I can personally never rate them perfectly. Had I been someone who didn’t care particularly about the prose, this book would probably have received at least 4.5 stars from me.

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Elsie is recently widowed and pregnant so goes to live at her husbands old family estate but it's not a happy place. The locals avoid the the estate due to it's dark history. Elsie soon begins to realise it might be much darker than she thought and shes not safe there.

This was an interesting read but didn't entice me as much as I'd hoped. It jumps around in three different times but it's easy to follow the story. I liked the connections between the past and the later times. The plot itself was slow but the ending was very good. The drama of the show down and then the final twist was very well done. A good story but not quite for me.

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A complex dark story, in the style of a Victorian Gothic thriller. Elsie finds that her late husband's estate is less salubrious than she expected. Despite, her newly widowed state and pregnancy, she meets hostility and resentment from everyone she encounters, except for her companion who wants to discover her family history.

There is a disturbing supernatural element in this story, the villagers are driven by superstition and Elsie, gradually succumbs to the evil around her, with terrible consequences, whether this is real or a delusion is something the reader has to decide.

The setting and the atmospheric ambience is cleverly created, the pacing is slow and many of the images unpleasant. The historical elements are well researched, and the fact that many of the practices are based on historical fact makes the story even more chilling.

This is a claustrophobic, immersive Gothic story full of strange events and menace.

I received a copy of this book from Bloomsbury Publishing -Raven Books via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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I loved this story and was completely engrossed in the plot. It was a perfect cosy read. I'll be reading more by this author.

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Gothic horror, with the usual cast - creepy house which is dilapidated, new mistress who receives a cold welcome from the few remaining staff, unfriendly villagers and the scene is set for weird goings on! It was ok but didn’t leave me scared of my own shadow which is a must for horror books. It might have worked better as a short story or novella, made it more sinister, something like less is more, sort of thing. Loved the cover, for me, the best part of the book.

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I really loved this book. It was so atmospheric and creepy. What an excellent subject. I enjoyed the way the author changed from the present to the past and then to the historical past. It all flowed so the story could unravel and then the ending finished it all off. If you like creepy houses with things that go bump in the night then this book is worth a read.

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This book was creepy!! It was so strange and so eerie that I had goosebumps reading it in places. I loved the plot, I thought it well written and exciting. It was easy to read despite being historical and is an absolute must read for horror/ creepy book fans!

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My thanks to Bloomsbury Publishing U.K./Raven Books for a digital edition via NetGalley of Laura Purcell’s ‘The Silent Companions’ in exchange for an honest review. It was originally published in October 2017.

I welcomed this opportunity to reread ‘The Silent Companions’ as when I first read it I wasn’t that taken with it. However, it may just have been that I wasn’t in the mood for spooky Gothic. Since then I have rediscovered my love for the Gothic and also enjoyed both of Purcell’s later novels, ‘The Corset’ and ‘Bone China’. I had thought more than once about rereading it and this proved an excellent opportunity.

In this novel newly married and newly widowed Elsie Bainbridge arrives at her husband’s country estate, Bridge House, where her husband is about to be buried. There she mets his cousin, Sarah Bainbridge. A few odd things occur and Elsie and Sarah find a previously locked, now open, door admits them to a garret where they discover a 200 year old journal belonging to Anne Bainbridge as well as painted wooden figures of people. In the journal Anne, who is later accused of witchcraft, tells of the origins of these ‘silent companions’ as well as tragic events in the house.

The story unfolds over three timelines: the two noted above and a later one in which Elsie is in an asylum, unable or unwilling to speak, and being evaluated by an earnest young doctor seeking to understand the events that led to her being admitted.

This shifting about in time and the slow pacing formed a good part of what I found distracting the first time I read it. Being aware of this and having experienced more of Purcell’s style did assist me in reevaluating it this time around.

While not perfect, I found this quite an engaging reread and again those creepy, creepy companions and some of its shocking scenes will stay with me for a long time. I was also very fond of the resident black cat, Jasper, who did some excellent catting throughout the novel.

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