Helpful Score: 1
So very creepy! Who wouldn't look over their shoulders a time or two after reading about these 'silent companions?' This mesmerizing tale told in retrospection toggles between two women who lived in this cursed house and how it came to be this way. This is definitely a place where you should simply cut your losses and get away with your life. Their respective fates saddened me, but it's an excellent choice for Halloween reading or for when you're in the mood for a serious case of the heebie-jeebies. 4.5 stars.
Helpful Score: 1
I've always enjoyed a well-told ghost story. The problem is finding one that rivets my attention to the turning of each page. I'm happy to say that I found a Victorian ghost story that suits me right down to the ground: Laura Purcell's The Silent Companions.
I found the beginning of the book to be a bit slow moving until the locked room was opened and a diary was found and read. Then there were two timelines to follow, and I have to admit that I wish Anne Bainbridge's diary written in 1635 was a lot longer because that story fascinated me with its focus on a visit to The Bridge by King Charles I and his queen, Henrietta Maria.
The second timeline is Elsie's in 1865, and both give a marvelous sense of time and place. One of the things I really enjoyed was how my perceptions of each character changed as I read further and further into the story. Even Elsie's seldom-seen brother Jolyon (a medieval version of "Julian") isn't just a foil for showing readers women's place in society and business during the Victorian era.
I know that those two-hundred-year-old wooden figures are supposed to be the scariest things in The Silent Companions, but they aren't what creeped me out. No, that honor goes to Purcell's descriptions of the house, its gardens, and the village. The village was so mired in poverty, superstition, and hostility, the house and gardens with dirt, neglect, and resentment that the menace was palpable. As I read, I felt that eyes in the back of my head were not enough; no, I needed a team of Navy SEALs surrounding me at all times.
If you're in the mood for a good ghost story, I highly recommend The Silent Companions. I still shiver when I think of revisiting that ancient country house, The Bridge.
I found the beginning of the book to be a bit slow moving until the locked room was opened and a diary was found and read. Then there were two timelines to follow, and I have to admit that I wish Anne Bainbridge's diary written in 1635 was a lot longer because that story fascinated me with its focus on a visit to The Bridge by King Charles I and his queen, Henrietta Maria.
The second timeline is Elsie's in 1865, and both give a marvelous sense of time and place. One of the things I really enjoyed was how my perceptions of each character changed as I read further and further into the story. Even Elsie's seldom-seen brother Jolyon (a medieval version of "Julian") isn't just a foil for showing readers women's place in society and business during the Victorian era.
I know that those two-hundred-year-old wooden figures are supposed to be the scariest things in The Silent Companions, but they aren't what creeped me out. No, that honor goes to Purcell's descriptions of the house, its gardens, and the village. The village was so mired in poverty, superstition, and hostility, the house and gardens with dirt, neglect, and resentment that the menace was palpable. As I read, I felt that eyes in the back of my head were not enough; no, I needed a team of Navy SEALs surrounding me at all times.
If you're in the mood for a good ghost story, I highly recommend The Silent Companions. I still shiver when I think of revisiting that ancient country house, The Bridge.
The most positive thing I can say is that I finished it. At 300 pages, it was too long and many places could have been trimmed. I found it a little too silly in places, also. It doesn't even crack the top 25 of my favorite ghost / supernatural books (topped by Macardle's The Uninvited and McDowell's The Elementals.)
Ooh! A creepy and unique type of ghost story. It begins with a woman (Elsie) in an asylum who is called a murderess but she is afraid and hasn't spoken to defend herself. Then her story unfolds leading up to how she wound up there. It is intertwined with Anne's story that unfolded 200 years prior. There are some genuinely chilling moments of dread all the way through. The silent companions are so scary. And the ending left me with chills.
