The darkness of the surroundings, the biting cold of the air, the mucky earth, stinging rain and sterile walls of the asylum – all were effective in painting a lonesome and haunting life story. What was well done in this story was the imagery and the pathetic fallacy. Had the novel revolved around this young lady, this would have been a very different review. SHE was the gothic tale that I was anticipating. For me, The Silent Companions did not become animated until Anne’s diary was discovered, and we finally got a glimpse of her life with her mute daughter Hetta, and the evil that lurked in every dark corner.

This was a woman who conjured a pregnancy from potions and chants, and wound up with a troubled baby girl. My trouble was that I was not terribly fond of Elsie, and wanted much more detail about her ancestor, Anne Bainbridge. The premise was clever that is not in question. I could not fully succumb to the terror of a wooden picture board. This is where the creep factor made a hasty exit for me. Does it work? I think you know the answer to that question. It’s when people started to die that Elsie made a connection between the cutouts and sudden tragedies. These moments certainly offered moments of cringe, but they were not your typical jump scares. Notice scurrying on the floor behind you, only to see that a wooden cutout was suddenly closer. Look up to an upstairs window, and you just might see one peering down.

Turn your back on them, and they might just vanish. The trouble with the companions in this story was that they were never quite where they were supposed to be. Not exactly at the top of my decoration list, but I’m sure some of them had their charm. What are the silent companions? They’re wooden cutouts of people, which harken back to the 17th century. Each story is not only haunted by the otherworldly, but it’s also haunted by the people themselves. The last story actually propels the reader back to the time of Elsie’s ancestors, who had interesting and dark problems of their own.

The other is about a terribly disfigured and mute Elsie in an asylum, who’s facing a hanging for unspecified crimes. One is about a young and intelligent Elsie who lives in the manor. The novel, it should be noted, skips around between three linked stories. Elsie moves into his crumbling estate, with its odd servants and creaky floors, and soon starts to notice that something isn’t quite right. The Silent Companions follows the troubled life of Elsie Bainbridge, a young and pregnant widow who has recently inherited her husband’s fortune, sprawling manor (called The Bridge), and interestingly, his cousin. Quite frankly, the scarier the better for this Hoarder. This was a novel that I was eager to read, as I’m an enormous fan of all things creepy and mysterious. Many thanks to Penguin Books for sending a copy of Laura Purcell’s The Silent Companions.

The silent companions book