The Silent Companion by Laura Purcell
I got wind of Laura Purcell through one of the blog reviews of her latest, The Poison Thread. And so without much clue about what was on offer, I decided to take a plunge.
And boy, glad that I did. The Silent Companions is one of the most best horror novels I have read this year. The best kind of horror are so well orchestrated so to catch you unawares. Silent Companion succeeds wildly at that - in creating a creepy, atmospheric, gothic victorian horror novel that checks all my boxes for a great chilling read. Highly recommended.
So the central narrative is set in 1885 and revolves about Elsie Bainbridge, a middle-class English woman who has married into a richer family. Her means of climbing up the social ladder was to ensnare Rupert Bainbridge, an entitled English lord who owns a familial estate known as the Bridge, back in the serene countryside. However, even as the novel starts it becomes clear that Rupert is dead and its Elsie who has inherited the property and everything else that comes along. Which by the way, includes Rupert's unmarried spinster cousin sister Sarah, a bunch of surly non-cooperative house-servants, the annoyed villagers and of course, all the mysterious legacies that come along with the house.
The narrative is actually split across two timelines - Elsie at St.Joseph's hospital and 1885, at the ancestral property, the Bridge. There's also a third timeline set in 1600's, events based on a diary found in the basement of the property that traces back a few of the historical events that shaped the "prophecies" within the Bridge. In the current times, we encounter Elsie as the survivor of a massive fire that destroyed The Bridge. How did the fire breakout? Who survived? What really happened? This becomes a driving force for the second narrative that has Elsie's past life set in 1885. She has just entered her husband's ancestral property, to arrange for the burial of her late husband Rupert within the premises. Laura wastes no time in setting up the eerie environment that surrounds the house - the preternatural fog is a precursor to something a lot more disturbing and chilling that surfaces up within the house. The very first night, Elsie hears a persistent hissing that leads her to open up one of the locked basement doors of the house and stumble across this extremely life-like wooden cut statues of figures known as the Silent Companions. She also discovers the diary of Anne Bainbridge, one of Rupert's ancestors and the story that unfolds from Anne's lifetime in the 1600's sets the tone for the gothic horror that quickly grows to envelope and suffocate Elsie's life in 1885. What are these silent companions? How are there 'more' of them popping up across the property? A series of violent events fall upon the inmates of the house convincing them that there's something evil at work. Very soon, the atmospheric intrigue builds up (Choking you as a reader!) and then, the last one-third of the story where the three stories across different timelines start to converge, Laura slowly but surely tightens the noose.
Laura sets up the contexts beautifully investing time in making sure we connect to Elsie's predicaments. A recently widowed woman - an albeit strong and clever one who's basically self-made with a practical no-nonsense approach towards life in general - Elsie however looses her moorings in the face of the extremely chilling strange unnatural events that befall her after she starts to live inside the Bridge. Then there is Sarah - her late husband's cousin, a mousy timid creature who also happens to 'witness' the disturbing chain of events that unfold right after the "companions' arrive on the scene. The others include the Household servants and Jolian, Elsie's brother who is based in London.
Even as the events unfold, Laura's brilliant writing ensures that we as a reader, are questioning the veracity of the same. Seen from the mind of Elsie, who actually has had a terrible childhood and hides a few secrets of herself, we are actually left in a rocking boat. As doubts creep up and chilling uncertainties collide, we are not certain if the incidents are just a manifestation of Elsie's disturbed mind or is the horror for real?
Laura's writing is fierce and visceral and brings forth the elements of raw fear that clog one's mind, faced with such impossible horror. In some ways, her writing reminded me so much of Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. She digs deep into the swaying unstable minds of her protagonists, here in parts Elsie and then Anne Bainbridge as they come face to face with consequences of some of the horrific mistakes of their own past. It is an incredibly layered novel and even as you are sucked deeper into the chilling mists of the English countryside, you realise that there are hidden depths to some of the innocuous trapdoors you walked into. Elsie and Anne, as the characters were emotionally so well chalked out that you cannot help but share their heightened sense of trauma. Laura has done a tremendous job in making sure of this.
I totally loved this book - It's a pitch perfect novel of Victorian horror combined with chilling psychological drama. It is immersive and unsettling. It frightens you and disturbs you with its intensity. Definitely a must-read for the fans of this genre. Laura goes straight up to my must-read authors of horror, writing today.
And boy, glad that I did. The Silent Companions is one of the most best horror novels I have read this year. The best kind of horror are so well orchestrated so to catch you unawares. Silent Companion succeeds wildly at that - in creating a creepy, atmospheric, gothic victorian horror novel that checks all my boxes for a great chilling read. Highly recommended.
So the central narrative is set in 1885 and revolves about Elsie Bainbridge, a middle-class English woman who has married into a richer family. Her means of climbing up the social ladder was to ensnare Rupert Bainbridge, an entitled English lord who owns a familial estate known as the Bridge, back in the serene countryside. However, even as the novel starts it becomes clear that Rupert is dead and its Elsie who has inherited the property and everything else that comes along. Which by the way, includes Rupert's unmarried spinster cousin sister Sarah, a bunch of surly non-cooperative house-servants, the annoyed villagers and of course, all the mysterious legacies that come along with the house.
The narrative is actually split across two timelines - Elsie at St.Joseph's hospital and 1885, at the ancestral property, the Bridge. There's also a third timeline set in 1600's, events based on a diary found in the basement of the property that traces back a few of the historical events that shaped the "prophecies" within the Bridge. In the current times, we encounter Elsie as the survivor of a massive fire that destroyed The Bridge. How did the fire breakout? Who survived? What really happened? This becomes a driving force for the second narrative that has Elsie's past life set in 1885. She has just entered her husband's ancestral property, to arrange for the burial of her late husband Rupert within the premises. Laura wastes no time in setting up the eerie environment that surrounds the house - the preternatural fog is a precursor to something a lot more disturbing and chilling that surfaces up within the house. The very first night, Elsie hears a persistent hissing that leads her to open up one of the locked basement doors of the house and stumble across this extremely life-like wooden cut statues of figures known as the Silent Companions. She also discovers the diary of Anne Bainbridge, one of Rupert's ancestors and the story that unfolds from Anne's lifetime in the 1600's sets the tone for the gothic horror that quickly grows to envelope and suffocate Elsie's life in 1885. What are these silent companions? How are there 'more' of them popping up across the property? A series of violent events fall upon the inmates of the house convincing them that there's something evil at work. Very soon, the atmospheric intrigue builds up (Choking you as a reader!) and then, the last one-third of the story where the three stories across different timelines start to converge, Laura slowly but surely tightens the noose.
Laura sets up the contexts beautifully investing time in making sure we connect to Elsie's predicaments. A recently widowed woman - an albeit strong and clever one who's basically self-made with a practical no-nonsense approach towards life in general - Elsie however looses her moorings in the face of the extremely chilling strange unnatural events that befall her after she starts to live inside the Bridge. Then there is Sarah - her late husband's cousin, a mousy timid creature who also happens to 'witness' the disturbing chain of events that unfold right after the "companions' arrive on the scene. The others include the Household servants and Jolian, Elsie's brother who is based in London.
Even as the events unfold, Laura's brilliant writing ensures that we as a reader, are questioning the veracity of the same. Seen from the mind of Elsie, who actually has had a terrible childhood and hides a few secrets of herself, we are actually left in a rocking boat. As doubts creep up and chilling uncertainties collide, we are not certain if the incidents are just a manifestation of Elsie's disturbed mind or is the horror for real?
Laura's writing is fierce and visceral and brings forth the elements of raw fear that clog one's mind, faced with such impossible horror. In some ways, her writing reminded me so much of Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. She digs deep into the swaying unstable minds of her protagonists, here in parts Elsie and then Anne Bainbridge as they come face to face with consequences of some of the horrific mistakes of their own past. It is an incredibly layered novel and even as you are sucked deeper into the chilling mists of the English countryside, you realise that there are hidden depths to some of the innocuous trapdoors you walked into. Elsie and Anne, as the characters were emotionally so well chalked out that you cannot help but share their heightened sense of trauma. Laura has done a tremendous job in making sure of this.
I totally loved this book - It's a pitch perfect novel of Victorian horror combined with chilling psychological drama. It is immersive and unsettling. It frightens you and disturbs you with its intensity. Definitely a must-read for the fans of this genre. Laura goes straight up to my must-read authors of horror, writing today.
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