2018 School Spending Survey Report
The Silent Companions
Penguin Pr. Mar. 2018. 304p. ISBN 9780143131632. pap. $16; ebk. ISBN 9781524705282. F
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Novelist Purcell (God Save the King) crafts a virtually flawless work of Gothic fiction with this deeply atmospheric, foreboding story that brings us into the unsettling world of Elsie Bainbridge. Newly widowed, she has been shipped to her late husband's crumbling country mansion to see through a troubled pregnancy. There she discovers resentful servants, hostile villagers, and incredibly strange occurrences. What starts as a few disturbing hallucinations builds into supernatural pandemonium when Elsie and Sarah, her husband's cousin, discover painted wooden figures behind a locked door. These figures, known as "silent companions," seem to move on their own, come back from the virtual dead, and terrorize everyone in the house. Purcell interweaves her narrative, which is set in 1865, with a 17th-century time line written by previous occupants of the mansion, revealing how the silent companions came to live at the estate and their horrifying story.
VERDICT In inviting us into her eerie Gothic world, Purcell masterfully attends to every atmospheric detail—from the dirty hems of skirts to the slanting light of dawn. Her novel is reminiscent of the work of all the greats, particularly Shirley Jackson and Daphne du Maurier, but Purcell has a style all her own. A must for all lovers of Gothic literature.
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