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A perfect read for a winter night . . . An intriguing, nuanced, and genuinely eerie slice of Victorian gothic.”
This is the year of our Lord 2018, I thought to myself, this can’t possibly be where this book is going. And thankfully, it wasn’t. While the two Romani characters are treated pretty terribly in this book (and then killed) . . . . I was going to say at least they weren’t later revealed to be the cause of everything but honestly, this still isn’t a good look. So yeah, there’s that in this book. Two Romani children die because of the prejudices present at the time.Unfortunately, things started to fizzle out for me the more I kept reading. It felt like a slow burn at first that I was hoping would pay off over time but that wasn’t the case. There are some decent creepy moments here and there but my goodness, this novel has way too much dialogue. The three alternating timelines with the super past, past, and current aspects of this novel just didn’t work out at all for me. The Silent Companion proved perfectly why I love Gothic stories. Creepiness and uncertainty can become the most addictive poison when combined, and Laura Purcell did an excellent job. Her writing style reminded me a little bit of The Miniaturist; both books have a subtle and smooth beauty in them, which I immensely enjoy. The Silent Companions is a gothic, foreboding, spooky ghost story. It is very well written and I especially enjoyed the setting of the crumbling mansion (named The Bridge) in England. The story alternates between events of 1635 to the present day of 1865.
I really wanted to read this book after I came across the blurb, and the reality certainly didn't disappoint. The narrative is shared by two young women in Victorian England, Dorothea, a wealthy heiress, and Ruth, a seamstress imprisoned for the murder of her mistress. Dorothea has an interest in phrenology, the study of peoples skulls to see if they have a propensity for murder among other things, and when she comes across Ruth during a charitable visit to the local gaol, she can't help but try to read her skull. As the two women become closer over the course of Dorothea's visits, Ruth's story unveils, her shattered childhood, her abuse from her employers, and the fact that she seems to be able to control peoples fates through the clothes she makes for them.
Success!
Purcell created a very good suspense at the beginning, but as we moved on in the story, more and more characters were added, the story line became unstructured, sloppy at times. She couldn't tie all ends together as there were too many fronts open. Ruth is a prisoner, accused of committing murder, but did she actually do it? The stories she tells are pretty far fetched, are they sure she isn’t just mad?
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