Layering on thedark and creepy, thisintriguingly plottednovel is the full-blownGothic, maintaining throughoutan unsettling claustrophobic atmospheremixed with some unusual historical detail.” This book is an incredible, creepy-cool story! Two women living 200 years apart experience evil in the Bainbridge ancestral home. In the 1860's, Elsie comes to the house. She is a widow. Her husband recently died, and she feels lost. In the 1660's, Anne Bainbridge lives in the house. Her daughter Hetta is unable to speak and Anne feels incredibly guilty for using her herbal knowledge to bring about the girl's birth. She firmly believes her actions caused the girl to be born with a malformed tongue. Both women come under the spell of the Silent Companions.....wooden effigies painted like people. At first they seem beautiful, more lifelike than mere paintings....but then, they move. The horror of what lurks in the Bainbridge home is truly chilling. This one is a bit spooky! Not horrific really - it would not keep me awake at night- but it is definitely on the creepy side. Sheldrake, R. (2005). The sense of being stared at – Part 1: Is it real or illusory? Journal of Consciousness Studies, 12(6), 10–31. So there’s something you don’t see everyday. A Hoarder suggesting that the printed story might do better as a film. Now THAT’S terrifying.

And, oh, did I find out. Let me tell you: There are definitely times I now get up in the middle of the night and look askance at the wooden furniture in my room, too. 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. Elsie moves into his crumbling estate, with its odd servants and creaky floors, and soon starts to notice that something isn’t quite right. You just have to swap out the stately home for a northern factory town. It’s also a love story that could give Pride and Prejudicea run for its money. It’s a powerful story written with more sharp wit and wisdom than most other English novels of the 20 th century. 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.That unsettling, evocative smell of silence enveloped you. There it was again, in the shadow of the house—a lover’s whisper, seductive but dangerous. I also felt like there were some plot threads and characters raised and then never fully used or developed – Anne’s sister, the minister in 1865.

When I was a boy, my dad was stationed on a U.S. Army base in what was then West Germany. There was…Was reading this on Halloween, and it was just creepy enough without being absolutely terrifying. The silent companions, things I had never heard of, make an appearance and keep making appearances despite the fact that they are gotten rid of time and time again. The journals from the past reveal the dabbling in of witchcraft and of terrible wrongs committed. As a reader I was never quite sure what was real and what was imagined. If what Elsie was seeing and experiencing was in her mind or an actual happening. Loved the Gothic, forboding style of this, the constant tension, and the mix between past and present. Other interesting characters are presented and one will have an important part in the twist at the end. This is a deeply unsettling, wonderfully atmospheric and truly creepy novel. We first meet Elsie Bainbridge as a patient in an asylum, where she is suspected of murder. The progressive Dr Shepherd encourages her to write down her story, as she is refusing, or unable, to speak. What emerges is her recounting how she married Rupert Bainbridge, largely to help save her brother’s match factory. However, although the marriage was one of convenience, Elsie found herself surprisingly happy to be the wife of her new husband. Sadly, though, she shortly finds herself both pregnant and widowed; sent by her brother to stay at her husband’s country house, The Bridge. The Court Dancertells the story of Yi Jin, a young woman who dances at the court of the emperor of the Joseon Dynasty. Welcome to the Speculative Chic Book Club! Each month, we invite you to join us in reading a book that is voted on by YOU, our readers. Following a short review, please feel free to discuss the book in the comments! Laura Purcell interview “I had a few nightmares about finding silent companions standing outside my house!”

Take Ben's new survey via http://hearingthevoice.org/2016/03/22/feelings-of-presence-new-article-and-survey/ Thinking about hearing voices in this way is not necessarily new. Bell (2013) and Wilkinson and Bell (2016) have argued for social representations being key to understanding how voices are experienced and persist over time; various psychotherapeutic approaches focus on the social relations that voices seem to create (e.g. Hayward et al., 2011), and the Hearing Voices Movement itself has long argued for an understanding of the experience that involves interaction with voices as meaningful entities. There, we are granted a voyeuristic peek into gentrified Paris through Yi Jin’s eyes. And we are given a thoughtful story that explores the West’s perception and treatment of Eastern ‘treasures’. A political and thrilling story of love, loyalty, and belonging.Yes, I definitely should have mentioned the disability/evilness angle, which is also disappointing. Everything you said in your comment I’m just nodding along with. This could have been better, it’s such a creepy concept, but it was poorly executed. The premise of The Silent Companions, at first glance, seems a little weak: Elsie moves into her new manor home and finds a life-size, human-looking, wooden figurine stored in the attic. She also discovers a diary written by the previous owner of the house, Annie, who apparently went a little spend-happy when the local curiosity fair rolled through town.