A psychologist suggests she writes down what happened and it’s through this narrative we learn that Elsie found herself pregnant and newly widowed in 1866, just as she moved to her husband’s family estate, The Bridge. Joseph’s Hospital, she is injured and also suspected of starting a fire that killed several people but has become mute so can’t fully tell her story. This story is told by Elsie Bainbridge in two different time frames, we first meet her in St. Told in a very sophisticated way, this book doesn’t play for cheap thrills, the tension and unsettling air is built up gradually and you feel on edge (in a great way) while reading, “Something was coming for her, as surely as the tide inching up the shore. The Silent Companions was Laura Purcell’s debut novel and is a superbly atmospheric Victorian gothic horror tale. What more could you want?’), you know you’re in for a great read. The perfect setting, great build-up, chilling. When a book comes with a quote on the cover from the legendary Susan Hill ( ‘Terrific. And then Purcell reminds you again, and you wonder if the author even likes the character she's created.Opening sentence: “The new doctor took her by surprise.” Her dialogue of different characters, especially the servants though, does nothing to endear us to Elsie who's internal monologue at times is so ignorant that you forget she's from a working class background. Scarfe does a pretty good job at trying to get listeners to sympathise with otherwise very unsympathetic characters. The monsters themselves were underwhelming, and at the end, I found myself rooting for them over the heroine.
With the murder of innocent Romani characters left unpunished and as a loose end by the novel's conclusion. And rather than Purcell make a comment about the prejudices of the time, she seems to revel in them. Similarly, the vilification of the 'gypsies' along with the liberal use of the slur was surprising.
For example, the main character, Elsie, despite being from a working class background, is so haughty and judgmental on every other female character in the text! Not only their actions but perhaps more unforgiving, their appearance too. I was surprised to see that Purcell, a woman, wrote female characters who were either two-dimensional, or unfavorable. But what Purcell promises in her blurb is not seen in the text at all, except through glimpses of prose that does nothing to endear the reader to her protagonist. Heroine's battling darkness by themselves? Check. Oppressive atmosphere fueled by the weather? Check. The premise of the novel has everything you would want in a Gothic novel.
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