The Silent Companions: A Novel

Bit of a slow burn gothic-style horror that really ramps up at the end. The main character is really detestable, but she routinely makes a fool of herself and quite literally falls on her butt time and time again. I could not stop laughing at her. Usually these insufferable characters are written to be totally flawless and perfect, it was so refreshing to see a protagonist get humbled over and over. The story of the companions (wood carvings painted to look very life like. Like 17th century cardboard cut outs but made out of solid oak) themselves is a very slow burn told through a series of journal entries from 250ish years prior as the family gets ready for the literal King and Queen of England to arrive at their estate. We know something really bad had to have happen when the Royals arrived based on what the present day (set in the late 1800s) characters know about their ancestors, we just don't know what that specific thing was or how they involve the companions, which makes the slow buildup of dread even more entertaining. I read this in a day, it was an absolute blast for me. Just bare in mind this book was written in the past decade so obviously it's not going to be true gothic horror (the dialogue is a little too modern at times, the grammar and stylizing is not how people wrote in the 1800s or the 1600s). If that's a deal breaker for you, then pass on it. But if you don't care about that, then definitely give this a read.

This is a real creepy,truly Gothic tale of widowed and pregnant Elsie Bainbridge,inheriting her late husband's ancestral home,The Bridge. Strange nightly noises,send her investigating. In an a poorly lit hallway, she meets human like,wooden figures,the silent companions. Which are supposed to be, locked away in the attic,but throughout the story they appear all over the house,and they somehowultiply. And if they're moving on their own ,isn't creepy enough,one looks just like Elsie,as a child. The tale switches between the sixteen and eighteen hundreds,and contains witchcraft,and animal mutilation. And the ending is left up in the air.

Overall, the book was pretty good. The story really kept me on the edge of my seat