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The Silent Companions

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The Silent Companions

By: Laura Purcell
Narrated by: Katie Scarfe
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About this listen

Inspired by the work of Shirley Jackson and Susan Hill and set in a crumbling country mansion, The Silent Companions is an unsettling Victorian Gothic ghost story that will send a shiver down the spine....

Newly married, newly widowed Elsie is sent to see out her pregnancy at her late husband's crumbling country estate, The Bridge. With her new servants resentful and the local villagers actively hostile, Elsie only has her husband's awkward cousin for company. Or so she thinks.

Inside her new home lies a locked room, and beyond that door lies a 200-year-old diary and a deeply unsettling painted wooden figure - a Silent Companion - that bears a striking resemblance to Elsie herself.

As Elsie's suspicions about her husband's family grow, she discovers that those around her believe a very different story - a story of just what Elsie did to end up where she is now....

©2017 Bloomsbury (P)2017 Audible, Ltd Ghosts Horror Supernatural Suspense Thriller & Suspense Haunted Scary Paranormal Marriage
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I’d never read the book before and l just loved this so much. Laura Purcell is brilliant. The story had me gripped until the last word. The performances were brilliant and I’m just knocked out by how good this is. Thank you!

Absolutely fantastic

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Really enjoyed the voice acting , loved the vivid imagery used by the author. Her description of opening locks, and the physical effect of fear on the body was stellar! A great listen.

Highly enjoyable gothic novel.

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This book will give you the creeps! But kind of in a good way!
The narration by Katie Scarfe is really quite good. She brings the characters to life.

Eerily good...

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Genuinely creepy book. The author has taken traditional 1800’s horror and made it more original with a little more gore and shock factor. I got the creeps walking through my dark house after reading.. “Ssshhhk ssshhhk!” The best part was the story for the most part was unpredictable with great twists. Finally the audio performance was great. Read it!

Proper creepy.

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An excellent story and well performed, but the recording is very quiet. I had to jack my volume up significantly.

Thoroughly enjoyable

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Slow to start but did get interesting with a cracker twist at the end- glad I hung in there

The Silent Companions

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The premise of the novel has everything you would want in a Gothic novel. Isolated mansion in winter? Check. Oppressive atmosphere fueled by the weather? Check. Heroine's battling darkness by themselves? Check.

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. I was surprised to see that Purcell, a woman, wrote female characters who were either two-dimensional, or unfavorable. 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.

Similarly, the vilification of the 'gypsies' along with the liberal use of the slur was surprising. And rather than Purcell make a comment about the prejudices of the time, she seems to revel in them. With the murder of innocent Romani characters left unpunished and as a loose end by the novel's conclusion. The monsters themselves were underwhelming, and at the end, I found myself rooting for them over the heroine.

Scarfe does a pretty good job at trying to get listeners to sympathise with otherwise very unsympathetic characters. 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. And then Purcell reminds you again, and you wonder if the author even likes the character she's created. And if not, why should we?

A disappointing gothic

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This was painful to get through, and my hopes of it being worthwhile in the end weren’t realised. It meanders on through a ridiculous plot which ultimately is not explained at all, and features what seems presently to be the usual plot devices of hysterical women and abuse recollections. Too much is revealed in a rush at the end, but still no real explanation of the whole basis of the story. I still don’t know what if anything is supposed to have happened in the final line of the book. Don’t bother.

Don’t bother. Convoluted and contrived.

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I very much enjoyed this book, however do not expect to be scared if you are a big thriller/ horror reader. Performance and voice was great and the story is very well written. I just didn’t find it scary as other reviews had suggested. I did predict the end twist fairly early on in the book which made the end underwhelming. However I do recommend this book.

Great story & writing but not scary

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A good old ghost story with a nice twist at the end. I definitely think it could have been a bit scarier and more of a rounded off ending but I still think a great read.

The silent companion

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