Joined in 2023 
82 
63 About this deal
Not since The Little Stranger has a book so entranced and haunted me. Compelling, bewitching and beautifully written. Read it if you dare.” Haunted paintings are not necessarily a new idea. But you’ve never seen haunted paintings like these before! Similarly benevolent experiences are also reported by people in extreme survival situations. Known collectively as ‘Third Man’ experiences (see box, over), accounts of guiding or accompanying presences in polar treks, mountaineering expeditions, sea accidents and natural disasters are numerous. The presences described are usually human-like, close by and feel like they share an affinity with the person experiencing them. Occasionally they are associated with sounds or words (Geiger, 2010, p126), or vague visions, such as a shadow or outline, but more commonly such presences are described without any sensory correlates. Like other presence experiences, though, the Third Man usually takes up a distinct spatial location, in some cases appearing to lead those in peril to safety. Diederen, K.M.J., Neggers, S.F.W., De Weijer, A.D. et al. (2013). Aberrant resting-state connectivity in non-psychotic individuals with auditory hallucinations. Psychological Medicine, 43(8), 1685–1696. You may want to leave the light on once you put down this intensely spooky gothic chiller. . . . Irresistibly creepy.”
A big thank you to Edelweiss, Frontlist and Laura Purcell for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review!!
Browse reviews by Genre
The other common contexts in which presences occur are various neurological and psychiatric diseases, such as Parkinson’s disease (PD) and Lewy body dementia, and following traumatic brain injury. Sensations of presence are a frequent feature of PD with one recent study reporting a 50 per cent prevalence rate (Wood et al., 2015). Presence experiences in PD are usually experienced without particular affect or intent, and they are reported as being felt alongside or just behind the patient (Fénelon et al., 2011). They are sometimes referred to as extracampine hallucinations, although strictly these refer to subtly different phenomena; following Bleuler (1903), extracampine hallucinations refer to unusual sensory experiences that go beyond the possible sensory frame; for example, one might describe seeing something occur behind you, or feeling a distant object move over your skin. Sensed presences, in contrast, are usually defined as having no clear sensory phenomenology (Sato & Berrios, 2003) and yet still feeling like a perceptual state (as opposed to a belief about someone being present, for example). An] extraordinary, memorable and truly haunting book.” — Jojo Moyes, #1 New York Times bestselling author One of the most well-written horror stories I’ve read this year, The Silent Companions is proper Gothic fare. . . . What is commendable is how Purcell is able to weave all these [classic] elements in a story that is layered and psychologically complex till the very end.”
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! The Silent Companions is a historical twist on the haunted-doll horror cliché. Purcell researched 17th-century European "silent companion" wooden figures to create her villains and solidify the historical setting. Despite their decided creepiness, these life-size figures became popular home decor, so when a character in 1635 brings some home, it isn't so strange. But in the 1865 setting, these same companions are strange--and evil. Ghost storiesarehaving a revival at present, and The Silent Companions . . .is a worthy newcomer to the genre. . . . These silent companions . . .are one of the creepiest concepts I’ve come across in a ghost story,both frightening and original. . . . The writing is strong and the concept provides a fresh twist on an old classic.”LAURA: I was a bit of a wimp as I child and remember hiding behind the sofa for many scenes in the Ghostbusters films! But I got into R. L. Stine’s Goosebumps series and Point Horror as I neared my teens, progressing on Gothic literary classics like The Phantom of the Opera and Wuthering Heights. It took way too long to get to those creepy moments and when it did, it wasn’t all that scary. There is decent tension here and there but then things dragged on, the chapters got dull, and I was mostly bored because it was mostly dialogue and not enough unique horror to keep me interested.
Discussion: A little under half way through this book I almost noped out of it. We were in the 1600s timeline, watching Anne be terrible to this poor Romani child (only this book used the slur) and I thought we were headed to a place where the Romani child cursed the home because the mistress wouldn’t let him take care of her horses. A genuinely creepy Victorian ghost story, it’ll keep you up half the night reading it . . . and you won’t want to turn off the light.” Newly married, newly widowed Elsie is sent to see out her pregnancy at her late husband's crumbling country estate, The Bridge. Your forthcoming book, The Whispering Muse, publishes in February 2023. Can you tell us anything about it? An atmospheric, eerie Victorian gothic novel . . .its combustible tale of a 19th-century woman tormented by an English country house’s creepy curios does produce sparks.”Frighteningly atmospheric, genuinely haunting and psychologically astute, the horror of The Silent Companions lingers like truth in the darkest corners of the human mind.” Elsie is pregnant, newly widowed and about to move into her husband’s family home The Bridge. It is full of rumours and the local villagers are terrified of the house. Elsie thinks it’s all ridiculous. It’s just an old house. Together with her husbands cousin Sarah she begins working on getting the house clean and prepared for the baby’s arrival. When they come across these wooden figures referred to as companions, Elsie finds them intriguing and decides to bring them out. A sound, a noise. The creaking floor, the rustling of leaves, the whirling wind. Or maybe something else. Unusual feelings of presence have always been associated with similarly unusual or unorthodox interpretations. Some presence experiences appear to share qualities with the feeling (and subsequent discovery) of being stared at; a phenomenon argued to be a real faculty of perception by some (Sheldrake, 2005), but without any strong empirical basis (e.g. Colwell et al., 2000). Persinger and colleagues (e.g. Booth et al., 2005) have argued that felt presences can occur as a result of changes to the earth’s magnetic field, although such effects seem likely to arise from participant suggestibility (Granqvist et al., 2005). Finally, some psychotherapists and spiritual healers consider presences to be evidence of an entity that must be persuaded to depart its host; a controversial approach known as ‘spirit release’ therapy (Powell, 2006). From the description the reader knows that one woman is from a life of privilege and luxury while the other is poor - extremely poor. Dotty has known a relatively easy life. Ruth has known pain, loss, suffering, and hard work. Their socio-economic difference is HUGE as are their outlook on life, and each's understanding of the world.
Great Deal 
New Comment