I made a mistake. It’s true, I did. I based my interest on this book off of who I thought the author was. You see, I thought she was the writer of a retelling of The Turn of the Screw. I had never read that retelling, but I was very interested in it, so I figured, hey, I’ll read this OTHER book by this author and get a taste for her style!
But I was wrong, dear reader. I had confused my authors.
You see, I have actually read Alender before. And when I realized what book she had written that I had read, I knew I was in for a chilling ride.
And…I was SO excited!
(Okay, so it was a good mistake; but still, it was SO unsettling when I realized who I was actually about to be reading!).
A spooky, Southern Gothic-Horror style novel with all the unease you’d see in a Poe story, The Companion is a fantastic story that will leave you feeling on edge and wanting more. With some fresh looks at some tried-and-true horror characters, we follow Margot on a terrifying fight for survival. With Alender’s long-proven ability to establish creepy tone and setting, you won’t want to put this down.
This book starts off not pulling punches, with Margot losing her entire family in a car crash. From there, we see her travel to a remote family estate--owned by an old pal of her dad’s; someone who owes the now deceased man a favor. And while Margot is grateful for this extension of hospitality, she soon learns her protection comes with some very interesting strings attached. She is asked to be a companion to their daughter, Agatha--a beautiful 16-year-old girl who has suddenly become catatonic. She doesn’t speak, she barely moves...and no one knows why. As Margot settles into her life at this old family home, she’ll start to realize things aren’t always what they seem, and that maybe she’s not as safe as she first thought.
What I loved most about Alender’s Bad Girls Don’t Die was the fact that the setting and tone just set me on edge the entire time; that same talent for crafting a scene is present in The Companion. The house and those in it are completely cut off from the outside world, and that sense of isolation and foreboding is captured in every word, every description, and every conversation. While this kind of “distance” from others is super common in older gothic horror, it feels almost more unsettling because this book is set in the present. There should be Wi-Fi and cell service...and there isn’t. The solitude plays in so well to the mystery of the direction of the story.
We also have some fantastic, familiar characters. I say “familiar” because these are faces you see in many books and movies set in areas like this: the always-absent businessman father, the child with a disability, the doting mother, the lost orphan...but Alender manages to bring fresh and interesting perspectives to each of them. These aren’t cookie-cutter characters, but rather new people encountering age-old horrors.
For a plot set entirely inside a single family home, based around one girl figuring out what the heck is going on, this has an even pace that keeps you turning pages. The mystery unfolds in slow rivulets, with little hints here and there to keep you guessing. I was able to figure out the mystery at about the ⅔ mark, but it didn’t deter my interest in the story. And while I felt like the ending wrapped up more quickly than the rest of the story, which unfolded so slowly and so full of dread, I still felt that the climactic scenes were full of fierce and intense energy. I also loved its ultimate conclusion, which offers some much-appreciated resolution and a promise of more to come.
I loved this book, even more than I initially expected to. I flew through its 440 pages in two days, and I fully intend to read it again the next time I’m in the mood for something dark and mysterious. I would recommend this book to people who like gothic horror and want to see what it looks like in YA. I’d also recommend it to fans of Jane Eyre, anyone who loves creepy old house stories, and of course anyone who loves (and remembers correctly) Alender’s other books.
But I was wrong, dear reader. I had confused my authors.
You see, I have actually read Alender before. And when I realized what book she had written that I had read, I knew I was in for a chilling ride.
And…I was SO excited!
(Okay, so it was a good mistake; but still, it was SO unsettling when I realized who I was actually about to be reading!).
A spooky, Southern Gothic-Horror style novel with all the unease you’d see in a Poe story, The Companion is a fantastic story that will leave you feeling on edge and wanting more. With some fresh looks at some tried-and-true horror characters, we follow Margot on a terrifying fight for survival. With Alender’s long-proven ability to establish creepy tone and setting, you won’t want to put this down.
This book starts off not pulling punches, with Margot losing her entire family in a car crash. From there, we see her travel to a remote family estate--owned by an old pal of her dad’s; someone who owes the now deceased man a favor. And while Margot is grateful for this extension of hospitality, she soon learns her protection comes with some very interesting strings attached. She is asked to be a companion to their daughter, Agatha--a beautiful 16-year-old girl who has suddenly become catatonic. She doesn’t speak, she barely moves...and no one knows why. As Margot settles into her life at this old family home, she’ll start to realize things aren’t always what they seem, and that maybe she’s not as safe as she first thought.
What I loved most about Alender’s Bad Girls Don’t Die was the fact that the setting and tone just set me on edge the entire time; that same talent for crafting a scene is present in The Companion. The house and those in it are completely cut off from the outside world, and that sense of isolation and foreboding is captured in every word, every description, and every conversation. While this kind of “distance” from others is super common in older gothic horror, it feels almost more unsettling because this book is set in the present. There should be Wi-Fi and cell service...and there isn’t. The solitude plays in so well to the mystery of the direction of the story.
We also have some fantastic, familiar characters. I say “familiar” because these are faces you see in many books and movies set in areas like this: the always-absent businessman father, the child with a disability, the doting mother, the lost orphan...but Alender manages to bring fresh and interesting perspectives to each of them. These aren’t cookie-cutter characters, but rather new people encountering age-old horrors.
For a plot set entirely inside a single family home, based around one girl figuring out what the heck is going on, this has an even pace that keeps you turning pages. The mystery unfolds in slow rivulets, with little hints here and there to keep you guessing. I was able to figure out the mystery at about the ⅔ mark, but it didn’t deter my interest in the story. And while I felt like the ending wrapped up more quickly than the rest of the story, which unfolded so slowly and so full of dread, I still felt that the climactic scenes were full of fierce and intense energy. I also loved its ultimate conclusion, which offers some much-appreciated resolution and a promise of more to come.
I loved this book, even more than I initially expected to. I flew through its 440 pages in two days, and I fully intend to read it again the next time I’m in the mood for something dark and mysterious. I would recommend this book to people who like gothic horror and want to see what it looks like in YA. I’d also recommend it to fans of Jane Eyre, anyone who loves creepy old house stories, and of course anyone who loves (and remembers correctly) Alender’s other books.