I received a free digital copy of this book from the publishers/author via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Elsie Bainbridge is newly widowed and in the early stages of pregnancy when she moves to her late husband’s crumbling country estate to grieve, and convalesce. But before long, Elsie begins to wonder about the history of the house, and its connections to the ‘companions’ - strange wooden figures that keep showing up in different room and contain a malevolent evil.

This book was dreary, dark and creepy and such a great, addictive read. This kind of felt like a creepy doll horror story except there was this history linked to the 1600s in the story and it was done really well.

There are three different timelines in this book - one is a future Mrs Bainbridge in a mental asylum. She is mute, and a doctor is trying to figure out her story. The second is when Elsie and her cousin-in-law arrive to the house around the 1860s and all the weird happenings begin, and the third is diary entries of Elsie’s husband’s ancestor Anne who lived in the house in the 1600s and was the first to introduce the companions to the house. I really enjoyed all the time periods, particularly the diary entires. I’m not sure if it was Kindle format I was reading but I found the switches between each timeline a bit confusing, and sometimes it would switch and I wouldn’t realise it for a few paragraphs.

The ending of this just got more twisted and spooky and this definitely left me feeling uneasy, and I loved that!