A review by thebooktrail88
The Companion by Sarah Dunnakey

5.0

The Companion

What a marvellously creepy and unsettling novel! Ooh from that first page, this was a page turner and shivers went down my spine. I LOVED Billy Shaw and his family. Despite the poverty and the misery, there is a real sense of community and friendship between the characters. When I found out that the Palace was real (well sort of) it filled me with a sense of excitement. I love novels which take a real building or real story and spin in into a fictional mystery. Well, this mystery was so well done and expertly crafted that it lasted the entire novel and the pace never let up. Hardly room to breathe if I’m honest – Sarah Dunnakey you have unsettled me big time!

It’s a novel to savour and read slowly but surely – enjoy the sense of creepiness even before that weird boy Jasper appears. I wanted to grab hold of Billy’s hand and get him out of there. Billy was a great character – his humour and fun way of seeing life belied his difficult start in life and his troubled life so far. He goes up to the house not even knowing what a companion was. Ah, and when he thinks that the characters from a book are going to be living in the house with them! It does turn out that the book 1984 does have a role to play..

There’s so much to enjoy with this novel. The writing is clever, the language funny and spot on, the Yorkshire charm both in the landscape and the people very evident indeed. The mystery slowly unravels and really ramps up towards the end and oh what a tangled web some people weave! Those Yorkshire moors hold many many secrets – it’s not just the place where women are locked in attics and men in cloaks go wandering across them…no there’s an old house where two writers live and where a strange little boy seems to rule the roost…

This is such an immersive read and I loved every creepy second of it. I won’t forget Jasper or Billy for a very long time .

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED