Laura Purcell has done it again! Read it one sitting as it was totally unputdownable. Purcell has an unrivalled ability to make the reader feel uneasy and uncomfortable from the first page, but at the same time she makes it impossible for you to put the book down. At first, returning to the world of The Silent Companions seemed a strange decision as that story had already been told, but in this end the return was the perfect plot device. Another layer has been added to that creepy, disturbing house and family cursed by the silent companions. Brilliant read!

Laura Purcell is an auto-read author for me, so I was really happy to get an advance copy of her latest book, The House of Splinters.
HoS is a prequel to The Silent Companions, and is also set in The Bridge, a stately home with a dark past and a history of odd occurrences.
We follow Belinda, whose husband has recently inherited The Bridge after his father’s sudden and strange death. The family relocate from London to the rural stately home, and almost immediately are beset by bad luck and creepy experiences and Belinda starts to fear for her sanity as she is torn between believing in simple bad luck or the supernatural.
The ‘silent companions’, painted lifelike 2d figures, are just as unnerving as the first time we met them. I read and watch a lot of horror, so for a book to give me an actual jump scare is quite something!
I wouldn’t say it’s essential to read ‘The Silent Companions’ before HoS but I would recommend you do!
This would have been a 5 star read but for the rushed ending. I can’t fault the rest of the book and thoroughly enjoyed it!
With thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an e-ARC.

Having read and loved the whispering muse this book was an immediate must read for me!
I found the first half of the book very slow and uneventful however the second half is where this book gets SO good!. Laura has a fantastic way of writing, this book is atmospheric and creepy!
I really enjoyed this one!

House of Splinters was a first for me in the historical fiction genre and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience!

I loved the education aspect of the time period and learning what certain customs were typically like back in 18th century England. Together with the thrilling plot and absolutely creepy silent companions, I really struggled to put the book down.

I honestly wasn’t expecting to go on such a journey with the characters, discovering their pasts, secrets and lies this book definitely had my brain working overtime wondering what would come next and how things would play out!

No question about it, I’ll definitely be reading more of Laura Purcell’s work in the future! Big thanks Netgalley and Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (UK & ANZ) for the ARC!

Laura Purcell does it again! Such an easy five stars from me, I couldn't stop thinking about this book when I finished it and I found myself turning on more lights than usual at night 😂 I absolutely ADORED The Silent Companions and I started this book without realising that the Companions would feature in this one as well. I was intrigued and terrifed in equal measures!

Can't recommend enough to fans of thrillers, horror and historical fiction. No one does it like Laura Purcell!

Laura Purcell has done it again! Her new novel is so chilling, so sinisterly good, I've had to sleep with the light on! Returning to the world of the Silent Companions was everything I had hoped it would be - a dark, twisting, emotionally charged story - and I didn't want it to end. The historical detail was subtle, the pace was perfect, the characters were flawed and excellently conjured. Brilliant stuff!

An outstanding return to The Bridge and the world of The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell.
Chilling, tense, gothic and unsettling, it's a other brilliant gothic ghost story from this brilliant author. This is less of a sequel, more of a tale from the original book's world, and it is a great one in its own right.
Loved it and it is sure to delight fans of the book

Laura Purcell is an auto read author for me, I’ve loved all her books. This one really didn’t disappoint. Eerie and chilling like all her books, I couldn’t put it down

House of Splinters – Laura Purcell

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Wow, this book guys. House of Splinters is incredibly eerie, spooky and really gave me the chills more than once. I don’t scare easily, but something about malevolent spirits always gets to me, and this book was no exception.

This story tells the tale of Belinda Bainbridge and her Husband Wilfred, as they move to Wilfred’s family estate after the death of his father. The estate, “The bridge”, is not what it seems, it has history beyond its years, and not all of that history is as it seems. The Silent Companions, which are wooden cut-outs, painted artfully are the part of the house, part of Wilfred’s inheritance, and they are spooky. Did you ever feel in the dead of the night that you saw something move from the corner of your eye? Did you feel that thrill of adrenaline, the silent companions are not just the things that go bump in the night. 😬

This book just oozes gothic imagery, creating such magnificent images in the mind, Half of the time I felt like I was at The Bridge with them, whisked away into a gothic tale of woe and eerie vibes. I really enjoyed Laura Purcell’s writing, it’s not easy to capture such suspense and thrilling atmosphere, but she creates a world that really drags the reader in and that’s something special.

House of Splinters comes out in October, just in time for spooky season and is available to Pre-order now!

A huge thank you to Laura Purcell, Bloomsbury Publishing and Netgallery for this amazing read.

This book was a wonderful gothic horror read, it took a while to get into the 'action' however the first half of the book was still a good read as it built the atmosphere for what was to come.
I enjoyed this and was surprised by the twists, just when I thought i knew what was coming next I was taken by surprise.

1774 brings so much change to Belinda's life. The death of her father-in-law was certainly sad, but it had its advantages too.
It meant an inheritance and a move out of London to her husbands family home, The Bridge. But most of all, it meant moving far away from her overbearing mother, some advantages indeed....
Even early on, within the first few pages, the house, The Bridge feels menacing... wrong... dangerous even, with its shadowy corners and it's deathly tomb-like coldness.
But it wasn't just that was it ? It was the sinister wooden statues that lay around the house, like ghostly guests, very unwelcome guests.
Into this house go a pregnant Belinda, her husband Wilfred and their son Freddy. I'm scared for them all ! Something terrible is going to happen I just know it....

Eerie, spooky tale that will turn your spine to ice from the start. Read it in the daylight!

Laura has been and will remain an auto buy for me, I love her books and this is a new favourite. How spine tingling is the back cover ! Same setting as The Silent Companions.

Suse

I've been a fan of Laura Purcell ever since <i>The Silent Companions</i>, so it was very nice reading another novel in the same setting. Personally, I liked <i>House of Splinters</i> even more than Purcell's debut. It was a really great book from start to finish.

I really liked the cast of characters. From the start I became attached to Belinda and her family and I followed their story with great participation and worry. I thought Belinda's relationship with her maid Sawyer was especially well done, and her relationship with her husband was also interesting. 

The story was a little slow paced at first, but the atmosphere and the sense of impending danger were always very well done. As the book went on there were a lot of creepy moments and also very unexpected, action packed scenes. I also loved the fact that we discovered much more about the past of the house and about the silent companions, even if some things remained mysterious or uncertain. There was also a very good twist which I had hoped to see in <i>The Silent Compaions</i>, and so I was extremely happy to see it used here. The ending was also extremely well done, everything wrapped up as I was hoping.

Definitely one of my favourite books by Purcell, highly recommend.

House of Splinters a gothic novel that will haunt you and shock you from the begging to the end. I am in love with Laura Purcell’s the masterful writing, vivid characters and creepy haunting settings. This is the third book I’ve read from her and it is by far my favorite.
This is not marketed exactly as a prequel/sequel to The Silent companions, but I feel that it’s imperative you’ve read it before going into this one. It’s a whole separate story, taking place a century before the events of The Silent companions. But if you go with the knowledge of the companions and the history of Anne Bainbridge, this new nightmare could be experienced fully and with greater understanding.
What I love the most here are the characters – our protagonist Belinda is very likable, she has a great arc and character development. Freddy is by far my favorite, I love children in horror stories, especially in gothic settings. He was adorable.
I highly recommend if you love haunted mansions, family affairs, ghosts and historical plots. The horror elements are on another level, there is gore, brutal descriptions and scenes I would love to see in a movie. The plot moves fast, there is no dragging or fillers, that’s why the writing may not looks like something special, but the way Purcell can create atmosphere is epic. That’s also why I loved the Whispering Muse and The silent companions that much.
Thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (UK & ANZ) | Raven Books for providing me with the ARC.

The best horror book I’ve read in a while—creepy, atmospheric, and completely absorbing. The slow build of tension, mysterious deaths, and those unsettling wooden figures kept me hooked from start to finish. A brilliantly eerie gothic tale.
Would recommend.

House of Splinters is an atmospheric exploration of anxiety and female agency in the past, of folklore and rural community beliefs with spectres and human malice.
I've never read the Silent Companions before but I absolutely will be after reading this.
Purcell has the wonderful ability to make the paranormal seem possible.
With characters so fully fleshed out they seem to make the very pages breathe.
Definitely a great autumn/winter read!

First of all I would like to say thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I have been a fan of Laura Purcell since her first book so was thrilled to be approved for this ARC. This book is set in the same universe as one of her previous books The Silent Companions but the way it is linked means that you could read this book as a stand alone and still be able to follow the story.

I loved The Silent Companions so was so happy we could step back into this eerie gothic atmosphere. I want to say that I saw the twist coming but I really didn’t and made for an interesting conclusion. The writing was again fantastic and how Laura can make wooden objects eerie is a skill I wish I could have. I think my only negative would have to be that some of the side characters had a larger part to the plot but weren’t fleshed out enough for me to care about what happened to them so the shock factor didn’t grip me like it should (I’m speaking about the swords scene).

I read this book in a day as I couldn’t put it down once I had started and it is probably one of my quickest reads of this year!

As always I am very happy with this book and always look forward to what Laura will come out with next.

Thoroughly enjoyed this prequel to the Silent Companions. It's a gothic ghost story with some twists and turns. When Belinda and Wilfred return to the family home, The Bridge alsorts of strange things start happening to them all. After the birth of her daughter Belinda becomes increasingly disturbed and the arrival of Wilfreds errant brother Nathan causes more trouble. An all round creepy novel. Loved it. Would definitely recommend it.

After the death of her husband’s father, the family moves into his old manor—creepy, isolated, and full of secrets. There’s village gossip, talk of curses, and plenty of family skeletons in the closet.

The setup had a lot of promise and the gothic vibes were strong, but the story dragged in places and lost some momentum.

Still, a decent read if you enjoy slow-burn mysteries with a haunted house twist.

I have been waiting a long time for the sequel to "The Silent Companions" and "House of Splinters" by Laura Purcell did not disappoint. Those companions literally pop up everywhere and are as creepy in this book as they are in the original. Although this book is set in the same place, The Bridge, this book can be read as a stand alone or a companion piece (pardon the pun) alongside the original. Deliciously dark, suspenseful and gothic as hell!

In this chilling sequel to The Silent Companions, we return to The Bridge as pregnant Belinda Bainbridge and her young son Freddy join husband Wilfred at his newly inherited estate.

However, there is something amiss at The Bridge, not least the creepy “companion” cut outs and the deaths of Wilfred’s family.

Belinda is disturbed by the dragging noises in the night and the stories of their ancestors and becomes increasingly concerned for her children’s safety.

Can anyone ever be safe at The Bridge?

A spine-tingling gothic thriller with Purcell on full form.