The Companion

What is even going on!? This was the question that I asked myself over and over throughout the entire book. It felt as though this book did a psychological number on me! That's how well this was written. The way in which Katie Alender wrote this book is stunning. The secrets, ohhh the secrets. The suspense and subtle clues. The characters and the relationships that emerge between them (mostly Agatha and Margot's). Alender does an incredible job of keeping the reader glued to the pages despite never leaving Copeland Hall once Margot arrives. This story is told from Margot's POV. Many times I rolled my eyes at her actions. Even as she begins to realize that something is deeply amiss about the Sutton's spectacularly grand lifestyle. However as the story progressed it became more evident why she acted the way she did. So many things began to make sense. As far as the other characters are concerned, they were all likable in their respective roles. Agatha and Margot's friendship was incredibly touching. Theirs is one of the best relationships I have read about, maybe of all time. There aren't a lot of grievances I have with this book. When Margot and Barrett finally "fall" for each other, it's not impressive. In fact it wasn't even believable. While the build up was existent, their relationship seemed inevitable. Let's face it, there weren't exactly options for Margot now were there? A few times the book did seem to be dragging. It felt as though it was taking too long to get to the point. At one point I realized I was three hundred pages in and still waiting for something else to happen. (Yet for all the leisure it took I could not put the book down! There's that psychological trick) I was able to figure out all of the important things. The who, the how and the why. For all of the time it took to get there, the ending felt a bit rushed. Maybe I couldn't predict how the ending was going to go down, but I knew it was going down. Exactly with whom and more or less what it would take for that to finally happen. I'm trying to be as vague as possible because it would be very easy to spoil things. In the end it felt very good to have read this book. For me it was unique. Maybe because this is not a genre I typically read, but I like to think it's because the author was just so darn good at her job. You should absolutely read this. If thrillers and mysteries are your thing, this will be a good book for you. While this is considered to be part of the "Horror" genre there are no paranormal elements to it. This is more of a Psychological thriller.