The Company - J.M. Varese - ★★

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AUTHOR: J.M. Varese

GENRE: Gothic fiction.
RATING: 2 stars.

In a Nutshell: Utterly confused about my opinion because this is an utterly confusing book! This does not realise the potential it had promised, though it has some good points.

Story Synopsis:
1870. Twenty-four-year-old Lucy Braithwhite (Isn’t the right spelling Braithwaite?) is the heiress to the fortune of Braithwhite and Company – the most successful wallpaper manufacturer in England for almost a century. Braithwhite’s designs are original, and their colours unnaturally vibrant, but their wallpapers also seem to create hallucinatory effects or health issues, though no one knows the reason for this.
When Mr. Luckhurst, the long-term manager of the company and surrogate father to Lucy and her invalid brother John, passes away suddenly, a young and eneigmatic man named Julian Rivers presents himself as being the successor appointed by Luckhurst. But the arrival of this stranger sets into motion many sinister happenings, and Lucy realises that it is up to her to save the company and more importantly, her family.
The story comes to us in the form of a book discovered in an abandoned warehouse, supposedly containing the journal entries written by Lucy in first person.


Where the book worked for me:
👻 As a Victorian Gothic story, the book has all the right ingredients – an eerie house (with seemingly alive wallpaper), a creepy stranger, a strong heroine, and loads of atmosphere.

👻 The atmosphere deserves a separate mention. The scene setting is absolutely and vividly creepy.

👻 I wasn’t aware of wallpapers being coloured with arsenic back in the day, so it was enlightening to be more aware of the facts related to this.

👻 It was refreshing to see a strong young woman whose focus isn’t on romance or marriage, but on saving her family and her family-run business. Lucy was more capable than the men in the story, not a common occurrence in historical fiction.

👻 The plotline is quite unusual, I’ll give you that. Though it wasn’t my kind of book ultimately, I still felt the urge to read on.


Where the book could have worked better for me:
☠ I am not fond of paranormal elements in books. But when I stumble upon such reads unknowingly, I expect some kind of an explanation for the events, even if it is a sinister one. This book offers none! I still don’t know how or why whatever happened, happened. Just like the characters, I cannot distinguish between what was supposed to be reality and what were hallucinations. It is a befuddling book!

☠ The prologue introduces the book as being published in 1903, and based on Lucy’s writings from 1870 supposedly being discovered in an old abandoned warehouse. But the whats and the hows of this discovery are never revealed.

☠ It was slowwwwwwwwwwwww! And a great chunk of it was also repetitive, with Lucy revealing the same thoughts again and again.

☠ I wanted more focus on the arsenic wallpaper controversy of the late 19th century, but this aspect stays in the background, with the spectral ingredients taking centre stage.

☠ Other than Lucy, the characters are quite unidimensional. Everyone has only one role to play, and they stick to that throughout the plot.

☠ The ending is almost anticlimactic. After all that build-up about the eerie components, the resolution fell flat and rushed.


All in all, I am definitely disappointed. I love Gothic mysteries, but when the mystery stays a mystery even at the end, I feel like I wasted my time. The story had so much potential, but it was almost as if it couldn't decide whether it wanted to be a mystery or a horror or a historical or a Gothic.

This might work better for those who enjoy the reading journey without worrying about the destination. Many Gothic paranormal lovers have enjoyed this as well, so do check out more reviews before you take a call.

Pro Tip: Read the prologue once again after you complete the book. It makes far better sense during the reread.

My thanks to John Murray Press, Baskerville, and NetGalley for the DRC of “The Company”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

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