The Companion

Gr 8 Up–If an orphan can be considered lucky, then maybe Margot is. After being the sole survivor of a car accident that wipes out her entire family, then getting her own room in the foster home, Margot has now been placed with a wealthy family who has a tenuous connection to her father. The Suttons’ home is enormous but also straight out of the 1900s—there’s no internet, no television, no popular fiction in the huge library; nothing but relics from a puritan past. Then there’s Agatha. Margot has been brought to the Suttons to be a “companion” to their teenage daughter. While on the outside Agatha looks perfectly normal—totally gorgeous, actually—something is wrong. Very wrong. And the longer Margot is there, the more she learns that Agatha isn’t the only Sutton who has something off about them. The suspense and chills are there, and the plot advances the story to a dramatic conclusion that, even if readers can see it coming, is still startling. This book hits all the notes of a solid thriller—creepy mansion, dark family secrets, a little romance, and a plucky heroine.