‘The Company’ Review: Missing the Mystery

Judging a book by its cover is never a wise idea. With its striking emerald green cover art and alluring title, “The Company” by J. M. Varese promises to immerse readers in a Gothic thriller. Varese’s sophomore novel follows Lucy Braithwhite, heiress to the most successful wallpaper company in the world, as she races to save her fortune from an ambitious company insider. Unfortunately, the book is anything but a thriller. Stifled by unidimensional characters and lackluster narration, “The Company” fails to live up to its potential.

“The Company” is a work of historical fiction based on the real arsenic wallpaper controversy of Victorian England. During the late nineteenth century, an arsenic-based green was the color in vogue and dominated interior design, especially wallpaper in many homes. After a mysterious illness began to kill homeowners throughout England, it became clear that the arsenic-based wallpaper was poisonous.

The novel’s protagonist, Lucy Braithwhite, is unaware of the deaths caused by her company’s iconic green wallpaper. She is distracted by the scheming of Julian Rivers, a longtime manager of the company who is determined to steal her inheritance.

After introducing this fascinating historical context, the book falls short of bringing it to life. Brief references to the wallpaper controversy emerge throughout the plot, but none are detailed enough to explore the cascade of change it initiated in society and public health awareness. For example, Lucy overhears suspicious negotiations between her company’s executives and local journalists. She promptly forgets the matter and returns to daydreaming about playing outdoors as a child. Later, she is startled by an ugly sore on the skin of a company employee, and frets over whether it might contaminate her company’s brilliant green dye. Whispers of poisonous wallpaper creep in and out throughout the novel, evoking a delightfully spooky atmosphere. However, the lack of further investigation into the phenomenon is frustrating.

Lucy’s narration is equally frustrating. Her vague descriptions of long-lost emotions and memories trap her in the past and prevent the plot from progressing. Her narration also relies on description alone, which quickly becomes bland and repetitive. Disturbing events compel her to describe, “I was growing more anxious,” while unsettling ones prompt questions like, “What was it that wasn’t right?”

Considering the immense responsibility that Lucy undertakes in “The Company,” she undergoes stunningly little growth. She pays minimal attention to the dirty secrets powering her business empire and spends most of the book complaining about her opponent, Julian Rivers, without taking any action. With only four short chapters left in the novel, she repeats what has plagued her since the very beginning, despairing, “How was I going to stop him, and save my brother and the company all at once?”

At this rate, readers themselves might reach a solution sooner than Lucy. However, Lucy’s narration does not allow for drawing one’s own conclusions. She praises her company’s wallpapers for appearing “so alluring that one never knew where the mind would wander, if one stared for too long.” For such an enigmatic statement, this sentence does not actually let the audience’s mind wander. Other vague diction attempts to build suspense but only builds confusion. Lucy declares, “I knew it was coming—it always did. I just didn’t know what it would be.” Given no other context, the audience may only guess at the “it” in question.

This tell-don’t-show narration dampens the eeriness evoked by the book’s atmosphere and robs readers of the joy of discovering its world on their own. The novel is entangled in its own game of call and response, which drains the excitement out of what is marketed as a Gothic thriller.

After many pages of monotony, the ending of “The Company” is surprisingly abrupt. Nonetheless, Lucy’s twisted final actions add to the eerie undertones of the novel and suggest she has just begun to change as a character. Had this budding transformation been introduced earlier on, her lasting impression on readers could have been one of dynamism rather than one of flatness.

For all its aesthetic appeal and dramatic historical context, “The Company” does not deliver. The story suffers from dull narration and a painful absence of character development. Given the book is only Varese’s second novel, perhaps future attempts will land more squarely in the genre of Gothic thrillers. But for now, the entrancing cover art of “The Company” may be better off as wallpaper itself.

—Staff writer Audrey H. Limb can be reached at audrey.limb@thecrimson.com.