The Family Upstairs: A Novel
4
(14.8K)
Lisa Jewell
Be careful who you let in... Soon after her twenty-fifth birthday, Libby Jones returns home from work to find the letter she’s been waiting for her entire life. She rips it open with one driving thought: I am finally going to know who I am. She soon learns not only the identity of her birth parents, but also that she is the sole inheritor of their abandoned mansion on the banks of the Thames in London’s fashionable Chelsea neighborhood, worth millions. Everything in Libby’s life is about to change. But what she can’t possibly know is that others have been waiting for this day as well—and she is on a collision course to meet them. Twenty-five years ago, police were called to 16 Cheyne Walk with reports of a baby crying. When they arrived, they found a healthy ten-month-old happily cooing in her crib in the bedroom. Downstairs in the kitchen lay three dead bodies, all dressed in black, next to a hastily scrawled note. And the four other children reported to live at Cheyne Walk were gone.
Mystery
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"Great, suspenseful! What a page turner! A quick weekend read."
C B
Chris Brown
"The appeal of Lisa Jewell novels is that there is always some horror, mystery, and intrigue that makes her books hard to put down. This is also one of those novels. Switching between three character perspectives, the reader begins to put together what traumas happened in one home in the 80s through 90s. Despite the overall darkness of the novel, the ending had unexpected feelings that were both satisfying, and yet disconcerting. A quick read, and an excellent audiobook as well. I would recommend to those who like thrilling books, but not gore or horror. 4/5"
"This has been my first Lisa Jewell novel and it won’t be my last, but this story was just mediocre in my opinion. It didn’t captivate me in the way that other novels have. I picked it up when I forced myself to, only to remember that this novel really wasn’t that bad. It just wasn’t great enough to make me finish it in one sitting or to keep my focus for long periods of time. I think this had a lot to do with the slow approach of the novel itself. Reading it was like slowly pulling back a bandaid. There wasn’t really anything overly creepy or suspenseful about this story in my opinion so the reviews on the back of novel really over sold this story. It gave me more of a slow-burn mystery vibe than the “haunting, atmospheric, stay up late read” vibe I was promised. "
"It started out a bit slow while trying to keep up with the multiple characters. But I was hooked about 15 chapters in & it was hard to put it down! Unpredictable, well written, really nuanced characters and very good storytelling. It was creepy and then sweet and and then unsettling. Definitely recommend!!"