
Thriller
The Family Upstairs
Lisa Jewell is back at Book of the Month – other BOTMs include Invisible Girl and None of This Is True and The Family Remains and The Night She Disappeared and Then She Was Gone and Watching You.
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Join now.Lisa Jewell is back at Book of the Month – other BOTMs include Invisible Girl and None of This Is True and The Family Remains and The Night She Disappeared and Then She Was Gone and Watching You.
Fascinated by cults? This is for you. From the author of Then She Was Gone, a mansion haunted by mysterious murders.
Fast read
Psychological
Multiple viewpoints
Creepy
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.
It would be inaccurate to say that my childhood was normal before they came. It was far from normal, but it felt normal because it was all I’d known. It’s only now, with decades of hindsight, that I can see how odd it was.
I was nearly eleven when they came, and my sister was nine.
They lived with us for more than five years and they turned everything very, very dark. My sister and I had to learn how to survive.
And when I was sixteen, and my sister was fourteen, the baby came.
I have a confession to make: I am a sucker for a good domestic suspense novel. Nothing makes me happier than a dark and soapy multigenerational mystery, and nobody excels at the genre like Lisa Jewell. Her characters are reliably unreliable, her mysteries are unnervingly twisty, and she manages to do all that without sacrificing well-developed relationships and emotionally layered characters. Which is quite a feat, especially in her latest book, which also happens to feature poisonous gardens, creepy cults, acid trips, and mass murder!
Libby Jones was adopted as a baby and grew up wondering who her birth parents were. Now an adult, she is stunned to receive a letter not only informing her who her mom and dad were, but also notifying her that she is the sole beneficiary of their abandoned London mansion. Said mansion just happens to be the location where her parents were found dead 25 years ago (of course!!). As Libby begins to unravel the secrets around her parents’ deaths, she soon suspects she might not be the only relative looking for answers.
Told from three alternating points of view, The Family Upstairs is a fast-paced whodunit that will keep you guessing until the final delicious sentence. If I had any issues with the book, it would be that my productive Sunday afternoon came to a screeching standstill when I naively thought it would be a good idea to start this unputdownable read. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Danielle H.
Lorena, TX
The suspense is thrilling & addicting, and I’ve realized she purposefully lets you think you’ve figured it out, only to give a twist bigger than you could have imagined. The ending doesn’t disappoint!
Devon F.
Clermont, FL
This story line was so creepy, yet I couldn’t put it down! I enjoyed trying to piece everything together and though I assumed things weren’t as they seemed, I didn’t quite expect the twist. Great read
Leann M.
Newark, DE
haunting story of unrequited love, murder, suicide, mystery, and trauma. Some parts are really hard to read but, the mystery of the web of characters will keep you powering through. The last lines shookme
Lindsey S.
Hilton, NY
I honestly LOVED this book and couldn’t put it down. Immediately after closing it I looked up if there was a second book... I don’t think there is and that is the only negative thing I could ever say.
Luiz B.
New York , NY
It’s an amazing thriller with a lot of twists and turns, some more predictable than others, but all still very effective. Each narrator had their own distinct voice and they are all equally enjoyable.