Author: Lisa Jewell
Genre: Suspense
Type: e-book
Source: NetGalley
Publisher: Atria Books
First Published: November 5, 2019
Opening Lines: 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.
Book Description from GoodReads: 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.
In The Family Upstairs, the master of “bone-chilling suspense” (People) brings us the can’t-look-away story of three entangled families living in a house with the darkest of secrets.
My Rating: 4.5 stars
My Review: Lisa Jewell is one of my all-time favourite authors. When she has a book out, I'll be reading it. 'Nuff said. Her latest book, The Family Upstairs is a delightfully sinister psychological thriller with a bit of a gothic vibe that kept me glued to its pages.
The story occurs in two different time frames and is told using three different points of view (and short chapters) which keeps the tension high and the page turning quick. The pieces of the story surrounding a dysfunctional family, their posh manor house and their guests, gradually come together as the mystery of what happened to the manor's earlier occupants unfolds for the reader.
There are a lot of characters, but Jewell gives them distinct voices and an impressive amount of depth. This is distinctly darker than Jewell's previous books but just as gripping and I enjoyed the clever twists and even the disturbing feel. While I'm not a fan of open-ended stories, the loose ends in this book didn't bother me as much as I would have expected.
Overall, this was a wonderfully gripping, slightly ominous, twisted family drama. Without divulging the plot (you're just going to have to pick up a copy), I'll just say that this is another must-read book by Lisa Jewell.
Disclaimer: My sincere thanks to Atria Books for providing me with a complimentary digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments totally make my day!! I read each and every one and really try to reply to all messages posted. Thanks for stopping by my blog!