INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A GOOD MORNING AMERICA COVER TO COVER BOOK CLUB PICK “Rich, dark, and intricately twisted, this enthralling whodunit mixes family saga with domestic noir to brilliantly chilling effect.” –Ruth Ware, New York Times bestselling author “A haunting, atmospheric, stay-up-way-too-late read.” –Megan Miranda, New York Times bestselling author From the New York Times –Megan Miranda, New York Times bestselling author
From the New York Times bestselling author of Then She Was Gone comes another page-turning look inside one family’s past as buried secrets threaten to come to light.
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.
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An abandoned baby, a surprise inheritance, a cobwebbed Bohemian mansion — The Family Upstairs is rich in mystery from the very first page, and Lisa Jewell’s best book yet.
Utterly compelling. Deliciously dark and twisty with characters who live on in your head. Lisa Jewell just keeps getting better and better.
Wow. Lisa Jewell has done it again. I absolutely loved The Family Upstairs. Intriguing, absorbing, unputdownable with characters so real they jump from the page.
Was totally gripped from start to finish.
Just finished The Family Upstairs and I’m telling you it’s her best book yet — human, gripping, deeply felt, seriously twisty and skilfully plotted. Bravo!
Lisa Jewell owes me a day of my holiday that I’ve spent not swimming or chatting or doing anything except reading The Family Upstairs. It’s absolutely bloody brilliant.
Ooooo, The Family Upstairs is a corker! With characters that light up the pages, a twisty plot which unravels at perfect pace, and a house rammed with the darkest secrets, it’s brilliant.
A work of utter genius.
Lisa Jewell is the most wonderful writer, and funnily enough we’ve written about a similar theme with our new books — cults, in microcosm and macrocosm… I can’t rant enough about how brilliant it is.
I like Christian Books family books like Janet Oak or any of the Christian authors for women
Libby was looking forward to her 25th birthday because she knew she would be coming into an inheritance.
What she didn’t know was what she had inherited.
Libby finds out she has inherited her family’s million-dollar home that was haunted by horrible events the family endured.
Meanwhile there are some other people who know about the day she turned 25 and what Libby inherited.
We meet Lucy who says she MUST be there for Libby’s 25th birthday, and we meet Henry who lived in the house with all the strangers during the events and when the tragedy struck.
Henry’s story is the most bizarre and terrifying.
Phin is also a frightening character who lived in the house.
David is a character that I immensely disliked and was the cause of all the evilness.
When Libby arrives and is taking a look after all these years at the empty house with its locked-from-the-outside doors, with a ladder leading to the attic, and a garden of illegal plants you will be pulled in by the description and simple curiosity. All this made me wonder what really went on in that house and how no one noticed.
THE FAMILY UPSTAIRS has many characters, odd characters, and multiple story lines but story lines that all fit together and center around the inherited house that held evil.
Readers who enjoy Lisa Jewell’s books will not be disappointed in her newest.
THE FAMILY UPSTAIRS is creepy, bizarre, and disturbing. 4/5
This book was given to me by the publisher via NETGALLEY in exchange for an honest review.
Lisa Jewell’s The Family Upstairs is a not-to-be-missed gothic suspense novel. It’s chilling, twisty, and very creepy. On her twenty-fifth birthday, Libby inherits a mansion in one of London’s upscale neighborhoods. This is a house she was born in, but she hadn’t seen it since her parent’s deaths when she was only a baby. Libby learns that she was found one night in the house with three murder victims, and her siblings missing. The more she learns about the house and her family’s history, the more sinister it becomes.
It’s best to go into this book without reading any reviews or spoilers first. The less you know, the more absorbing the reading experience will be. The Family Upstairs is a must-read for anyone who loves books about spooky houses and domestic thrillers. I cannot recommend it enough!
3.75 stars I received an advance copy of this novel from the publisher, Atria Books, through Netgalley.
I picked up The Family Upstairs at just the right time. I could feel myself sinking into a bit of a reading slump after reading a few books that just didn’t catch my attention like I hoped they would. This thrilling novel had me reading fast and highly entertained. It took me a bit to get the characters straight, but I enjoyed that each one was different and engaging.
The Family Upstairs has a very gothic feel to it, and for some reason it kept reminding me of A Series of Unfortunate Events. The movie, not the books–since I’ve never read the books. Maybe it’s the big, old house, which becomes its own character in the novel. And the largely ignored children.
While thrillers aren’t my go-to genre, I enjoy them when they’re mysterious and fast-paced. The only reason this one didn’t get 4 full stars from me was because the ending was a bit convoluted and took me out of the story. But it did have a great last line!
This book was disturbing, dark and really, really good. I loved the way it was told in multiple points of view and timeline. I thought the characters were all interesting, some a bit creepy, some likable. The Family Upstairs had me hooked from the beginning and I enjoyed all of the twists and turns it took. I’m very impressed with Lisa Jewell’s writing. I think I’ll be moving her other books on my TBR pile up to be read sooner rather than later. I highly recommend The Family Upstairs.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy.
The Family Upstairs is my first Lisa Jewell book. After I had read A few chapters, I was confused. So many characters with the story being told by three of the characters over different time periods, I put on the brakes, I made a character chart and reread the first few chapters again. So glad I did this. The story moved quickly. Three bodies were found in a house and a baby upstairs. This story involves a cultish type plot, abuse, and just plain dysfunctional characters.. As the plot started to really unravel toward the end, I found myself thinking I had wasted my time. I seemed to have a love-hate relationship with this book. Thank you NetGalley and Atria books for An ARC in exchange for an honest review,
This is a very interesting story. It has a fascinating plot and the characters are well developed. It is gripping thriller. I was not able to set this book aside until I got to the very end.
If you’re looking for a twisted, sinister, slightly taboo read that will pull you down the rabbit hole then The Family Upstairs is the book you need.
This book traverses the lives of the affluent Lamb family who live in a most respectable house in Chelsea. Then along come some visitors who stay and the whole family dynamic changes and soon their lives are twisted and turned into a fashion that things may never return to as they were before. Now the adults are all dead in an apparent suicide pact, the children are all missing except for the baby. Now the baby is 25 years old and has inherited the fancy house at 16 Cheyne Walk. Now she has the chance to discover who she really is but the secrets hidden were probably hidden for a very good reason and once the truth is uncovered then there’s no turning back.
If it wasn’t for the sometimes confusion of the jumping around between the two time periods and trying to keep straight who all the characters were this would have been a solid 5 star. As it is this is a definite must read.
**ARC received trough NetGalley. Voluntarily reviewed.**
Henry and his sister Lucy, the children of London socialites growing up in a large house in Chelsea, suddenly find their world changing dramatically at home. After another family is invited to stay, things start to change and not for the good…
Every time you think you’ve figured out where she’s heading, Lisa Jewell throws another curve ball at you in this one. And OMG that ending!? Wiping away triumphant, happy tears and wondering if we’ve come to the end of this incredible story.
The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell is one deliciously creepy, suspenseful and disturbing read! Prepare to clear your calendar as once you start reading, you won’t want to stop except to pop your head up from under the covers to eat and grab some tea or coffee (not that you’ll need anything else to jangle your nerves!) to sustain you so you can return to finish what is sure to be one of the best books of the year!
Libby Jones, an upscale kitchen designer in London, has just turned 25. She has always known she was adopted as an infant, but not much about the details. Returning home from work one day, she finds a letter informing her that she has inherited a large house held in trust for her in one of the choicest areas of London. She has inherited the property at Sixteen Cheyne Walk SW3 in Chelsea from her parents Henry and Martina Lamb. Her life has been changed in an instant. She is now an extremely wealthy woman.
The story is told through three POVs, that of Libby, and that of two others who we learn more about during the telling of the tale. The time frames alternate between current day, and the past, telling of how things came to change at the house over the years. Though this was a confusing technique at first, once I had figured out who the characters were, I saw with appreciation how well it lent itself to the darkness and suspense of the story.
When Libby goes to see the house with one of the trustees, she finds a gorgeous, though severely run-down home. She also learns that the house has a dark history, three adults were found dead together in the home, the owners Henry and Martina Lamb, and an unidentified adult male – all dressed in black. The four children typically seen (or unseen) who would have been teenagers by then, had disappeared. A baby girl was also found, well-tended, in her crib a few rooms away. Realizing that she was the baby girl, named Serenity, she is determined to find out more of what happened within the walls of the house she now owns.
Jewell’s ability to create the complex characters which populate the story, and to bring to life and maintain an ever-growing dark, disturbing gothic atmosphere is put to wonderful use in these pages. She has woven a fine and intricately plotted tale indeed!
Do yourself a favor and add this to your TBR pile now. If you don’t you just may miss out on one of the best books published this year!
My heartfelt thanks to NetGalley, Milena Brown and Atria Books for allowing me to read a copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review. All opinions are my own.
This was a twisted sort of book! It’s told in three time lines which at times I found a little hard to follow. I’m just not sure what to think about this book. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the early copy