After the first chapter of this book I was thinking No! This is not for me! The protagonist was a malicious, narcissistic, jealous, and quite deranged person without any empathy for others. As is my wont, I read on, seeking to give the book a fair chance...

Like being unable to look away from a train wreck, or a car crash, I couldn't help but keep reading. Betty (aka Elizabeth, Lizzie) is the sole narrator. Her disturbed musings and thoughts are the sole focus of the novel. She is the epitome of a psychopath.

Betty has always been very jealous of her younger, favoured sister Gloria. At first it appears it is just a case of some serious sibling rivalry... We eventually come to realize that Betty has an unnatural attachment to her family home, called Pipets. By 'unnatural' I mean she talks about it as if it is a sentient being. She calls it 'House' much as you would say Peter did this or that. Her sole desire is to be alone with 'House'. She goes so far as to kiss the walls when she is home alone...

When, as adults, Betty and Gloria's mother dies, she leaves Pipets to Gloria and her husband, Henry. Betty is aghast at the perceived injustice. She is the eldest after all, and she LOVES Pipets. She then makes it her sole mission in life to right this injustice and make Pipets her own. She begins to plot her revenge... Her behaviour becomes more and more unhinged. She forgets to eat and seems to subsist on gin.

The house and it's extensive grounds were very well described. The overall tone of the novel was atmospheric one with gothic vibes.

Though at no point did I come to 'like' Betty, she was utterly captivating. Her fragile and twisted psyche was fascinating. As her crimes morph from mere thoughts and fantasies to actual crimes, the reader wonders if she will every be caught and brought to justice.

The writing, I have to say, was extremely clever. It kept me reading despite myself. I usually have to find something to like about fictional characters. Betty had no redeeming qualities. As she was the only narrative focus of the novel, one would think I'd dislike it, or even not finish it. However, in this case, the reverse was true. I was mesmerized - given privy to Betty's thoughts was engrossing, in a way that made me feel slightly guilty.

With an ending that many horror novelists might aspire to, this novel will remain in my memory for some time - in a chilling way. Brilliantly written, modern gothic fiction.

This is a book that sticks with you, and you aren't sure if that's a good thing or not. I kept reading, and the pages kept turning, but at the end of the day did I enjoy this story? I am actually not sure. It was unique and thrilling but I don't know. It was captivating but also crazy!

Thank you to Netgalley, the Publisher and the author for the opportunity to read this book in return for my honest opinion.

This book was creepy and odd, I like that in a book. The main character, Betty was fantastically odd, she was totally unlikeable and untrustworthy, I could not keep up with her train of thought, it was so dark. A great read, Betty's story keep me reading late into the night, I just had to get to the end to see what she was up to. She was so connected with the house, it was her everything and left her incapable of being reasoned with in regards to the rest of her life. Enjoyable and disturbing read.

What the hell did I just read? The main protagonist, Betty, was more than a few letters short of the alphabet and her obsession with her childhood home reminded me of a certain short story with a lady wanting to climb into some wallpaper (see The Yellow Wallpaper). For the life of me I just couldn't put it down, it was that addictive!!

Seriously, I probably would have walked by this book in the bookstore. There's a level of cray-cray in this story that is masked by that gorgeous cover. But Maureen Lindley has created a character that is so compelling that I am fairly certain if a sequel pops up, it will be in a psychiatric ward. Although there were times I was hoping in a switch of narrative because it did feel terrifying to be following Betty.

Maybe don't read this at night!

I loved The Beloveds by Maureen Lindley so much. Not necessarily because of the story, though I enjoyed the story quite a bit, but because of how downright unlovable the narrator Elizabeth ‘Betty’ Stash was. She was a miserable woman who disliked almost everyone and thought truly awful things about them. It was so refreshing to read a character’s inner dialogue that was just so frank and awful.

She was spiteful and jealous and emotional, yet all the while coming off so stoic and unemotional. I found her an absolutely fascinating character and she had me wrapped right around her finger, rooting for her the whole time she was planning on committing truly awful acts against the people who love her. There is no doubt that Betty was a bit of a psychopath, so peeking into her mind was like traveling to a whole other dimension.

The story itself is basically a spiteful revenge plot against Betty’s younger sister Gloria, a Beloved, who in Betty’s eyes, has stolen pretty much everything from her — her best friend, her boyfriend, and most importantly, her House, which Betty is unnaturally obsessed with. The longer we read on, the more Betty becomes obsessed and paranoid and spiteful, planning truly awful things to rid herself of the obstacles – and people – who are standing in the way of her getting what she felt was her right.

I loved how the book never really directly made mention of any mental issues with Betty and that the people in her life really had little idea about what was really going on in her head. I think it really represented that seclusion and how alone an illness (for lack of a better term) can make you feel, even if Betty herself wasn’t fully aware of what she was dealing with.

I genuinely couldn’t get enough of Betty and couldn’t tell if I was rooting for her, or rooting for her to get caught. There were times I literally just had to shrug and shake my head as she started off on another destructively obsessive path without any hesitation about whether it was the best or smart thing to do. She just impulsively acted to feed her own desires. It was fascinating to watch this creature at work.

The only thing holding this back from being a great 5-star book for me was that I found it dragged a little bit in places and I didn’t fully love the ending. I didn’t hate it and I was never bored, but there were moments where I felt my momentum and excitement slow. Otherwise, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and this dark look into the mind of a obviously disturbed individual and how that affected her life and those around her.

2.5/5 stars

The Beloveds is a psychological thriller. I love this genre. But honestly for much of this book I could not figure out what genre I was reading.

The narrator is Elizabeth (also known as Lizzy and Betty) (1st person POV). The book is set in the UK.

The book is about two sisters: Elizabeth and Gloria. Gloria has always been the "beloved" one. And Elizabeth is cunning and crazy. And she is obsessed with their childhood home.

I usually enjoy books where the main character is obsessive or stalkerish. But for some reason I could not connect with Elizabeth at all. She is not very nice. She does not like her sister. She is just very negative. She is just so unappealing that it made it hard for me to like her story.

It's difficult when the narrator is so unlikable. Readers have to care about the story. I really did not care about any of the characters.

I actually liked the second half of the book a lot more. The setting was different. And I enjoyed the story with the neighbors. But I wondered how the story would end. I sort of liked the last part of the book until the very end (the last lines did not work for me at all).

The book is crazy and creepy and the narrator is controlling and a loner. It was definitely interesting to see how her mind worked. Unfortunately I just didn't really connect with the story like I would have wanted to.

Unfortunately this book wasn't for me. I thought this was going to be a story about a jealous sister, and maybe some kind of crazy psychopath sibling rivalry. You get a tiny bit a that but it wasn't at all what I was expecting. I just felt like I read a novel about a girl bitching about everything for 336 pages. Plus, the whole premise of the novel is that Elizabeth (the jealous sister) is completely in love with a HOUSE, that is called Pipits. Fun name for a house, but I just didn't get it. Final thoughts, it was very fell flat to me, the place was incredibly slow, I didn't love the characters, and the ending is not really an ending. However, what kept me going was the writing, Maureen Lindley is an incredible writer. Just not the story for me.