The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell is one messed up story. But in a good way. What happened in the house 25 years ago is just creepy and weird. Lisa did a great job of highlighting how one person or two can manipulate weaker minds into submitting to what they want, creating a cult like setting. How it affected the children is also interesting. There are a few twists and revelations and the book left me with some questions and wanting more. Very well done and well worth my time.

On her 25th birthday, Libby receives a message from a solicitor that she has inherited the family house in Chelsea. Anxious to find out about her past, she heads to the house left to her to find out what happened to her family and where her brother and sister could be. What she finds is a hidden past that will change her future forever. Told from the point of view of Libby, Lucy and Henry, each of them with a connection to the house, the story goes back and forth from modern day to before Libby was born to show everything that happened leading up to Libby's adoption and what happened after.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I was really looking forward to this book because I really enjoy Lisa Jewell's books. I'm not sure if it was me since I've been in a bit of a reading slump, or if it was the book itself. For me, it felt as if it moved slowly.

What would you do if you inherited a huge house from a family that you never knew? Being adopted when she was just a few months old, Libby never knew about the family that left her the house. Lucy has been waiting for the baby to turn 25 for 25 years. Saving this date in her phone, but how is she going to get from France to London without any money. Henry has also been waiting for this day, telling the entire story from start to finish.

Even though this wasn't my favorite Lisa Jewell book, I will definitely be reading more.

This had the makings for a great book but in the end, left me a bit disappointed. It just didn't deliver the thrills and suspense I was hoping for. However, plenty of other people seemed to like it so maybe it's just a matter of taste. While I wouldn't discourage reading it, I can't recommend it either.

So I guess I was a little skeptical picking this book up. Before this book I ended up only reading two Lisa Jewell books. The first one I loved. I ended up giving it 5 stars. The second one I enjoyed but I didn't love it. So I was curious to see how much I would enjoy this one. I am sad to say I wasn't really a fan of this one.

So the story is about Libby who ended up just turning 25. She finds out she is about to inherit a mansion, with this mansion she finds out the truth about her birth family. Soon she learns that she wasn't the only one who was waiting for her birthday. Here she begins to slowly learn about who her family actually was. Secrets begin to unravel and she soon discovers her parents aren't at all like what made up in her mind.

It took me about 45% of this book to really get invested in it. I feel that there is such a slow start to this book. I just decided to push through because I wanted to review it for Netgalley. I just wanted a bit more action in the beginning of the book. I know there is the whole question of how these 3 main characters know each other. Which I think that's the main reason I kept reading. I was curious about that. However as the story goes on and more information is revealed you can start to figure out or at least have some idea how these characters are connected.

Overall this story was too slow for me to be fully invested in it. I also didn't really care for any of the characters. I didn't feel like they were anything special. I just felt they weren't very memorable to me. Characters are really important to me and when I can barley remember them that puts a damper on me enjoying the story. I still have a couple other Lisa Jewell books that I want to check out, so hope those go better.

Another great novel by one of my favorite authors! At first I wasn't too sure about it, but about a quarter of the way through it I really started piecing bits together and found myself really getting into it.

Libby is about to turn 25. She’s thinking about finding the right man, taking the next step in her career, making her limited amount of savings last. Adopted at a young age, she always knew she’d be getting some sort of inheritance from her birth parents on her 25th birthday but figured it might be something small and sentimental, if even that. Jewell keeps the reader guessing to the very ending, Twisty and intriguing rad.

On Libby Jones’s 25th birthday, she receives a letter containing the identity of her birth parents as well as the news that she has inherited their multi-million dollar estate. Happy birthday, indeed! With her newfound knowledge of her birth family and her soon-to-be wealth, the doors to her past are opened, but she soon learns that the house and her family have a chilling history that perhaps should have remained buried. Told through multiple POVs and timelines, this story is a wild ride of mystery, obsession, and...maybe even a cult?

She’s done it again! Lisa Jewell has become an auto-buy author for me in the last year or so; she really knows her way around a thriller!! The Family Upstairs was certainly no exception! This was a culty, claustrophobic, captivating thriller that I simply couldn’t put down! 2019 hasn’t been a great thriller year for me, but this one delivered! I picked up on some of what was going on earlier than I would have liked, but that didn’t harm my reading experience in the slightest! I loved how all of the twists and turns unspooled, the wild character development, and the very gradual way the creep factor escalated like the frog in boiling water - by the time you realize what’s going on, it’s too late. Just an incredibly entertaining, compulsively readable thriller from an author I have come to trust implicitly!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishing house for providing a review copy of this novel. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

If you are looking for an excellent thriller, I can't recommend, "The Family Upstairs," enough. The only reason this wasn't selected for our book club is because there is already SO much buzz around it that I had a feeling that many of you may have already read it. 

In this story, Libby returns home from work to find a letter written to her on her 25th birthday. Truth be told, it is the letter that she has been waiting for all her life.

Within the note, she learns the identity of her birth parents and that she is the sole inheritor of an abandoned mansion, in one of London's most fashionable neighborhoods, that is worth millions.

Twenty-five years ago, the police were called to this very house because there were reports of a baby crying. This baby, healthy and happy, was found in her crib- safe and sound.

Downstairs though were three dead bodies, all dressed in black and the other four children all had mysteriously disappeared.

I am, admittedly, fascinated by cults and the power of charismatic leaders to manipulate people to do to unthinkable things.

The man that lives with this family ends up taking complete control over their lives requiring strict exercise, changing their attire, restricting food, manipulating people, abusing them, and alienating them from everyone in their lives.

It is especially impactful on the children who are witnessing all of this in their house and we get to see this story through their eyes too. 

I was sucked into the story from the very first page and finished it in a single day. 

If you were a fan of, "The Haunting of Hill House," I have a feeling you will love this one too. 

This was another Lisa Jewell home run for me!

This kind of fell flat for me. I wanted to like it more, but I had a really hard time getting into it and I couldn't really keep all of the characters straight because they weren't fleshed out as much as I would have expected for an author of this caliber. I'm not sure if this was the story of Libby/Serenity, or of the Lamb family and their demise, or what. There were so many plot lines half explored. Is there perhaps going to be another book? What was the deal with Henry Jr? What actually happened to all these people? There was not really a satisfying conclusion to the story for me.

I wanted so much to love this book, but it was a solid 3.5 for me. Not terrible, not great.

The beginning was just too slow, but I did love the twists and turns the author set forth in the end. It was difficult for me to get on board with the perspective of the book as well.

Definitely not my favorite Lisa Jewell.

Jewell is a thriller goddess when it comes to dysfunctional families. As with the other books of hers I've read, the pacing was absolutely engrossing. It was spot-on the entire way through in the way it makes the reader question and wonder without slowing you down to the point of being able to put the book down. Which, by the way, you won't be able to. The plot is so intriguing, I found myself often wondering about what the characters did or would do while going about other things in my day (obviously not at full attention).

The only reason I haven't rated it higher though is the main character Libby. While she's the reason the whole affair takes place in the way it does, she herself is the least interesting of the characters and to me really didn't seem different at the end of the story despite other characters saying so. I just never connected with her. Henry to me outshines the rest of the cast. I have a soft spot for a character with his back up against the wall and rather liked him to the point that the rest of the characters didn't quite measure up for me. That being said, Jewell has created fantastic characters in other books of hers I've read so this certainly won't be my last.


Note: I received a free Kindle edition of this book via NetGalley in exchange for the honest review above. I would like to thank NetGalley, the publisher Atria Books, and the author Lisa Jewell for the opportunity to do so.

Oh God, what a book. I enjoyed every minute of it. One of the best thrillers I read this read. It started a little slow bu then it took off and was a complete delight. The way the story is told, the characters, everything works perfect on this book.

A very messed up family but as it rarely happens to me, I truly liked all of the characters. Each one brings something unique to the story.

Captivating, disturbing, unexpected twists and characters and a very unique story line. A must read.

Thank you Netgalley and Atria Books for the advanced free copy in exchange for an honest review.

Solid book from Lisa Jewell - didn't love it as much as her previous ones, but it was an intriguing premise.

I have read everything by Lisa Jewel, and while this one was a different type of mystery, I still really enjoyed it. I would highly recommend. I loved the back and forth between time periods and trying to figure out the strange family dynamic they all had in common. 5 stars from me!

I have enjoyed Lisa Jewell's books in the past. The family upstairs sounded very interesting but seemed more of a so-so book. Not sure if the pacing of the book or the characters that I could not identify with. I do plan on reading additional titles by Lisa Jewell in the future.
Thanks to the publisher for allowing me access to the galley.

I liked this book ok, but nothing really captivated me. I felt like it was presented as more of a thriller than it really was.

I loved this author's previous book And Then She Was Gone and was thoroughly looking forward to this one. But this one just did not grab me the same way. It was fine but not great in any way. The book was creepy but did not pull you in. The characters were not ones I could really connect with in any way. After a while it got better, once the three plot lines finally started to make sense. I think that the book is different from the usual domestic thriller and I liked that the families present were a bit different from the norm. I'd recommend it to those that like domestic thrillers, with the disclosure that it wasn't as good as her previous book. 3.5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

“I watched Phin peel two ten-pound notes from his wad to pay for the expensive sandwiches. “I‘m really sorry I can‘t pay you back,” I said. He shook his head. “My father‘s going to take everything you own and then break your life. It‘s the least I can bloody do.”

Lisa Jewell is a master tale spinner of mystery. I have read other books of Ms. Jewell and this one is so different in format that I was thrown a little for a loop for a bit. This story comes at you from so many perspectives that you have to remember that the main character was a wee baby when it all went down.

Libby Jones just turned 25 years old and her life is a complete mystery, being found in a mansion with a rabbits foot in an empty room with just a crib and her as a 10 month old baby with 3 people murdered on the first floor. She is confused when that said mansion is left to her. Where are the siblings that she was told she had? Where did the other teens go that were with them? Why were her parents murdered? Who was the other man with her parents? It is up to Libby to find out the strange history and missing details of her life. Will she find her answers? Will she ever know who she really is? This book will help readers come to understand the whole store unraveled through past and present tense. There are times that I was disgusted by this book - how a family could go from normal, happy and rich then fall so far was a conundrum. In some ways I wanted to shake the living daylights out of the mistress of the mansion, in other ways I could see why she lost all perspective of what her life was becoming.

The telling of the story was full of wonderful quotes like the opening of this review. Ms. Jewell made me wander the stairs upstairs, out onto the roof and back into the house wandering the sad and lonely disjointed rooms of the children and down into the kitchen where the most living happened. Like the twists and turns I took through the house Ms. Jewell does the same with her characters. You never know who is the murder and who is the innocent until it slams you in the face like a locked door. It was like reading Amityville Horror meets the Branch Davidian's of Waco, Texas with the same creepy feelings and not sure what was going to come next. Thinking you want to know but then no sure you really do.

I enjoyed reading The Family Upstairs, felt like I needed to watch a Disney movie afterwards only because the suspense was so trying and seeped into my bones. The coming together of the story was smooth, imaginative and full of great description. My only complaint was the ending. It just felt like it didn't belong to the rest of the story. I don't really know however if it felt tied up and maybe that is as it should be.

Thank you Netgalley and Atria books for allowing me to read an ARC in lieu of my honest review. It was my honor to share this book with others.

3.5 stars

I have come to be a fan of Lisa Jewell after reading her books Watching You and Then She Was Gone. She is a wonderful storyteller and can write a great thriller.

I was thrilled (no pun intended) to read her newest book The Family Upstairs but I've got to say that although I liked the story, I was a tad underwhelmed overall.

The story was told from three different perspectives, and from the beginning seemed very disjointed. The three plot lines didn't really merge until late into the book, and I found myself wondering where the story was headed for several hours. It all did end up coming together in the end, but by the time it did, I can't say that I was entirely surprised or caught off guard by any of the "plot twists."

I did think that the story itself was rather unique and not your typical domestic drama about some tragic nuclear family with issues. The complexity of the "family" in this case made for a different type of narrative that I quite enjoyed.

Overall, this wasn't my favorite novel by Lisa Jewell but I'll continue to read her work going forward because she is a wonderful storyteller.

-I received an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, Lisa Jewell, and Atria Books for the opportunity to review.-

A wonderful multiple point of view story that brings together a family that has not seen each in other in 21 years. A great thriller and mystery that kept me turning the pages. Lisa Jewell is the master at the build up of a great story. Highly recommend.