This is my second Lisa Jewell novel and I have one more sitting on my bookshelf from the library. While I enjoyed this one a lot, I didn’t love it as much as “Then She Was Gone”.

The Family Upstairs is told from 3 different point of views. One is from Libby, who inherits the mysterious house. The other two are a man & a woman. You will learn their identities and how they fit in when you read it. While I didn’t find this to be a page turning thriller, it kept me interested and I enjoyed it. I’d call it more of a dark mystery.

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

Lisa Jewell is one of those authors for me whose books automatically go to the top of my TBR pile as soon as there's a new book announced. The same was for this book and I did not leave this book disappointed. Jewell is tried and true, but keeps me on my toes.

I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review.

I have read a couple of this author's books in the past and enjoyed them, but this one really blew me out of the water. The twists and turns were outstanding, even the ones I saw coming and especially the ones that I didn't. All of them really were "gasp-worthy," I thought this was a really well done mystery. I also thought the book was really well paced. The chapters were short so it felt like the story was flying by, though there were a couple areas where I found it a little dry. Many of the characters were flawed but they were supposed to be. Henry's character especially was intense and really mysterious - even after finishing the book I'm not sure that I trust how he portrayed himself in the chapters he narrated. Overall this was a really interesting story that absorbs the reader and keeps them engaged even after the book has ended. I really enjoyed it and I'd definitely recommend it.

Thank you Libro.Fm and Netgalley for my review copies.
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This novel came in super hyped. Several of my trusted reviewers loved it. For me, it was my first Lisa Jewell.
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To be fair...I put down this novel once. The second time I picked it up it was via audio....sometimes just changing the format for me is helpful. Because there are a lot....I mean a lot...of characters to keep straight...which proved...the audio was the way to go for me. BTW: The audio is exceptional. Full cast. Well Done!
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Let's talk about what I loved:

The different point of views. Sincerely....an amazing way to tell this story.

The atmosphere. Very dark and Gothic.

It reminded me a bit of one of my favorites....The Talented Mr. Ripley. Not in the story line per se...just the overall vibe. I was here for it!!

The twists and turns. Again. Jewell delivered a very well constructed plot that had natural twists. (In other words...I'm not a fan of twists for the sake of twists...)
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The only thing that kept this from being a 5 star read for me...the slow start. I'm so glad I picked it back up and I am also so thankful #bookstagram hyped this one. It was worth going back to!

This was a fun and page-turning thriller. I liked the creepy gothic vibe it gave. I also love any book involving cults/cult-like activities. I didn't think anything in the story was super shocking but overall I enjoyed it. Ultimately it wasn't a favorite but I did enjoy it.

Story centers of the reunion of 5 siblings separated as young children after the death of their parents 25 years earlier. They come together to know one another and share happenings both before and after their separation. It was an okay read and story, but not one I would read again or recommend highly.

So many feels with this book! I loved the plot and the jumping around the different POVs. This is my first Lisa Jewell and I get the hype now.

I definitely recommend this book if you love thrillers. I will also start reading her older titles.

A chilling, thrilling book—I stayed up late finishing it. Twists & turns & I was worried for the main character the entire time.

The Family Upstairs is the first book I’ve read by Lisa Jewell, although I’ve heard very good things about her others. I went into the book thinking it was going to be a thriller, but I’d put it more in the dark family drama / suspense category. The tale starts with Libby Jones who, upon her 25th birthday, receives a strange family inheritance. We then follow her as she unwinds her blizzard, and often dark, family history and find out what actually happened to her birth parents all those years ago.

The chapters move between the characters, and mostly flick between London and Nice, in the south of France. I loved hearing the story come alive through the different perspectives of each character. Sometimes you get more clarity on events, and at other times you are presented with even more questions. It all becomes clear eventually though.

I won’t spoil anything for you but the book definitely ended in a way that would allow for a sequel, so I asked the author whether or not there will be one. Her reply was “TBD ;)” so stay tuned?!

I listened to the audiobook, which was narrated by Bea holland, Dominic Thorburn, and Tamaryn Payne. They all did such a good job and I really couldn’t stop listening!

“It all happened so slowly, yet so extraordinarily quickly, the change to our parents, to our home, to our lives after they arrived. But that first night, when Birdie appeared on our front step with two large suitcases and a cat in a wicker box, we could never have guessed the impact she would have, the other people she would bring into our lives, that it would all end the way it did. We thought she had just come to stay for the weekend.”
~Lisa Jewell, The Family Upstairs

I just finished this incredible book last night and have been thinking about it ever since! Thank you to Atria books for gifting me with this review copy!

This story is told in the multiple-narrator, short chapter style that Lisa Jewell is known for, and it is every bit as addictive as her previous books. The Family Upstairs is the story of a girl named Libby, who is given a large inheritance when she turns 25 and thus embarks on a journey to the past to find out who she really is and the mystery surrounding her birth. And oh what a story it is.

Lisa Jewell has this incredible ability to write these flawed, unreliable characters with such visceral reality that you absolutely believe that you know them. The way she develops these dark and twisted plots, full of the depravity of human nature as well as a haunting mystery, while still maintaining well-developed, engaging characters constantly blows me away. I am always captivated by her stories and they always take me by surprise, and this story was no exception. Full of cults, mysterious deaths, and dark obsession, The Family Upstairs may be her best novel yet! And that last chapter...whoa. I devoured this book in a day, and can’t stop thinking about it.

If you love a dark, twisted drama full of mystery and fascinating characters, then The Family Upstairs is the book for you! Also, the audiobook is incredibly well done!

Lisa Jewell I love your books! This was one of my most anticipated reads of the fall and it certainly did not disappoint. I loved the difference viewpoints and how everything tied together so beautifully! Oh and that twist whoaaaaa I wasn’t ready for it!

So this is my first Lisa Jewell novel; I've heard so many great things about her other novels and was so excited to read this one, but it fell a little flat for me.

I loved the different multigenerational point of views and the short chapters - I really enjoy books with those two aspects. The multigenerational point of views were an interesting way to see not only what was taking place in the present, but also having the chance to see the horrific events that took place in the past. The plot itself was very intriguing and had me continuously curious to how the story was going to unfold. A classic whodunit novel!

Ultimately, I felt that the ending was very anticlimactic and I was able to figure some of the main plot twists way before they were shown in the book. I also wasn't able to really connect with any of the characters. In my opinion, the book had too many characters with way too little character development.

Overall, I enjoyed the book, but I didn't love it.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me a copy of this book in return for my honest review!

I’m a big fan of Lisa Jewell, so I was so excited when I got an arc of her new book in July while out celebrating my birthday (it was a birthday miracle 🥳)! As of late, this book has been everywhere! And with good reason because it is good!
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Libby has just turned 25 when she receives the news that she inherited an abandoned mansion. Previous to this news Libby knew nothing of her parents or any family she had. She decides to go looking into her family and the creepy house. Told through Libby’s POV, guest that lived in the house, and another POV present and past this book is a twisted story that will keep you up way past your bedtime. I could not stop reading it!
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Thank you @atriabooks and @netgalley for a copy of the book!

The Family Upstairs was my first Lisa Jewell book to read, and I enjoyed it. I was expecting a little more thriller and a little less family drama, but the mystery was intriguing. There were a lot of names to remember, and I wish I had written them all down to keep them straight. I will admit that I'm a sucker for a book that includes a cult, and I wish that aspect had been expanded upon. Some of the characters were well developed, while a few were lacking in the details. While the mother was central to everything that unfolded in the book, I felt like I did not get a very clear picture of who she was and what drove her to behave the way she did. I enjoyed the book enough to give some of Jewell's others a try. 3.5 stars.

This book is pure twisted fun. Probably one of the best mystery/ suspense stories I have read in a long time. The book keeps us guessing and throwing daggers to the last page. I finished the whole thing in less than two days. I just had to get the end!!!
Libby Jones, having just turned 25, gets a phone call that changes her life. A trust in her name containing an inheritance has just matured, and Libby has inherited a multi million dollar home in an upscale neighborhood. This house; however, comes with more than the average amount of baggage. Told through real time and flashbacks, we meet a cult leader who infiltrated a family, and ruins and corrupts it from the inside out. However, in a widely varied cast of desperate characters, a case could be argued for who is more despicable. It is nice that it ends happily. Lisa Jewell at her finest.

I am pleasantly surprised by this book. I like going into a thriller knowing very little about it. I don't even want to know what others think about it. I like to have my own thoughts and opinions before someone else's can sway my own.

This book has you wondering what the heck is going on from the very start. You have no idea how the characters are related and you have to figure it out along with the main character. The author does a great job with character development, especially when there are so many different character in play throughout different timelines all being shared at the the same time. It is very complex at times but it all works out eventually as you figure it out for yourself with clues given about each character.

This book is atmospheric! I felt like I could reach through my mind's eye and just touch the house. It is creepy yet not too scary.

The pacing was slower than what I normally like but it was steady throughout which made it still comfortable to read. Book that go fast and slow inconsistently feel like a bad roller coaster no one wants to ride. The plot line was solid and well thought out. I would love to see how the author was able to keep track of everything while writing the book. But, having typed that, I never really thought about the author while I was actually reading it which is a great compliment.

All in all, I highly recommend this book and it will be in my top ten this year.

Thank you Atria Books, NetGalley and Lisa Jewell for my advanced ecopy of the The Family Upstairs. Lisa Jewell has become one of my very favorite authors over the years since I discovered her writing. The Family Upstairs is my sixth novel by the author and all 6 of them have been complete page turners. I started with I Found You, which is the one that immediately addicted me to the author. I followed with The House We Grew Up In, which was a COMPLETELY different feel, but which became one of my favorite novels of all time. The Family Upstairs had the same page-turning quality that all Lisa Jewell books have. It was a unique and unpredictable storyline for the most part. I can't say I loved it, but I also didn't dislike it, thus the three star rating. While I felt the novel drew on some of the family drama that made The House We Grew Up In so compelling and the suspense I enjoyed in Watching You, I Found You, and Then She Was Gone, somehow, I didn't really ever connect to any of the characters. Whereas most of the books I have read by Jewell have characters I could connect to or understand at least in some respects, I really didn't relate to any of the characters in this one. They were all really exaggerated characters that were not developed enough for me to understand how they became the way they did. Henry and Birdie are the two characters I really needed to know more about. Also, Henry's mother changing so rapidly from what her son remembers of her to what she became by the end of the novel. Anyway, I think this novel will be loved by many who like being surprised more than they care about relating to characters. I enjoyed the novel enough to say I liked it, but I am hoping the next one is a better fit for me again.

Really enjoyed this book. It does do a bit of back and forth with time and there are a lot of characters to sort out.. once you are used to that, it is a never ending rollercoaster ride. Very well written. I received a complimentary copy from NetGalley and the publisher and this is my honest opinion.

Having read and been a fan of Jewell’s other work, I am loathe to say this latest effort didn’t hook me. On one hand, it feels more mature than her previous work. Her writerly voice is strong, confident, and once she starts with the twists that have become a hallmark of the genre, she keeps them coming all the way through the final pages. On the other hand, I found some parts dragged, which wouldn’t be a problem except that I also became confused. There was a learning curve at the top of the novel, which is not what I mean; I’ll give an author 80 pages or so to set the scene and make us familiar with the context of the story. However, towards the end, I became confused— mostly regarding Lucy— which lessened the effect of the twists, because I was trying to figure out what I was supposed to have believed, before I could then understand the twist.
I would recommend reading Jewell’s other novels and coming to this one later.

Lisa Jewell delivers an atmospheric, dark, and disturbing thriller about menacing power, decades-old secrets, guilt, and one woman's desire to understand her own history and get to know the family she never realized existed.

As The Family Upstairs opens, Libby, who was adopted when she was ten months old, receives a letter she has known would be en route to her when she reached her twenty-fifth birthday. And she learns that she has inherited the house that belonged to her parents. She learns that her once-wealthy parents died on the kitchen floor of the home, along with an unidentified man, with whom they entered into a suicide pact. She was born into a cult, and had an older brother and sister whose whereabouts have remained a mystery for the past quarter century. The run-down house is boarded up and largely uninhabitable, but still valuable. Lucy enlists the assistance of Miller Roe, the reporter who penned the article that provides her first glimpse into her family history. Miller was never able to find all of the answers he sought, becoming so obsessed with the story that his marriage fell apart. "I was literally a research zombie," he explains. "IT was all I talked about, all I thought about." Now that he has connected with "the baby," who was known then as Serenity Lamb, he is eager to resume the search -- and for redemption.

Meanwhile, in Nice, Lucy, a musician, her two young children, and dog have been rendered homeless. She must find a way to provide for her son and daughter, even if it means returning to the abusive husband she left ten years ago.

Via a first-person narrative, a man named Henry relates the story of his childhood.

Jewell expertly employs the three alternating narratives to weave a haunting, noir-like mystery. Who was the mystery man whose body was found in the kitchen with those of Libby's parents? What became of her older brother and sister -- are they dead or alive? What happened to her parents' fortune? And why do the doors on the bedroom doors in the house lock from the exterior (hallway) side? Henry relates how his seemingly normal childhood was gradually transformed when another couple and their two children, Phin and Clemency, arrived and took up residence in his parents' house. He notes that, with the benefit of hindsight, he can "see exactly the tipping points, the pivots upon which fate twisted and turned, upon which the storyline warped so hideously."

To learn precisely what happened at 16 Cheyne Walk all those years ago, Libby and Miller follow a series of clues that lead them to people who experienced those "tipping points," along with Henry. What they don't realize -- and Jewell skillfully reveals at deftly-plotted intervals -- is that others who know what happened in that house have been waiting for "the baby" to grow up and on the occasion of her twenty-fifth birthday, they are on their way back. Will there be a reunion of sorts?

The Family Upstairs is a dark, sinister story about manipulation and abuse, and the impact upon the victims. It is a tale of betrayal, abandonment, and disappointment. It is a study of the unique ways individuals react to extreme circumstances and events, and the lifelong impact upon survivors. It is a compelling mystery, full of unexpected twists and turns, populated by a cast of intriguing characters. At the heart of the story is Libby, an earnest, hard-working young woman who just wants to know her family's history. But Libby cannot imagine or predict how disturbing the truth actually is, much less how discovering it might put her in danger. Readers will find themselves haunted by Jewell's jaw-dropping conclusion.